Usually when you read articles about cars with the wackiest names, its Japanese models that dominate the list. There’s the Honda That’s, the Mitsubishi Lettuce, Honda Life Dunk, and the delightful Isuzu Mysterious Utility Wizard. But one that tends to stick in people’s minds is the Mazda Bongo Friendee. Well, it turns out the Bongo Friendee has competition in the bizarre name stakes, and it’s from another Mazda. Meet Indonesia’s Mazda Baby Boomers.
photo courtesy of Sabung Hamster
The 1977-80 Familia/323/GLC was Mazda’s last rear-wheel-drive, mainstream subcompact. Not a terribly exciting vehicle, it was replaced in 1981 by a more modern, front-wheel-drive design. But Dr. Frankenstein – or in this case, a company known as IndoMobil – went searching through the graveyard and reanimated the little Mazda’s corpse.
In 1990, IndoMobil launched the Mazda MR90. It was their pitch for a national car for Indonesia, but the government instead went with the Timor. The Timor debacle is a whole story in itself, as it was exempt from duties and taxes… but wasn’t actually built in Indonesia! The government’s choice of this Kia Sephia clone managed to anger almost everyone. Incidentally, the Sephia was based on the sixth-generation Mazda Familia.
The MR90 stuck around and for 1992 it became the Baby Boomers. Differences were cosmetic: there were new bumpers, headlights borrowed from the old Mazda 626, rear spoiler and some sportier trim. Underneath, things were exactly the same: the only engine offering was a 1.4 carbureted four-cylinder engine with a five-speed manual. It was fairly popular as its older design made it cheap to buy and easy to repair. By 1995, the Baby Boomers was gone although a lightly restyled version of the RWD GLC wagon, the Vantrend, remained.
There you have it. Myriad cars have been marketed to baby boomers, but now you know there was a car that was actually called Baby Boomers!
so I looked up the wikipedia page for the Honda That’s….. and it seems to be written in accented english.
https://sco.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_That%27s
on further investigation this seems to be a Scottish wikipedia site.
It’s hilarious.
I drove a 66 Dodge FART. The “F” was from a 66 Ford Mustang while the “ART” was the stock Dart. The Fonts matched perfectly. On the other hand, why did Toyota name their top of the line car after a nasty town in New Jersey. The Avalon
Nasty town in New Jersey? I always assumed somebody at Toyota was a Roxy Music fan.
+1
The shop where we bring our cars has somewhat of a specialty in fixing and upgrading Minis (though I don’t own a Mini myself). I sometimes see a Mini Cooper there whose owner obtained another “P” and put it in place of the “C”, so the back of the car identifies it as a “POOPER”. Why, I have no idea….
I’m thinking they named it after the town on Catalina Island.
Honda also had a She’s, which was a lot like the ’56 Dodge LaFemme. The difference is that writers make fun of the LaFemme as “sexist” but nobody makes fun of the Honda version. Coolness absolves all sins.
Was there ever an “LS” trim level of the Mazda Millenia? Get it…
Don’t forget the TATA “Nano GenX”, either.
I don’t get the Millenia LS joke, but it can’t sound as bad as the Nissan Homy Super Long.
Now, that sounds like an 80’s porn star. What the heck, was Nissan thinking?
Too bad it wasn’t competing against the Daihatsu Naked
Super lounge is a common Nissan badge denoting its upscale passenger vans.
“I don’t get the Millenia LS joke”
Millenials
Well, there’s always the Pontiac ‘GOOOOLE’ (6000LE) .
Still waiting for the de Sade edition of the Marquis…
Ha ha – Marquis de Sade version – that was an common joke in the buff mags like Motor Trend and Car and Driver for years…
Nice looking car. 🙂
This is a new one for me, and that doesn’t exactly happen often!
It’s kind of small to contribute to a baby boom. 😉
Love it! The cultural tics that make a name like this workable in some markets are endlessly fascinating. A car with this name would have been an instant laughing stock in the U.S.
If you think Japanese cars get odd names, check out manga: there’s one entitled “All-Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku.”
Two of my favorite old school Mazdas in one car…the 1977-80 GLC and 1983-87 626.
Wish we still got that RWD chassis in the 90’s, in the US.
These RWD Mazda GLCs are very sentimental to me. Here’s a mini COAL, I’d like to share:
When I was a wayward youth, and didn’t want to listen to my parents, they kicked me outta the house for a few months to teach me a lesson…
In those hard knock few months, my residence was a white 1980 Mazda GLC 2dr hatchback, 4 speed.
It kept me warm and entertained(radio worked and I use to listen to NBC’s TalkNet, till the wee hours). I would take showers at my grandma’s and go to work in the daytime… Till I smartened up and listened to my parents and went home.
After all these years, I wonder whatever happened to that lil Mazda. This was back in 1988.
Wherever, you are… Thanks. 😉
What’s especially odd about the name is that it’s plural.
Fresh from the fields of happiness and fertility.
I remember a neighbour’s daughter trying to kill her younger brother when someone pointed out to her that with a couple of matching letter changes the back of her buick Skyhawk
had suddenly switched from
‘BUICK’ to ‘PUBIC’
juvenile I know, but I had to give him points for creativity!
I guess the definitive baby boomers’ cars were VWs – the Beetle, the Camper, and the Golf. So, what was the definitive Greatest Generation car?
There could be many candidates of the Land Yacht variety. I’ll say 1965 Cadillac Coupe deVille.
In 20 years I wonder if anyone is going to remember the Hammstar Edition of the Kia Soul, in order to put it on a future worst names list?
I once went to the ckd factory in Jakarta that made the MR90 and assembled a number of Nissan’s and other vehicles. Including the Cefiro I bought. They had a rattle and soak test drive after build. They told me the MR90 leaked so badly you could drown. I had no idea it was renamed, I left Jakarta early in 93.