(first posted 2/25/2011) This is a companion piece to the 1981 Mazda GLC Hatchback CC
I haven’t yet have found an old-school RWD GLC hatchback, but this GLC wagon is pretty close, because it’s basically a wagon version of the little Chevettish-Mazda. Taking a page out of GM’s old playbook of keeping an older platform alive (“____ Classic”) after it’s presumed successor has arrived, Mazda kept the old RWD GLC/323 wagon in production for years after the all-new FWD hatch graced us with its very advanced design. This little GLC “Classic” is an odd-ball, but it deserves its own little CC, just not a great one (if there is such a thing). 🙂
Here’s how it looked in its earlier incarnation, trying hard to feel some of the RX-7’s halo effect. Little Japanese wagons were good bread-and-butter business for their makers (that $4295 is $12,750 in 2010 dollars). The Corolla and Datsun wagons sold well, and Mazda wanted in, and to stay in. But the new FWD BD platform that arrived in 1981 was never designed for genuine wagon use, so Mazda got creative, and grafted a facsimile of the new hatchback’s front end sheet metal on the old bug-eyed GLC wagon.
They kept that charade going too, until 1986, although I’m not totally sure they were sold in the US until the end. It made plenty of sense, especially if it’s going to be a real station wagon, with an extended rear cargo area, not just a pretender. The more cargo weight back there, the better the traction. Before traction control came along, that still meant something. Ask an old Volvo driver.
Speaking of old Volvo wagons, as we are prone to doing often around here, it might not be too much of a stretch to call this a compact take on a 245. These old Mazdas were tough as sixteen-penny nails, their RWD underpinnings having their roots in Mazda’s very first small car, the Familia of 1963 (above). Now I can add that car to the long list of cars influenced by the 1960 Corvair. That list just keeps getting longer.
The question as to how much the RWD GLC hatchback was influenced (copied from?) by the Chevette is a good one. I’m not exactly sure of the precise release dates of each of them, except that the GLC supposedly came out two years after the Chevette. That would make it kind of tight, unless that vaunted Japanese rep for imitation was really in high gear at Mazda.
But look at the interiors too; the Mazda’s (at the top) is shockingly similar to this inviting Chevette decor. Definitely adds more ingredients to the theory. Whatever; it’s all long in the past, and Mazda obviously didn’t take any more looks over GM’s shoulders going forward. If only it had been more the other way around.
There were beaucoup little wagons running around the Seattle area back then. One you didn’t mention was the Civic wagon, I Know…. FWD… but Honda was WAY ahead of the game in the late 70’s and certainly the prototype for the GLC and its variants (along with the Rabbit/Golf)
I went into AFL motors in Milwaukee WI. With a pocket full of cash to purchase a cream colored GLC wagon, drove out with a new for 1980 cream colored. 4 Dr. 626, God that was a nice car, good salesman also
This model actually followed on from the Mazda 808 RX3 body style and most parts interchange. They were much stronger than the FWD model and of course RWD very stable at speed on gravel and great handling once the traction evaporated.These little wagons were tough. I had a 82 van 2 door rear seat was in but no leg room, paid 1 case of Boags draught [$31.95 aus] for it threw a used engine in and drove it hard for 3 years. It got 46 mpg fully laden on a trip Hobart – Sydney never missed a beat.Laden meaning no rear spring movement had a motor an trans for my 63 Holden in it. This thing later did regular comuting 140km per day. It also doubled as a beast of burden hauling firewood stacked to the roof [springs blocked] up steep padocks on farm. Sold it for $150 to a girl who ran it all over Tasmania till it finally spat the timing chain out
I always liked these… I remember in high school going crazy over the 323 GTX… turbo, AWD, sweet looking dual spoiler…
I had a 2003 Protege5, in Japan it was the Familia… man I loved that car…
My first wife and I bought a brand new 1983 GLC wagon… the first month we had it, a freeze plug came out and fried the head… guess we should have bought that Corolla wagon instead! My ex kept it (I got the Pinto) and the motor went 90,000 miles, before it was replaced with a new-used Japanese motor… a few months later, the little GLC was totalled in a rear-end collision. As a side note, my son’s 1983 Toyota Corolla wagon went 200,000 miles on the original motor before going to that junk yard in the sky… Mazda just didn’t have the same quality of build as Toyota in the early 80’s… perhaps they learned?
i have a 1986 glc wagon. apparently, they don’t exist. i have to go back to ’85 to look up parts. i bought it for $500.- it runs great!
I have the same year make and model and have run into the same problem. I take the owners manual into auto parts stores and watch them scratch their heads. I paid $500 also, had to replace the windshield wiper motor but found an exact match with a 1982 B2000, it only cost me $20 at a junkyard. If you have to replace it make sure you mark the position before disassembling. I didn’t and it was a pain but finally figured it out.
We had a 1981 one owner with 71+ thousand miles go thru the local auto auction last night, I think it sold for $650 or $700.00. That little Mazda looked like a good little survivor from the 80’s.
Hi 1979 mazda glc front windshield will be fixed to a 1973 to 1978 mazda rx3 or 808.
I forgot about these.
The FWD versions of the GLC were terrific. This predecessor with the updated front grille, less so.
I think I remember Mazda’s GLC line as a Hail Mary pass after flirting with disaster when the rotary engine lost popularity. Until the GLC showed up, I don’t remember a time when Mazda sold a non-rotary vehicle in the US. When that market tanked, Mazda had one of its near-death experiences and suddenly got behind the GLC. (“Great Little Car”).
Kudos to Mazda for 40 years of US struggles. A fine brand that just keeps being overlooked. I keep waiting for Mazda to experience what Nissan and Subaru experienced in inexplainable sales successes, but it seems that Mazda is the brand everyone respects, but don’t buy.
This isn’t much of a car. It is quite a throwback, but it was all Mazda could do to extract itself out of the rotary quagmire it found itself in marketing wise.
I went into AFL motors in Milwaukee WI. With a pocket full of cash to purchase a cream colored GLC wagon, drove out with a new for 1980 cream colored. 4 Dr. 626, God that was a nice car, good salesman also