Has this ever happened to you? You’re in line at the chowder buffet, dunking your big wooden ladel into a large vat of clam chowder, when you’re seized from behind, violently, and dragged to the ground by a group of rowdy seniors, ranging in age from 65 to what seems to be well over 80. They’re dressed in clashing plaids and studded bracelets and bolo ties, clearly looking for trouble. “Tell me, punk,” one of them growls, “Tell me the name of every Mazda with US area code name-numbers, and we’ll let you go!”
Now, for most people, you really only have one option if/when this happens to you: wet yourself lavishly and powerfully until the sharp-boned seniors are forced to retreat, in disgust and dismay. But I’m here to remind you that you have another option, one that will allow you to emerge victorious against these wrinkly gangs of reprobates: you could wet yourself and then list all the Mazdas that share names with US area codes!
I suppose you could also just list the Mazdas with area code names? I hadn’t thought about that. Huh.
Anyway, here’s what you’ll need to defend yourself: every Mazda named for an area code:
First we have the Mazda R360, which does have that R in the name, but we’ll count it anyway. This was Mazda’s first passenger car, made to the specifications of Japan’s first kei class rules. These are charming little cars with 356cc V-twin air-cooled engines, mounted at the rear, shares a name with the 360 area code that serves Washington state’s Cascade Mountain area, including the cities of Olympia and Bellingham.
Next, there’s the Mazda 323 – we also got this as the GLC here in America. This was also known as the Familia in some global markets as well, but only 323 is an area code. The first ones of these (the fourth-gen Familia) were front engine-rear drive, but went to front engine/front wheel drive in 1980.
The 323 area code is in Los Angeles, and covers some of downtown and Hollywood, as well as neighborhoods/cities like Alhambra, Glendale, and the Silverlake/Los Feliz area I used to live in.
We never really got the Mazda 616 in America, but it was known as the Capella in Japan and was Mazda’s mid-sized car. There was also a coupé version, the 618:
We did get 618s in America for a short while, it seems. Oh, and the 616 area code serves Grand Rapids, Michigan and surrounding areas, and 618 is the area code for southern Illinois, including, um, Carbondale, which I once heard referenced on an episode of The Office.
The Mazda 616 became the 626 in its second generation, starting in 1978, and we got these here, as Mazda’s midrange offering. These were FWD cars, but, interestingly had longitudinal engines, like a Saab or Citroën.
The 626 area code serves the San Gabriel Valley in California, which includes Pasadena, Alhambra, El Monte, and is the area code where the Jet Propulsion Laboratory is located.
The Mazda 808 was also known as the Grand Familia, and was a front engine/rear drive sedan and coupé designed to be slightly larger than the Familia, and compete better with competition like the Toyota Corolla.
In some markets where Peugeot had the rights to any three-digit number with a zero in the middle, it was also called the 818. That’s also the reason why the Porsche 911 had its name changed from 901!
Area code-wise, 808 covers the Hawaiian Islands and Wake Island, and 818 covers the San Fernando Valley in California, and is a well-known area code amongst Angelenos, many of whom used to look down their noses at this archetypal Valley area code.
The 929 was the name Mazda gave to their export-market full-sized cars, Mazda’s premium offering. The 929 had a pretty long life, from 1973 to 1997. I never realized they had a coupé like the one above there, with pop-up dual headlamps and everything! That’s pretty cool. I like the strange rectangular vertical window sort of acting as a B-pillar there, too. Why is no one importing these?
The 929 area code is a big one, as its part of New York, serving the boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx.
I think that’s all of the Mazdas with area code names? Did I miss any? I hope not, those old bastards are pretty unforgiving.
The 929 was a decent looking car.
I never answer calls from 929 though. 99% are scams.
There are chowder buffets?
The things I’ve learned here…
Out of all the things described in the intro, that’s what struck you as odd? 😛
I clearly live a sheltered – chowder deficient – life. 🙂
There’s a joke here, but I am not going to go there….
That red coupe in the top photo is lovely… it reminds me of the first-gen hatchback version of the Toyota Celica. It’s an 818 I think? Adorbs, as the kids (?) maybe used to say.
The internet suggests that the Familia was also marketed as the 323, Protoge, and Allegro.
Jason could have been a Python AFAIAC. Giant communal pot of chowder indeed!
I think I remember it being sold as the 323 in the US, alongside the 626. My folks had a 626.
It was initially the GLC in the US (“Great Little Car”), then it aligned with most export markets in using the 323 name, and then the sedan became the Protegé.
Just a guess, but I suspect the Carbondale mentioned on The Office was the one in Pennsylvania, unless they were talking about a branch office in IL. Carbondale, PA wouldn’t rate a branch office.
Allow me to bring some contentious heat to your cold start: does the 787b count as a US area code, since it’s used in Puerto Rico? I vote yes, US territory and all that.
No. According to our esteemed and idiotic leader, PR is a shithole country…
“America First” and all that BS.
I decree that any area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) counts. This includes US territories and some Caribbean countries as well.
Massive Baader-Meinhof syndrome for me; I just stumbled onto the NANP article at Wikipedia and I had never heard of it before today.
The NANP is surprisingly interesting.
The first 626 we saw in the US was RWD and a lot of its basic chassis engineering was used in the RX-7, while the basic engine and manual transmission was from the pickup. The FWD successors were a standard transverse layout.
I had one of these first gen 626s, in coupe form. Can confirm rear wheel drive because I got stuck more than once on ice, spinning one rear wheel. Great car until it threw a rod through the block.
I never had clam chowder so…no, not really.
It’s pronounced “chowdah.”
Also, Robert Redford died today. The once proud owner of a ‘64 Porsche904 GTS, Redford should be considered a car guy. He and Paul Newman famously used to gag gift each other with wrecked Porsches on their birthdays.
In movies, he drove everything from a Porsche 911 (Downhill Racer) to a Rolls Royce (The Great Gatsby) to a Borgward Isabella (All The President’s Men). And he was also quite fond of single horsepower transportation, too.
RIP Sundance Kid.
Might have to rewatch All the President’s Men for the Borgward! In the book/real life, Woodward drove a Karmann-Ghia—like Redford did in Sneakers, per the article elsewhere on the site.
The Borgward’s silhouette is very similar to a Karmann Ghia.
The Mazda 808 also shared its name with a colloquialized drum machine. While Roland called the machine a TR-808, everyone just calls them 808’s.
Had to look that one up as well, finding out that a certain pop band were from Manchester and not from Hawaii… 🙂
This is a fun documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIS-o_–wqY
Erhh yes… the 2CV (1948) and the DS (1955) and derivatives thereof (Dyane, Ami, LN, GS, SM) had longitudinal engines – like Audis and Saabs 😀 – but since 1974 (CX) all really NEW models had transverse engines.
NOW you tell me! After weeks of cleaning urine and chowder off my pants…
In central Texas there’s a car club with 210 in the name, I thought they were Datsun 210 enthusiasts but it’s actually a San Antonio area code.
Using my calculator I also checked some SAAB model designations.
9^3 ( = 729) is a recent overlay for the 423 area code in East Tennessee (e.g. Chattanooga).
9^5 (=59.049) however could theoretically be a ZIP code in Absarokee, Montana. In practice it is the postal code of Lille in France and, fittingly, of Vikingstad in Sweden.
The 618 looks an awful lot like a sailboat but it’s hard to tell from this photo with that yellow car in the way.
And the rust spots on that sailboat keel really makes me lust for a new car built from thin sheets of rolled steel.
So about this chowder, you left out the most important detail, New England or Manhattan?
If you go to Chinook in Seattle – you ask for Red & White clam chowder, which is a ladle of white first, then a ladle of red in the middle.
Do they call it Japanese flag chowder?
Iiye!
いいや
Oh, sounds great!
Won’t be in Seattle any time soon, but that’s an idea for my kitchen.
Thanks!
This is the very reason I stay away from the clam chowder buffet. Cod chowder is a reasonable alternative and the old folks are much less demanding. Also, does the recent focus on clams have anything to do with what’s going on in CERN?
First it’s quantum entanglement of sheep, now quantum clams. When will it end?
I really wanted a 323 back in the day. Ended up with a Renault Alliance. Yup.
I got a Tracer – because it was a 323 without the import car markup
(or automatic seatbelts)
Yours was made in Mexico, but because of some trade quirks, Canadian Tracers came from Taiwan. I would buy a first-gen Tracer hatchback if there were any around.
It sure was – and it had 68 standard features!
(Because 69 would have been obscene or something)
I just moved to New Mexico. I guess I should finally get the Peugeot 505 I’ve always wanted?
Origin story time: When I first signed up at the Old Site, the family fleet consisted of a Pilot (flying) and a 626 (Experiment 626, a/k/a Stitch, as in Lilo and).
Wow! Finally someone has written about my first car! My 808 was a 1976 model, 4 door and originally white. My parents had it painted red when they passed it on to me. It looked sharp with the white vinyl seats. It had an AM/FM stereo, 4 speakers, 4 speed manual transmission,(no tachometer thought) and get this, a manual CHOKE. I tell that to younger drivers today and I have to explain what it is and what it does.
It was a great little car, until I dove into a deep drainage ditch and killed it.
My kids all know what a manual choke is. While they’ve never seen it on a car, most of the small engine powered yard appliances we have feature those.
Love the strange use of é on the 929, no é in coupe, but it gets one in “HARDTOP Super Spécial.” Then again, I don’t think Mazda Japan in this era really knew anything about languages outside of Japanese given they named a car the “Laputa”
Laputa was a flying island kingdom in Gulliver’s Travels, also featured in the Studio Ghibli movie Castle in the Sky. Laputa is also the name of an insanely delicious bread in Scania, Sweden’s southernmost province.
The Japanese truly do not care if something might be offensive in Spanish, hence the Nissan Moco (mucus).
What a treat! Let’s do BMWs: 316, 318, 320, 323 (shared with Mazda, I see), 325, 330, 430, 435, 440, 503, 507, 520, 530, 540…so many! Or airplanes: 707, 737, 747…
It could be another one of JT’s series, which never really gets anywhere 😉
Retired telephone engineer here. Until 1995, area codes had to a 1 or 0 as the second digit so many of these names matched area codes long after they were named. Still an interesting twist
I was thinking the same thing. Living in LA in the 80’s there was no 323 or 626. 213, 818, and 714 were it.
I was going to say you left out 310 – West LA/Beverly Hills/Santa Monica/Malibu….
…but then I remembered that came in the early 90s – and now has the 424 overlay.
Came here to say this.
A while back, our folks on discord came up with a list of car models up to 2500. Maybe the next list is of all the cars that match existing area codes.
“In some markets where Peugeot had the rights to any three-digit number with an eight in the middle…”
I believe you mean a zero in the middle.
I didn’t know that the 626’s predecessor was a 616 – Would have been interesting if Mazda had continued this with 636, 646, etc – as well as 333, 343, 353 – and 939, 949….)
oops, yes, and fixed. Thanks!
A) had no idea you could “own” the rights to number combinations.
B) I’m sad Boeing never entered the passenger car market so we could have watched the two face off. Er, maybe this is WHY Boeing could never enter the market.
There seems to be no evidence that Peugeot „forbid“ the use of those numbers by other car companies. Ferrari happily sold their „308“, BMW the famous „507“ and Bristol even took all the numbers from „401“ to „409“ without any objection.
Mazda 121
Area code for Birmingham, UK.
Which is appropriate, as the 121 (incl. Ford Festiva & Kia Pride) were known for basic reliable transportation, where they would appreciate an association with a reliable vehicle.
…for a change.