The Mazda 1200 was the first piston-powered Mazda Familia offered in the U.S. market, starting in 1971. This 1971 Mazda 1200 is listed on eBay with bids reaching, gulp, $8,000! No, really, eight-grand and there are still two solid days left on the auction as I write this. It’s located where you thought it would be, Los Angeles, California.
What a cute little car. Can an old, skinny, tall guy with a cheesy gray mustache use the word cute when referring to a car? I really like these little things no matter what company they’re from: Mazda, Toyota, Datsun, it doesn’t matter, they’re.. cute. This car is, believe it or not, rust free according to the seller. That’s absolutely crazy to hear that since these cars rusted into a fine powder usually within a few years after being driven off of the dealer’s lot, especially cars in the Midwest or on the East Coast. Rust free is absolutely the king in my world.
That squared-off rear wheel arch! Wait, is it an arch if it’s squared-off? You know what I mean, that’s unique and Mazda knows how to do unique. The 1200 came in both a two-door coupe seen here and a four-door sedan in 1971. It was back in 1973 again as the low-level model for Mazda while the company focused on performance cars. You know, zoom-zoom? And you thought that was a recent thing. Actually, the company’s R100 was basically a 1200/Familia with a rotary engine and I think that’s the version that most of us would want.
This was obviously a red car. I’m not sure why it was painted black unless that’s just some sort of primer, but it’s almost everywhere so I’m guessing that it was some sort of attempt to make it look tough. Sigh. The interior is pretty rough and since this car will most likely be getting a full restoration, or resto-mod treatment with an added rotary engine, the interior will all come out anyway. All is not well, however, they say that “This project has 95% of all its original parts. Parts that are missing and that I could name are the front windshield, steering wheel horn button, steering wheel cover (bezel), dash board, antenna, and trunk emblem.” The next owner will be hitting the Japanese auction sites heavily and I mean h.e.a.v.i.l.y. That windshield may be hard to find if this one isn’t what it’s advertised as being, which is a 1971-72 Mazda 1200 coupe windshield. You never know when you buy parts online, as we all know by now.
The seller says that this “car has been put away for many years so no abuse or tweaks has been done to the car as u can see on pictures. Note: this car has only been driven around the block to test and hear the motor run since I purchase the car over a year ago, all ive done to it was sent the carb to go get rebuilt and done an oil change on it and added an electric fuel pump”. This is Mazda’s piston-pumping 1.3L inline-four which had 69 hp. The rotary-powered R100 had 100 hp, hence the R100 name. 30 extra hp is quite a bit when you’re on the low end of the spectrum such as in this 1200. I really like this car but I see thousands and thousands in restoration costs yet to go and with the bid already at $8,000 – ouch. Have any of you owned a Mazda 1200 or an R100 rotary?
Does a beat up old Japanese car really have that much value?
Vintage Mazdas have a very wealthy following. They will pay ridiculous prices for these. I called them Mazda Geeks. If this was an R100 it probably would have sold for twice that at least. it’s possible somebody has a rotary engine and we’ll just put that in there and make an R100 tribute. I guess it’s also possible someone has an R100 and will use this as a parts car.
You betcha!
This will get a rotary conversion for sure, and in other markets like Australia they have been selling for north of $100 k.
If it’s clean, body straight and mostly rust free, it’s a steal at $8k. Expect it to sell for up to $15k, and if the sun is shining, who knows…..
95% complete except for the front windshield , steering wheel horn button, steering wheel (column) cover (bezel), dash board, antenna, and trunk emblem.
I think that is more than 5% Those are some important parts.
Look at the seller’s other items for sale , they probably came from this car .
You’re not very knowledgeable about this car its 95% complete
Wow. I would never guess a car like this would have that strong of a following.
Steve R
Some kid will buy it, slam it and add a giant exhaust. Then proceed to tool around town happily .
Kids must have more money than I used to.
You and I both, Miguel. And if they were to pay 8k for that Mazda, no matter how cute, no matter what inflation has done to our money in the intervening decades, less sense as well.
My Friends Mom had a very nice R100 that i got to drive think it went thru 3 motors under warranty before Mazda said NO MAS
The rotary versions, the R100, were a lot of fun. They handled a bit better than the typical Japanese sedan of the day and were pretty quick. A stock R100 could beat many of the muscle cars of the day in a one light sprint. With a bit of discretion, $5 was a safe bet against a GI from Fort Bliss in his muscle car. When the rotor seals failed they used lots of oil but didn’t show any smoke thanks to Mazda’s “thermal reactor”. The failure was often covered by Mazda even after the warranty expired. Otherwise, we’d just trade them in on something at a used car lot. I traded my last R100 almost even for a really nice 1973 Ford Galaxie. Rotary-engined Mazdas didn’t sell well after the first year and there were a lot of them left unsold on dealer’s lots. My last rotary was a new RX4 Wagon that had sat for a couple of years. The dealer sold it to me really cheap.
I like these vintage Japanese cars, but…. yikes.
We never saw these in the midwest. I thought there was another piston engine Mazda around the time the rotaries came out. Was it the 808? After the dismal reception on the RX models, the 1st Mazda in any numbers I saw, was the GLC. Price? Same thing, they’re nuts.
I tried to negotiate a deal a few years back to buy a R100(the rotary version of this car) that was back halved i.e. tubs, a built big turbo13B engine, upgraded everything. Pulled away from a light, the road cleared, the tach reached 5k and video game time. I have driven fast cars, but this was something else! It ran on race gas which was a big problem for me being as it was a street car, we also
couldn’t agree on a price.
He had taken the car to the strip a week earlier, swapped on slicks and ran a 10.6 @ 130 m.p.h.!!
I had a ’72 R100.They were only sold in California in ’72.
I think I paid $250 for it (not running).Ordered a 10A rebuilt engine
from my local Mazda dealer,& added early RX7 factory alloys.
Looked really cool,but couldn’t get it to run right.I had about
$2500 into it,& was thrilled to get $1000 for it.Somebody gave it to
me later (free),& I gave it away to someone.
The cool thing was that I could go into my local dealer,& buy
almost any part for it.I bought new emblems,etc. for it.
Can’t believe what they’re worth now.Same for the parts.
8K for a 1200 Coupe is very steep in my opinion especially if it needs a windshield . Good luck with that …
I’ve owned a few R100’s , most current about 6 years ago . Besides the obvious 10A rotary engine , they have a way better dash , different hood , grille and of course 4 round tailights. Quite a project to make a proper clone but not impossible.
Best to save and just find one …
Sold for an even 8K.
I’m not surprised it sold for 8k. The new owner will likely take that lil champ and give it a transplant and some other performance upgrades since the R100 are just about unobtainable.
1200 way cuter than a r100
Is it still up for sale Juan?