Last year, I left a temporary phone which I was using whilst my main one was away for repair on a train, and I lost within it a memory card with all my pictures dating right back to 2005. One of these was a photograph of the 1997 Mazda 323F which I owned whilst at university.
Back in 2002, my friend very kindly allowed us to get a car for use up in Durham in connection with our student house. For some reason, I chose a sporty looking Mazda 323F 1.5 Innsbruck Edition. With only 90 bhp, it wasn't exactly fast, but it looked stunning, had a big boot, relatively good passenger space, frameless doors and a nice set of alloy wheels.
This was not the average car of most 19 year old students, and she drove like a dream. With a firm ride, but amazingly good grip and handling, this 323F was a pleasure to pilot, and was very reliable to boot. I drove all over the country in her, along with many trips to the Metrocentre in Gateshead, Newcastle Airport, Jesmond to see my twin sister, and much more besides. She wasn't the most economical car, but with petrol at around 80p a litre at the time, it wasn't a massive problem!
Slight quirks were an air conditioning button that lit up even if there was no air conditioning (there was an electric sunroof instead), a blue soft touch plastic dashboard and an indicator stalk on the 'wrong side' of the steering column. I had to sell her in the end to a car trader from Luton (there wasn't much point in keeping her post university as there were already two cars at my mother's house), but I had three amazing years with her. The fact that they are still less than £1000 for a decent example is rather too tempting...
1997 Mazda 323F
