MAZDA

Grand Familia 808

The Mazda Grand Familia is an automobile which was produced by Mazda in Japan from 1971 to 1978. It was sold as the Mazda 808 in some export markets including Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, and as the Mazda 818 in many others. The body style configurations offered were a two-door coupé, a four-door sedan, and a five-door station wagon. The Grand Familia offered only inline four cylinder engines. The largely identical rotary-powered versions were marketed as the Mazda Savanna in Japan, with export markets taking this model as the Mazda RX-3. The Grand Familia/Savanna were originally intended to replace the smaller Mazda Familia to better compete with the Toyota Corolla, Nissan Sunny, and Mitsubishi Colt. With the onset of the 1970s energy crisis however, the Familia sold better due to its fuel economy. Since Mazda had already developed the Grand Familia/Savanna, it was sent to North America, while it was considered in Japan as an alternative to the Corolla clone, the Toyota Sprinter, Nissan Cherry, and the Mitsubishi Lancer.