1 Oct 1993
Although released in people-mover-mad America back in 1988, the seven-seater Mazda MPV didn’t make it to Australia (or Japan, for that matter) until right-hand drive models came online during 1993.
Based on the Mazda 929 platform, the MPV felt very car-like, an upshot of its conventional wagon body, four swinging side doors, seven seats across three rows, struts and coil spring suspension, powered rack and pinion steering and anti-lock four-wheel disc brakes.
Power came courtesy of a longitudinally mounted 115kW/232Nm 3.0-litre single cam V6 engine mated to a column-shift four-speed automatic gearbox and, unusually for this style of MPV, driving through the rear wheels.
Among the standard features were front and rear air-conditioning, cruise control, central locking, power windows, electric mirrors and a radio/cassette player.
