Mazda was one of few manufacturers to sell a World Rally Championship homologation model in the US market – the lack of interest in the WRC here being the main reason other participants like VW and Subaru did not sell their homologation specials here. Although for more money you could also get the Mitsubishi Galant VR-4 or a Toyota Celica AllTrac Turbo, this remains the most affordable and (anecdotally) most common of these cars. Find this 1988 Mazda 323 GTX Turbo for sale in Fairfax, VA with bidding at $1652 and only 8 1/2 hours to go.
The rear shot show the oh-so-80s-hot-hatch dual spoilers. The car apparently has some paint on it from a careless neighbor’s poor parking skills, but other than that looks pretty straight and not too rusty. There are 110,000 miles on the car, with unknown miles on a replacement engine that is said to run well and has some replacement parts. It also has new brakes (the seller is not clear on which parts), clutch, tires, and windshield, and comes with spare parts and a sweet 1980s Alpine stereo set-up.
The engine looks clean, with some visible upgrades, but still needs the idle adjusted. It has that classic twincam four look, with minimal hoses and tubing for a 1980s turbocharged engine. The air conditioning system also needs some work – the seller ventures a description of the systems, but it’ll be up to the buyer to complete the repair.
The sill extension on this side is sagging, but the car looks good otherwise, and this will give you an easy look underneath to see if there’s much rust. The seller concedes there is mild undercarriage rust – for a Virginia car, does this mean surface rust or worse? The paint has typical clear coat damage, so it’s up to you how far you want to go with fixing that. You definitely don’t want to lose the ability to tell all your neighbors you have a mad DOHC 16 TURBO under the hood putting out power through a FULL TIME 4WD system.
Not many great shots of the interior, so assume the driver’s seat bolsters have seen better days. Of course, that’s no problem since the seller is throwing in a spare driver’s seat. The rest looks pretty decent, but you’ll want to count on doing a good cleaning.
Rusty But Trusty 
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