Description
Author: John Wright, Softbound, 174 Pages, ISBN: 9780947079185, Reprinted in 1998 -
The Corona was a cigar before it was a sedan. Sigma was a pharmaceutical company before it was a badge on a successful Mitsubishi. And — irresistable, but true — Mazda was a light bulb (40 watts or 100, clear or pearl) before it was a car; people turned on Mazdas before Mazdas returned the favour.
Metaphorically speaking, there's much more electricity conjured up by the name Mazda now than there was back when the EH 179 was a fast sedan and anything Japanese was still somewhat unusual.
The names sounded odd to Australians, reared on Holden Specials and Morris Minors and by that stage almost able to pronounce Volkswagen. The Datsun Bluebird was an unprepossessing car in style, bearing no conceivable resemblance to a pretty little ornithological creature.
As for the Mazda 800, well, it was truly diminutive, encouraging incorrigible Aussies to persist with the 'Mobile Light Bulb' theme first applied to the 360.
If you'd used the term 'rotary' back in those shortback-and-sides mid-'60s, your audience would have thought of the Rotary clubs scattered around Australia. Or maybe a clothes hoist in a neat suburban backyard. An engine was an engine and real engines had six cylinders or, better, eight in order to master the tough Australian environment.
...from the Introduction
