Escort replacement

Press, 17 April 1980, Page 23

Escort replacement

The ski-lng season will be here again soon, and with immaculate timing Motors Holdings have just launched thd new Subaru four-wheel-drive waggon (above). The new waggon, which has a nicer body than the superseded waggon and looks to have plenty of ground clearance for offroad: motoring, retains the previous waggon’s 1600 cu cm motor and striking styled wheels to set it off. The new version is wider and longer than the Old. As in the old waggon, the driver can switch from two to four-wheel-drive or vice-versa while the car is moving. The waggon, which is being assembled at Motor Holdings’ Waitara plant, costs $12,140, with metallic paint.

A fr o n t-tvheel-drive Mazda bearing a Ford badge looks likely to replace the popular Escort as Ford’s small car on the New r Zealad market. This week Ford announced that it would introduce the new Ford Laser within a year to 35 Asian and Pacific countries, including Australia and New Zealand. No details of the new car’s design were released but it is believed to be the product of the Ford-Mazda alliance that will be particularly strong in the Asia-Pacific region in the near future.

The Laser is also expected to replace the Atazda 323. but Mazda Motors of New Zealand is cagey about whether New Zealand will see an identical car wearing both Ford and Mazda badges. It has, however, confirmed that Ford and Mazda will continue as independent companies with separate dealer networks in New Zealand. Britain and the Continent will this year also get an Escort replacement, but it will b 6 the Erica, a f r o n t-wheel-drive car developed in Germany.