How rare is the 1st gen Mazda 626 coupe?  There's maybe a dozen or so left in the US I reckon.  When this '81 626 with 252,000 miles appeared for sale on Craigslist in Portland last year, I hopped on a plane with $600 in my pocket and bought it sight unseen.  Drove it 3,600 miles back to Ohio the long way down the Pacific coast, through Napa Valley and eventually the desert Southwest.  Even though I kept it under 78mph the whole trip, things broke along the way, and it refused to start a couple times, but six days later I was home.  Of course we had to take it to the dragstrip once it warmed up a bit -- 20.6 seconds in the 1/4 mile!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BocL69qFjAQ     ... View more