Sao what?

South Africa: a country with a fascinating domestic motor industry (Austin Apache, Ford Sierra XR8 and Volkswagen CitiGolf to name just three of the interesting cars built there) but not one known for exports. Apart from the Ford P100, which doesn't really count as it was a pickup truck or 'bakkie' in the vernacular, you'd probably struggle to think of any South African car that was officially imported to the UK. In fact there has only ever been one and it has long since vanished into automotive oblivion. What was this mythical beast then? Read on to find out...

The standard official photo of the new Penza. Isn't it stunning?

It was called the Sao (pronounced 'Sayo') Penza. Never heard of it? That's not really surprising as it was a thoroughly unremarkable car that made a 'blink and you'll miss it' appearance; it only lasted a couple of years and sold in tiny numbers before disappearing from the market, never to be heard of again. The Penza was basically the old BF-series Mazda 323, sadly not the one with the funky pop-up headlights but its rather bland predecessor, which continued to be produced in South Africa by Samcor after it had been replaced in Japan in 1989. Penzas were brought to the UK by a subsidiary of the Mazda importer who also imported Kias, and soon appeared in Kia showrooms alongside Kia's own Mazda cast-off, the 121-based Pride.

The Mazda 323 BF. Competent enough (if dull) by 1980s standards, but outdated by 1991.

It may have been cheap for its size, with prices starting at £7000 (less than a Ford Fiesta), but the Penza was outdated, spartan, utterly bland and lacking any charisma, and to top it all Sao was a completely unknown brand that had a tiny dealer network. Its closest competitor was probably Proton, who also offered an old Japanese design but with a wider range, established reputation and many more dealers, so apart from patriotism by South Africans living in the UK there was little reason to buy one. Advertising was minimal and a red one (J250 KKJ) seems to have been the only press car that featured in all of what few media appearances the Penza made. It was available for only 20 months from July 1991 and just over a thousand appear to have been sold before the importer pulled the plug. Despite being basically a tough-as-old-boots Mazda, attrition has been very high and there are now none at all left on UK roads, so you're not going to encounter one in the street anytime soon.

Penza or Mazda? The differences were minimal and most people wouldn't even notice (or care).

So how did the Sao Penza get that odd name? Sao was supposedly an acronym for 'South African Origin' and there is no shortage of cars with geographical names, but Penza is a drab industrial city in Russia and a far cry from the usual glamorous places that lend their names to cars. Another theory, similar to that concerning the Mitsubishi Starion, is that the name was actually supposed to be 'Panzer' (as in the German for 'tank') but when said in a South African accent this sounds like 'Penza' and that name stuck. Panzer is a very aggressive name for a family hatchback though and would be far better suited to a sports car, so this is most likely an urban myth. Rather more mundanely but probably closer to the truth, someone pointed out that the names 'Sao' and 'Penza' are the same length as '323' and 'Mazda' so the badges would fit in the existing mounting holes on the 323 tailgate pressing. Nobody seems to know for sure why it was called the Penza though.

What does the Mitsubishi Starion have in common with the Penza? Both were supposedly victims of mispronunciation.

Photos of Penzas are very few and far between, and those used here appear to be the only ones in existence online - the red one is the importer's official photo and the blue one was spotted by Midlands Vehicle Photographer on Flickr. I do have a personal memory of the Sao Penza: in the same village as the equally obscure Vauxhall Albany that inspired my very first article, there also lived a South African family who owned a Penza, almost certainly bought because it was the only car from their homeland that could be obtained in the UK. I don't remember much about it as I was very young and it was a long time ago, but it was red and looked almost identical to the Mazda 323s that were still common at the time so it wouldn't have merited a second glance, and it would be a miracle if it hadn't long since bitten the dust. The very last Penza taxed in the UK seems to have been taken off the road in 2014 but there is just one solitary example on SORN so it hopefully still exists somewhere in storage. Whoever finds it will win infinite kudos in the car spotting community - the hunt is on!

Do any of my South African friends fancy a not-to-be-missed chance of fame and fortune by importing second-hand examples from their home country to repopulate the UK with Penzas? Don't all rush at once...

This seems to be the only Penza ever photographed in the wild and it died not long afterwards.