The Sao Penza: Sao What?

 

A Sao Penza, or it might as well be (it's a 1988-1989 Mazda 323).

The Sao Penza is not an unusual car per se; it gets its unusual status from being one of those odd badge-engineer jobs. The Sao brand produced this one model, known as the Penza, from 1991 to 1993. Only 1,000 were sold, and just one remains in an unroadworthy state. 

If you want to experience the Penza for yourself, it's not quite the unicorn you think it is. It's just a 1986-1989 generation Mazda 323. There's nothing unusual about the 323 of that vintage; it was a pretty standard compact car sold in large numbers, your basic, functional commuter car. 

But the Penza was made by the South African Motor Corporation (Samcor), which operated from 1985-1998 and was a merger of the Ford Motor Company of Canada's South African operations and Sigma, which built a mixture of Mazdas, Peugeots, Citroens, and Mitsubishis for the South African market. Samcor produced Ford and Mazda models for the South African market, badged as what they were: Fords and Mazdas. 

Except for the Penza. The Penza was, peculiarly, only sold in the United Kingdom. It was only available in two colors - a pinkish red and a light blue. The SAO name has been speculated to stand for "South African Origin". Penza? I'm stumped. There are quite a few vehicles named after geographic locations, like the Chevy Malibu and Bel Air, Chevy Tahoe, and Buick Riviera, but Penza is an industrial city in Russia, hardly the vacation spot that most of these names are based on. 

The naming and marketing for this one left me scratching my head.