The body style configurations offered were a two-door coupé, a four-door sedan, and a five-door station wagon.

The Grand Familia/Savanna were originally intended to replace the smaller Mazda Familia to better compete with the Toyota Corolla, Nissan Sunny, and Mitsubishi Colt.

The 1.5 was replaced by a larger 1.6-liter four-cylinder in November 1973, an engine which had by then already been used in some export markets (like the United States) for over two years.

Because of Peugeot's trademark issues with any model numbers with a central zero, European distributors sold the car as the Mazda 818.

For 1975, power dropped as emissions rules became stricter, but the range was expanded to include the four-door sedan and five-door station wagon models.

Engine: For 1976 and 1977, the 1.3 L version was sold as the "Mazda Mizer" in the United States with all three types of bodywork.

Engine: 1976–1977 – 1.3 L (1272 cc) TC I4, twin-barrel, 48 hp (36 kW) and 67 lb⋅ft (91 N⋅m) From October 1975 the Grand Familia was built in South Korea by Kia Motors, with the 1272 cc 72 PS (53 kW) engine and four-door bodywork.

The early cars had rectangular lights, but in December 1976 an updated version with single round headlights was introduced, called the Kia K303.

As part of a nationwide industrial plan Kia was then excluded from building passenger cars until 1986.

The Brisa II and K-303 are exceedingly rare today (as are classic cars generally in South Korea).

[8] The name Mazda Savanna (sometimes incorrectly spelled "Savannah") was used on the rotary-powered model sold in Japan, as a coupe, sedan, and wagon.

It was smaller and sportier than its brother, the Capella Rotary/RX-2, and was largely identical to its conventional inline-four donor model, the Mazda Grand Familia.

Externally the Savanna and export RX-3 was differentiated from its piston engines sibling by a nose panel with dual round headlights and a more prominent and pointed honeycomb grille, and round tail lights on the rear of sedans and coupés.

While the larger S124A eventually replaced the S102A in most markets, the S102A remained on sale alongside the S124A in Japan through to early 1974 with all the Series II updates.

The Series I S102A remained on sale in some markets even longer, being available in the United Kingdom until the 1975 model year at least, though this was most likely as a result of stocks of earlier production vehicles remaining unsold due to a combination of both the fuel crisis and the rotary engine's early reputation for poor reliability.

[10] While the Series I Savanna and RX-3 were powered by the 10A in Japan, Australia, and Europe, North American markets got the larger 12A taken from the RX-2 coupled to either a four speed manual or automatic transmission.

This model received the larger 12A motor with 125 PS (92 kW) and was coupled to a five speed transmission.

In mid 1973, Mazda released a visually updated Savanna in Japan, though drivetrain choices remained the same with the S102A 10A and the S124A 12A both available in twin distributor form.

The loss of torque plus a 44-kilo weight increase slowed the Series II to a 17.8 second quarter mile.

In 1976 the Series III Savanna / RX-3 was released in Japan and the U.S., but exports to Australia and New Zealand ceased.

Of all the RX-3's built, the coupe exceeded 50 percent of total sale – all facts which influenced the design profile of the RX-7.

Many RX-3s are still competing and one in particular is the SCCA Super Production car driven by Irish driver John Cummins.