The 5-door was sold as the Mazda 323F in Europe, Artis in Chile and Allegro Hatchback (HB) in Colombia and a few other countries of Latin America.

[3] The Mazda 323F weighs in at just 1,210 kg (2,668 lbs) and came standard with a naturally aspirated DOHC 1.5L, 1.6L or 1.8L inline-four engine with VICS paired with a 55-litre fuel tank.

The V6, specifically, sports an extraordinarily rigid yet smooth suspension setup to ensure exceptional handling with longer-than-usual suspension arms and the front dampers including built-in rebounding springs for stability, as well as 16-inch rims with a low-profile offset of 205/50 allowing for excellent cornering and grip.

[7] Although electronically capped to 180km/h in Japan due to law, it had an actual top speed of 190km/h and the manual transmission recorded a 0-100kmm/h time of 9.6 seconds.

[10][11] The rare Type-R version of the Mazda Lantis was exclusively sold in Japan and could only be obtained in Europe and other parts of the world through import.

The Type-R features a 170ps (125 kw, 168 bhp) 2.0L (122 ci) KF-ZE 24-valve DOHC V6 engine with 180 Nm (133 lb-ft) of torque @ 5,500 rpm, a limited-slip differential and appearance options like a front lip spoiler, side skirts, floating rear spoiler, coloured front indicators and other modifications known collectively as the Mazdaspeed A-Spec kit.

The South African and possibly other versions of the 323F branded as the Astina do include badges on the back indicating the engine capacity.