Why isn't Mazda selling its new truck in the U.S.?

I used to have a beer with a fellow biker and shoot the breeze about the various manufacturers' good and bad points. He would only ride Kawasakis, because as far as he was concerned they were a full-fat engineering company, making trains, ships, cranes and so on. He didn't care much for the rest; Yamaha pianos, Honda Civics etc. Mazda was lightbulbs.

 

If they're primarily diesel, that would be an issue also. Toyota was actually planning a diesel powerplant that would've been available for the Tundra but scrapped it when they couldn't meet US emissions requirements for diesel, or at least didn't feel the development cost was worth it.

 

Kooky. Just read this at Wiki:

 

Yep.

The Ford Courier was made by Mazda starting in '77, while "Ranger" was a trim level option on the F-100.




Ford replaced the Courier with the compact Ranger in 1983, these are designed by Ford and also re-badged as the Mazda B series.



I think the is a whole slew of corporate politics involved in not marketing the BT-50 in the U.S. Ford held back the Ranger for nearly a decade because they were afraid of cannibalizing the F-150 market. And Mazda has a sub 1.7% market-share in the U.S., it would require a lot of capital to break back into the U.S. truck market when the average less than 300K car sales a year.

 

If any manufacturer figures out how to build/sell a 4wd manual transmission truck for under $25k, they will get my money.

These modern day Rolling Palaces are ridiculously overpriced and too fancy/expensive to be used as a truck.

 

My first new vehicle, was a 1987 B-2000

$4,900 out the door, I had around 175,000 miles on it before I sold it... Was still running like a champ.

Never needed anything but oil changes, a few brake jobs and tires.

 

I had an 86 Mazda truck. The engine ran (and is probably still running) but the body just disintegrated.

Also, it was the last vehicle I'll own without power steering/brakes. It drove like an old tractor.

 

The current BT50 and Ford Ranger are Twins under the Skin. They come out of a factory in Thailand. This is about to change. The next Ford Ranger will be twinned with the VW Amarok which is made in Argentina and the next BT50 will be joined at the hip to the Isuzu D-Max.

The current Isuzu D-Max is a twin of the Holden/Chev Colorado underneath except with different motors/trans.

 

Like Toto's dad, I bought a B-2600i 4x4 brand new in 1989. To this day, it is hands-down THE BEST vehicle I have ever owned. Absolutely amazing in snow.

I ran it for 286K then gave it to my brother for his construction laborer. After running it for 2 more years, he gave it to the laborer, who then drove it from Massachusetts... TO BRAZIL.

2 weeks after I bought it:


Prior to that, I bought a new 1986 B-2000 2WD, then traded it in for this one. I believe they were still owned by Mazda then and sold to Ford in the early 90s. I could be wrong. I'll ask my son, he's obsessed with Mazda and the old Repu trucks.

FWIW... I love my current Mazda

 

Fun facts of the auto industry, thanks!

I drove a 1990 Nissan Pathfinder from 2008-2016. I assume it was like that Mazda you had: it was heavy, underpowered, and equipped with mechanical 4WD (mine was a manual to boot). Those things made it fantastic in snow! Subaru AWD is fine or whatever, but nothing I've ever driven compares to the old 4x4s like that. I'm sure that was your experience! Super cool story about that old pickup too, thanks for sharing.

That old Pathfinder was garbage on ice though, but what normal vehicle isn't?

 

Yes, mine was a 5-speed as well, with the secondary lever for the 4WD. Apparently it had a 9"-wide chain that drove the 4WD gears!

 

That's wild! Those things were tanks. I imagine all the Nissan, Toyota, and Mazda platforms were basically identical back then. 3.0L V6 perhaps?

 

I had an 1800cc 1974 Ford Courier made by Mazda. It was the first truck I bought when I moved to California. It lasted a long time and had a little pep to it. I took it to Mexico and had diamond tuck and roll leather seats upholstered. Lol I don't remember selling it but I know I did some time. I bought a Toyota SR5 4x4 after that one.

 

No. The one on sale in Australia is still the Ford Ranger clone made in Thailand. There is a variance in different countries.

Currently about 90% of tinbox 'utes' as we call on sale in Oz are made in Thailand.

This includes the Toyota Hilux, Isuzu D-Max, Ford Ranger, Mitsubishi Triton, defunct Holden Colorado, Nissan Navara. Previous free trade agreement made them tax exempt as imports.

 

While we're at it, why doesn't Honda sell the Civic Tourer in the US?

 

Subaru got around the chicken tax by mounting two seats in the truck bed:

 

In Australia Subaru got around a tarrif on imported cars in the sixties by bolting a rear transaxle on FWD cars. That officially made them a farm vehicle. Australia was their biggest export market - they ran a works Rally team here that helped develop the WRX.

They had a warning not to engage AWD on the road, as the two diffs has different ratios......