As any Twitter urbanist worth their avocado bio emoji will tell you, pickup trucks are laughably impractical for most drivers. The gas-guzzling macho metaphors also happen to be the most popular vehicles on the ol' hay-baling ranch known as... the Twin Cities metro area. Greener exceptions exist—like Ford's recent runaway hit, the smallish/hybrid Maverick—but its important to be wary of industry green-washing. Humungous EVs like the Hummer, seen here being championed by President Joe Biden, require resource-rich batteries that can weigh almost 3,000 pounds alone.
Makes one wistful for the 1986 MAZDA B2000 pickup. Sure, the compact truck won't get you Prius gas milage, but its combined 24 mpg ranks higher than most current pickups. Plus, crucially, it looks cool as shit and there's one available with only 1,952 miles at Walser Polar Mazda. You will pay a premium, however: $24,998, down from $30K this past summer.
"It was built in Hiroshima, Japan, on a ladder frame chassis with a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine and a five-speed manual transmission," The Drive's Nico DeMattia writes of this very truck. "It also represents the first year of the fourth-generation B-Series pickups, which is among the most highly desirable for fans of these little guys... And don’t even get me started on that radio. I’m tempted to fly to Minnesota just so I can push those delightfully rectangular buttons." (He ain't wrong about those buttons; see below.)
In our era of malfunctioning supercomputers on wheels, the nostalgia of this humble hauler is hard to avoid. If companies can create brand-new, faithful simulacrums of the SNES and the Nokia phone you once played Snake on, why not also the vehicles of the past? Maybe we'll send a hopelessly naïve press inquiry to Detroit.
In the meantime!
How'd the museum-piece Mazda last almost four decades without any rust, dents, or apparent use whatsoever? "Check out this versatile 1986 MAZDA B2000..." is all mini truck shoppers are provided via the dealer description. Its spotless Carfax report includes past owners from Illinois, Missouri, and Arizona before it turned up in Minnesota in 2019. The lil fella was sold at auction twice in '18—for $13,750 and for $20,900.
"This 1986 Mazda B2000 pickup was purchased new at Don Darr Pontiac/Mazda in St. Louis, Missouri, on May 14, 1986 and was placed into storage shortly after the original owner took possession," reads the copy from one auction. "The included original window sticker details options when new and the truck is all stock."
Mazda produced its B-Series line of trucks from 1961 through 2006, often through a Ford partnership as Couriers and Rangers. (Barely related: The St. Paul site that once assembled Rangers is now the prohibitively expensive Highland Bridge development.)
There must be a neat story behind this cherry B2000, but it'll go untold for now; we texted the GM at Walser Poler Mazda three times and never heard back. Famously, used car salesmen are supposed to be eager to move cars... alas. Locally, there are just three other pre-1990 vehicles available at dealerships, and they're all got much higher mileages: a 1983 a Datsun 280ZX (77K miles, $25K); 1987 Cadillac De Ville Sedan (77K miles, $8K), and 1987 Ford Bronco XLT (56K miles, $21K).
Let's take a photo tour of that old/new pickup, courtesy of Walser Polar Mazda:
