Junkyard Find: 1984 Mazda B2000 Sundowner Pickup
Plenty of Mazda B-Series pickups were sold in the United States, mostly badged as Ford Couriers, but starting in 1983 (when the Ranger appeared) your only choice for obtaining one of these cheap-and-simple little trucks was your Mazda dealer. I spotted this somewhat rusty ’84 in a Denver wrecking yard on Saturday, and it looked like it still had some good miles left in it.
Just 147k miles in 31 years.
The ignition key is there and the windshield sports auction-company “RUN AND DRIVE” stickers, which means we’re probably looking at a dealer trade-in that nobody wanted to buy.
The Sundowner was the long-wheelbase version of the B2000.
This one is covered with clues that tell us a story about the final owner. “Hang Up and Drive” and Black Flag stickers plus a hand-painted mystical eyeball here.
Is there the requisite “KILL YOUR TELEVISION” sticker? Yes, here it is!
Here’s the 1,970cc F engine, which was good for 90 horses in 1984. Can you imagine Americans buying a pickup with just 90 horsepower today? That would be like asking us to turn down our thermostats in the winter!
This tough little truck is loaded for bear!
When you’ve got something this good, you take care of it.
Here’s the optioned-up SE-5. Sakes alive!
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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We had 2 of these as delivery vehicles at the auto parts store that I worked at in high school. Someone needed to take them home at night so they wouldn't get vandalized in the parking lot of the store. I'm not sure what they were thinking giving a HS kids the keys to a company truck. I took decent care of it I guess and it was able to withstand insane amounts of mechanical abuse.
Didn't sundowner have negative connotations? Like "my son... He's kinda a sundowner.. Got water on the brain"