At $8,750, Is This 1984 Mazda B2000 A Small Truck That's A Big Value?
The reason given for the sale of today’s Nice Price or No Dice Mazda B2000 is that it is a redundant member of the present owner’s stable. Let’s see if its condition and price will make it worth adding to a new owner’s collection.
A reputation is a hard thing to shake. Just ask the kid that has to live through high school after getting pantsed and having everyone get a look at the skid marks on his tighty-whities. In the case of last Friday’s 2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia Ti, the reputation for unreliability — both of the model and the dealer network that supports it — drove some serious trepidation on its purchase, even though, at $22,900, it was more than half-off its original MSRP. That low price couldn’t overcome the fear and loathing related to Alfa ownership and as a result, the car fell in a 59 percent No Dice loss.
So, there used to be this old guy who went by the name Macdonald, and this dude, Macdonald, had a farm. And on this farm, he had two trucks which were proving to be a problem since no matter what old Macdonald did they just took up too much space. It was truck-truck here and truck-truck there, here a truck, there a truck, everywhere a truck-truck. And don’t get me started about Macdonald’s multiple Tuk-Tuks.
A similar problem has befallen the seller of today’s 1984 Mazda B2000 pickup. It seems that after driving the little truck all the way across the country from Sacramento, California to New York’s picture-postcard Hudson River Valley, the seller discovered that they already owned a Toyota pickup that’s a near-perfect clone of the Mazda. Happens all the time.
That realization has put the Mazda in play and so today we’re going to see how it plays at its set price.
As most of us know, the B2000 was Mazda’s little truck best known for siring the Ford Courier, an offshoot that proved far more popular owing to Ford’s larger sales and service network and advertising budget. The B2000 is pretty much the same truck with just a slightly different grille and a change to the name embossed on the tailgate. An earlier iteration also begat a rotary-powered edition which we know of as the REPU (Rotary Engine Pickup). No such edition of this generation was offered, however.
Instead, this truck sports a 1970 cc SOHC four with 89 horsepower and 109 lb-ft of torque. That all-aluminum mill gets backed up by a five-speed stick which in turn drives the cart-sprung live rear axle. According to the seller, the truck recently drove all the way from California to New York with nary a hiccup, and claims “If that isn’t an endorsement I don’t know what is.”
Now that it’s in its new home it’s proving to be redundant and so off it goes. The ad claims this to be a three-owner truck that once spent time on an almond farm in California’s verdant Central Valley. That makes it a unique beast in the Northeast as it’s rust-free and likely doesn’t suffer from its horn being worn out from over-use.
Aesthetically, the truck shows its age and its 183,000-miles through worn paint and a bench seat that requires not one but two covers to mask its shame. There’s also something weird going on with the passenger interior door handle as it wears some sort of patch around it. Another issue is the clever if alarming cut-out in the dash serving as a cup holder that we should also acknowledge.
Other than those oddities, it looks like you couldn’t go wrong with a truck like this. The seller claims it to have passed both California and New York emissions tests (spoiler alert: there pretty much the same) and to have recently refreshed its brake pads and all the fluids. On the downside, while the truck does have A/C, the ad says that it isn’t working at the moment, but the seller assures us that it “just needs to be hooked up.” Um-hum.
The spiffy Bronco bed cap comes along with the truck and not only does its paint match the Mazda but it comes with a working key lock as well. Finally, the title is clean and the truck wears whitewall tires which are classy AF.
What might one spend for such a well-kept and seemingly still-kicking little pickup? Especially someone used to the rust buckets that are the norm in the Northeast? The seller is asking $8,750 for the right to the title and you now need to decide if they should get it.
What’s your take on this B2000 and that $8,750 price tag? Does that seem like a deal for what’s apparently an extra truck? Or, is that price a little too extra for your taste?
You decide!
Hudson Valley, New York, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to five-on-the-floor for the hookup!
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