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Mazda B Series Pick Up Truck Road TestProduced By Peter Grunert
Pluses: A no-nonsense old school pick up with great load space
and a strong towing capacity, plus a few car-like comforts too.
Minuses: Others offer more style and presence, plus a longer
list of convenience features. ABS should be standard across the range.
Pick Up Trucks Direct Rating: Hugely popular outside the UK but not
nearly so common here, the B-Series offers a convincing blend of
practical virtues. Pulling Power
 It’s often said that in London, you’re never more than four feet from a rat – you just may not realise that it’s scuttling through the rafters above, or the sewers below. In a sense the same could be said for the Mazda B-Series pick up. Over three million of these discrete workhorses have been sold worldwide, though you’d never know it.
Mazda is a sister company to Ford and the crossover of technology and investment between the two can be seen in the Thai factory where the B-Series is made alongside the Ford Ranger, a pick-up that it shares its chassis and engines with.
As a result you get a choice of 2.5-litre four-cylinder diesels, the (very) basic version with 83bhp and 144lb ft of torque, the top turbocharged alternative with a quite vocal but effective 108bhp and 196lb ft. As with the Ranger, upgrades are scheduled for Autumn ’06, with a new engine coming that will deliver 143bhp and 243lb ft.
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Toughing It Out
 With so many B-Series trucks pounding the potholes of roads across the globe, Mazda has long experience of designing suspension that’s built to last. The current B-Series comes fitted with a simple but rugged arrangement of independent double wishbones with torsion bars at the front and a live axle with leaf springs at the rear.
As with the Ford Ranger, this is a lighter-feeling, more car-like, easier pick up to position on the road than its specification and traditional appearance could at first suggest.
There’s a choice of rear-wheel drive or four-wheel drive models and the latter make a good choice for towing duties over tricky terrain. On offer here is the ability to switch between two and four-wheel drive, with high and low ratio gears and the traction-enhancing back up of a limited-slip differential. Not ground breaking, but all well proven kit.
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The Wide Open Spaces
 While the likes of the Mitsubishi L200 and Nissan Navara continue to push the boundaries between swanky SUV and hard-working tool, the Mazda B-Series retains an unashamed focus on practicality above all else.
There are two bodystyles, a two-seater single-cab and a full five-seater double cab. The single-cab has an excellent, square sided cargo space, capable of consuming objects up to a generous 2,280mm in length. Even the double cab beats some of the comparable competition with a maximum load length of 1,530mm. The loadbay on both features useful rope hooks, mounted externally on the single-cab and internally on the double-cab.
Maximum payloads rank as 1,180kg for the single-cab and 1,135kg for the double-cab. Braked towing capacity is dead-on two tonnes for the rear-wheel drive models and an excellent 2,800kg for the four-wheel drive versions.
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In For The Long Run
 Clamber inside a B-Series and you’ll find a pick up that’s taking its first tentative steps away from a regular working vehicle. The dials are blue-faced and there are silver accents on the dashboard.
The top Barracuda-spec model has had more of the Trinnie and Susannah treatment, with an image makeover that sees the addition of chromed door mirrors, outer door handles, side steps and rear bumper, along with a set of alloys. Barracuda trim also features anti-lock brakes (note, the only version currently to get this safety feature) and, unusually for a pick up, a keyless entry system. Air con is standard on all four-wheel drive B-Series models, while options are restricted to metallic paint and leather.
Not entirely surprisingly, Mazda has made efforts to mirror the Ford Ranger’s after-sales package. Included with the B-Series’ price is a full three year, 60,000-mile warranty and three years’ cross-European breakdown back-up.
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Nissan Navara
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Ford
Ranger
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Mitsubishi
L200
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Toyota
Hilux
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Isuzu
Rodeo
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Mazda B Series
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Land Rover
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Nissan NP300
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Tippers
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