This gorgeous specimen of a compact pickup, spotted in Old Japanese Car Heaven (formerly known as Washington state) by Eric Clem, was impossible to overlook. Looking so lean and clean, it’s prettier in its unassuming shade of blue than its designers ever intended.
Just to boost its American car credentials, it’s been decorated with a replica (I assume) of a 1976 Gerald Ford/Bob Dole campaign sticker. Actually, this is more of a call-out to its historical context, since the protectionism spurned by the GOP made trucks like this rebadged Mazda a necessity. It’s also very appropriate for a car from Washington state, whose electoral votes went to Ford that year.
Mazda, at any rate, really could have benefitted from greater direct sales of its pickup in the states after their gas guzzling fortunes collapsed in the wake of the fuel crisis. It’s a miracle that they survived the dark period which followed and their continued viability today hasn’t come without a lot of blood, sweat and tears. So its to the truck’s owner’s credit that this rolling piece of Mazda’s heritage continues to charm onlookers approximately forty years later.
Related reading:
Time Warp 75 Mazda B1800, 75 Mazda Rotary Pickup: One Of A Kind, 76 Ford Courier: Second Toughest Mini-Pickup?
That sticker has an another interpretation here in oz, ‘dole’ being another word for unemployment benefits.
And ford being one of the two must popular brands commonly associated with dole recipients.
not everyone can afford to repair a v-dud
This is one of the vehicles on my must-have list! Liked these ever since I was a kid. Good looks, fun to drive, and reliable!
B1600 Mazda not bad little utes they go ok and as long as you replace the timing chain regularly will keep going, many of these were on the NZ govts fleet back in the day most made the 100k sell by date without rusting away.
No one could ever accuse LBJ and Walter Reuther of being Republicans…..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax
On another note, my Dad had a ’74 Courier. It was identical to this one except it was pea green and had a camper shell. Somehow he survived eight years worth of commutes in Houston with no a/c in that thing. Typical of ’70s Japanese vehicles, it was mechanically bulletproof yet managed to rust even in a place with no snow and salt. He traded it for a new ’83 Ranger (with a/c of course) as soon as they hit the market in the spring of ’82.
That’s not what I said. What I said was that the tax made the rebadges necessary. Hence, the support for Ford/Dole.
Also, Houston sans A/C sounds just awful. I drove an ’82 LUV diesel with a cracked manifold and broken power steering (not manual steering) during a Columbus, OH August. No fun.
The only things that made summer bearable in the Courier were the huge (big enough to put your forearm through) fresh air ducts under each side of the dash.
Another of the Courier’s (and I’m assuming other Mazdas of the era) quirks was the unique sound of the turn signal flasher relay….BRRRRRRAAAAAP-ticktick-ticktick-ticktick-ticktick. At the time Dad had a 14′ jonboat and with the trailer lights connected the BRRRRRRAAAAAP sound was about four times longer and the signal sometimes wouldn’t start flashing. A heavy duty flasher from a Mazda dealer (for whatever reason Ford didn’t have it in their parts system) solved that problem.
So few remember those 1970’s Japanese turn signal flashers , yes they were very noisy and Datsun used them too ~ one of those niggly little things I always hunt down and install when putting an oldie back on the road again .
-Nate
At the risk of further pushing this discussion (partly) in a political direction, I don’t understand what the tax had to do with either this truck being rebadged or with the Republican party. To my knowledge — someone please correct me if this is wrong — the tax applied to all imports regardless of badging. I don’t think it made any difference that this truck was badged as a Ford as opposed to a Mazda. Also, as Mark alluded to, the chicken tax was created by an Executive Order issued by a Democratic president, as part of a deal made with union leadership (a key Democratic constituency), and with what I’m guessing was probably bipartisan support. No administration/Congress since then, of either party, has seen fit to repeal it. I guess you could say that protectionism in general is more of a Republican thing than a Democratic thing, but using the chicken tax to make that point would seem to be a bit of stretch.
See http://news.pickuptrucks.com/2014/04/current-negotiations-could-end-chicken-tax.html for an article speculating on a possible end to the chicken tax in the near future and what it might mean for the U.S. pickup market. The Courier — or at least the Ranger — could make a comeback.
I said in the article that the protectionism spurned by the GOP made rebadges a necessity. The implication being that, without a chicken tax, buyers of compact trucks would’ve had more options. I was mostly being playful, and realize it probably had some bipartisan support, being a relatively minor issue.
What was done to circumvent the tax, was to import the Courier or LUV in nearly completed state, sans bed, and then assemble them here in the US. Though that loophole closed in 1980.
I think I didn’t explain myself very fully in the article, since it seems everyone’s confused.
That’s an ex-UW truck. You can see the spot on the door where the insignia was. I used to see these all over campus when I was a UW gardener and then student in the ’80s. Always liked them even though they weren’t my fave mini by any stretch.
A 76 of this exact color was my first car. The subject is earlier than 76 – on the 76s the back of the cab was rounded, not crimped like this. For 77 they changed the front clip quite a bit, but the cab was the same.
I got mine in 83 with 60k on it. The driver’s floor and both rocker panels were completely rusted out, but I fixed the floorwith kydex, fiberglas and pop rivets and the rockers with expanding foam and duct tape, and drove it for another 50k. It started every time, even at 30 below 0 f. The only thing to go wrong was idle solenoid in the carb, which caused massive backfires on deceleration when it failed.
When I bought it it had two different sized tires on the front, but they were the same brand and model so I didn’t notice until I replaced them for odd tire wear. Needless to say it handled better after that!
Based on past discussion here, the change in the cab apparently happened during the 1976 model year as a running change:
There is some discussion of this in an earlier CC on the Courier:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1976-ford-courier-the-second-toughest-mini-pickup/
Paul: “…let’s stick to the first gen, which ran from 1971 through 1976. And even in those years, there were some differences. The biggest being a couple of inches of precious length added to the cab, behind the rear window…That happened in 1976, in anticipation of the slightly more revised gen2, which got a new front end to go with the longer cab.”
Billy Rockfish: “Early ’76′s did have the flat rear cab as did my ’74 – the mid year “B” trucks came out with that slight extension.”
I had one of these once, exact same colour. I couldn’t kill it. Great truck.
My first truck was white with red stripes in this model/style. Bought it from a diver who taught me (the hard way) to pull up any foam mats in the bed to inspect more thoroughly. Wound up with a lot of wood in the bed thanks to his salt water.
Tough truck. Also had a bunch of rotary trucks running around the island (Guam) while I was there. Bunch of them were retrofitted with this same engine. Less trouble. Even saw some RX7s with piston engines and wondered what the point was. Just buy a GLC.
This exact trucklet was what my ex Father In Law saw when we were going to the junkyard one fine spring day , he just *had* to have it and for $800 didn’t even mind it has a leaky master cylinder .
Impossible to kill and he tried *very* hard .
-Nate
I love 70’s Japanese mini trucks, despite being a little cramped on the inside. I think these Couriers are my favorite looking of the bunch, and the front end echoes the F100 of the same vintage nicely.
The rocker panel dents are interesting, wonder what happened?
The green on white HK-prefix truck plate dates from approximately 1973 – that and the fact that there’s no front plate made me think that he’s running it as a year-of-manufacture plate. And if it was originally a UW truck as mentioned above, it would have carried state exempt plates until sold, then plates from whatever year UW turned loose of it, which would likely have been a lot newer than the truck. So that plate, although it’s the right year, couldn’t have been original to the truck.