Mazda BT-50
Posted by Robert Bright at 9:00AM on Friday 27 April, 2007 6 Comments
The new Mazda BT-50 pickup depresses me. There's nothing inherently wrong with the car itself; I'm sure in rural Greece, Hungary and Portugal where it reputedly sells well, it is a cause for unrestrained joy.
But here, in the UK, where the countryside is overrun with film crews making Jane Austen adaptations and retail parks the size of Luxembourg, it has no practical value whatsoever.
In fact, I'm finding it hard to see who in Britain it would be practical for. I can't think of why a tradesman like a plumber or carpenter would buy one, unless the whole four-door cabin set-up implies some Dickensian need to make use of his offspring as child labour.
But even then, having spent a day sending Tiny Tim down U-bends, he's still faced with the prospect of getting all his gear out of the back to avoid it being nicked.
The answer to why it's here, which you probably already know, is that Mazda wants to help those of us "seeking more adventurous lifestyles". By that they mean snowboarders, rock climbers and wind surfers, rather than people with a penchant for LSD and wife swapping.
All this is understandable. As soon as a manufacturer spies a hairs-breadth gap in the market, why not try to force a gigantic pickup through it using all of the marketing horseshit at their disposal? It's their job, and what's more, it seems to be working, with sales for pickups growing by about 30 per cent since 2001.
No doubt other cars would have sufficed well enough for those pursuing active lifestyles, but such vehicles don't ensure that everyone else knows about it, so what it really comes down to with the BT-50 is how you wear it.
I'm a bit of a traditionalist here; I work from the assumption that the only person who exudes authenticity in a pickup is dressed in greased overalls, has a thousand-yard stare and is clutching a bottle of Jim Beam.
Climbing into one with a Hoxton fin has the same cultural incongruity as doing karaoke in an Isle of Dogs pub and insisting on the libretto from Puccini's Madame Butterfly.
Pickups like this belong in America (even if they are Japanese), driving hundreds of miles along the barren, arrow-straight roads of Arizona, not the cramped backstreets of London. The driver alone spends every 5 minutes folding in the dinner plate-sized wing mirrors, while the 4WD gear stick becomes little more than an ornamental curiosity.
Think cheerleaders at cricket matches; it really isn't done.
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6 Comments for "Mazda BT-50"
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Well I live in Texas, and nobody would be caught dead with such a tiny truck. They like their Ford F150's wide, not Ford Ranger skinny.
More importantly, everybody has a truck cover, either a cheap $300 soft cover or a $1000 locking hinged hard cover.
I live in Portugal and I disagree that this pickup is suitable for the "rural" Portuguese countryside.
Hilux and L200 pickups are more like it, although even they're being replaced by XC90s, Cayennes and Discos...Guess that "rural" isn't what it used to be, at least in my country.
There you go again using that word 'gigantic'. It's bloody tiny.
I'm with Martin on this one - I can't see many people stateside wanting to swap their Dodge Ram, Ford F-Series or Chevy Silverado for one of these underpowered, cramped tin boxes.
I personally enjoy double cab vehicles.
Once 'specced' up, they offer great value for money against XC 90's etc, without compromising too much. Hilux is still the best, though.
With the reputation of the Hilux, the looks and practicality of the Navara and the unbeatable off-road ability of the Defender to compete with, this Mazda seems to be sinking in a market already flooded with very good alternatives.
The concept of the double cab pick-up is one that I like very much, but there are 3 or 4 others I'd go for before even considering this.
Come on Mazda, is this really the best you can do?
Double cab pick-ups do have a real world application, that is... sending a work crew to a site along with all kinds of junk in the bed and back, instead of TWO vehicles and TWO drivers.
And when surrounded by single cab trucks and the prospect of three passengers slammed together and testing his or her intimacy threshold, double cab trucks offer limo-like comfort to those forced to ride these dynamically incomprehensible dinosaurs.