My 1988 B2200 has finally died of rust and a worn out rear end. I am seeing a lot of Rangers available in my area, but a dearth of Mazda pickups. I have heard that the Rangers are equivalent to the Mazda B2200 pickups, but I am hunting for some feedback here on whether this is truly accurate (i.e that a Ranger will have the staying power of a B series). I look forward to hearing what you guys think. Thanks,

Andy

eh kinda. some guys are able to pull off body parts like the bed and bumper, but the engines are pretty different, even though they have 2.0's and 2.2's.
ford used a lot of mazda engineering like trannys , a guy could make a lot of good use of a ranger parts truck but it would take a little modding

i would think the rangers would have a little more power esp. if it a fuel injected engine, the b-series were very late with FI compared to other brands like toyota and all

From 1994 and on they are exactly the same truck. Through 1993, they were quite different, as far as I know. 1994 and after it was the B2300 (B3000, B4000) etc. I'm pretty sure that they didn't make a B2200 after 1993 (for North America).

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1992 B2200 Reg Cab Fuel Injected, full engine rebuild (Sold)
1993 B2200 Cab Plus - working on 5.0 V8, T5 5 Speed
2007 Infiniti G35X
2010 MazdaSpeed 3 (wife's toy)

FORD

The ford 2300 engine is a good engine, its been around since the early 70's as far as I know.

As for electronics, I dont trust ford, I have had two ford windstar vans that had one electrical problem after another, and they also had cylinder head trouble (v6 3.0)

This doesnt necesarily mean that the wiring in the rangers is bad, but once you get a bad taste in your mouth, you tend not to want to taste it again.
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MAZDA

The Mazda engine is weak in power compared to the ford, but you will get many more miles out of the Mazda engine, and better gas mileage.

1986 - 1993 Mazda B-series trucks are known for there dependability and longevity.

Parts for them may be quite high compared to a ford but they are worth it in my opinion.
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My 1989 B2200 Stereo Install

LOL...... no offense to Ford lovers.

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My 1989 B2200 Stereo Install

Personally I'd look at a 1st gen chevy s-10 over a ranger if you really can't find a decent b2200 in your area

The 1990s Rangers had AC compressors with strange engineering, something like teflon-coated pistons in them, which went bad and caused an extremely expensive to fox condition called black death. Also, Ford AC systems of that era used "better idea" spring-lock connections which tended to leak over time. I believe Ford either re-engineered those or junked those about 2000. Here in Arizona, we use the AC almost year round, so for me that's a #1 concern.

Personally - I could consider a 2000s Ranger someday if I could find one with manual transmission, as here in Arizona 86-93 B-trucks are pretty scarce, poor dealer representation here. But the ones that are here are rust-free !!! My friend still drives her original-owner '86, wih 107K miles.

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http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2334519/1

Hey Brian I know what you mean about those Ford minivans back in the mid 90's I had an aerostar that thing sucked! The engine over heated and the whole thing was pretty awful.

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1986 MAZDA B2000

Thanks a lot guys. It sounds like my best bet will be to wait awhile longer and see if an '88-'93 B2200 comes for sale around here.

yeah these are great trucks. they're fairly reliable and when something does go wrong, it's usually quite cheap to repair.

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89' White B2200, MS2 ECU and custom harness, 2.5" CAI, Pacesetter headers, 1 7/8" Header-back exhaust, Escalade Rims, Fully rebuilt F2 motor, Electric fan.

Are you on the east coast? I know it took me a few months to find a rust free b2000, they're rare around here

Besides my '88 Cab Plus daily driver, we also have a (sorry guys) a 1998 Nissan Frontier single cab. Both have like 165K miles on them, Arizona trucks, both 4 cylinder and manual transmissions. The Nissan isn't a bad truck at all; mine has like 50% more power than my B2200, and hasn't had the clutch and brake hydraulic issues that my B-truck has had. Even more important, I'm on my 4th AC compressor on my B2200 (R-12) and second AC evaporator, while the Frontier AC system (R134a) has never had a repair. The Frontier needed a starter, not the B2200, but B2200 needed two mechanical fuel pumps (2nd one free). The B2200 is a lot easier to work on in general than the Frontier.

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http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2334519/1

Now you've done it! That Nissan A/C is going to crap out on you now......unless you knocked on wood!

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It can be noted that many common problems on the mazda trucks can be remedied with more reliable alternatives. For example the mechanical fuel pump failures... save the headache and just install an electric one and you'll never have to worry about that again.

Personally if I was going for another truck I wouldn't buy anything other than a toyota, maybe an S10 only because of the massive amount of parts available.

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