The greatest unheralded heroes in the automotive world are hiding in plain sight. With Fords, we can talk about Mustangs and Taurus all day long, but there are many lesser-known products that did hard work without anyone giving them due credit. One Ford that fits this description wasn’t really even a Ford, but it was a key player for the blue oval and was everywhere back in the day. Let’s revisit the Ford Courier and some of the odd and even unfathomable appearances it made in everyday Malaise life.
If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em
The larger-than-life Henry Ford II was known for being outspoken and a bit obstinate in many ways during his time at the helm of his namesake company back in the sixties and seventies. One reported example of this was when bone-in-his-throat subordinates Lee Iacocca and Hal Sperlich suggested buying engines from Honda to put into a world-beating Ford subcompact. “No car with my name on it is going to have a (slur deleted) engine under the hood” was all that “Hank the Deuce” bellowed out. Despite this perhaps apocryphal but feels-true anecdote, there very much was a Japanese product made during Henry II’s era with Ford branding all over it, but it wasn’t a car.
In 1958, Nissan (then called Datsun) launched a small pickup truck in America to a rather indifferent market. By the late sixties, however, Datsun and Toyota sales were too strong for American car makers to ignore, particularly in southern California. By now, it was a bit too late for a company like Ford to start from scratch with a competitive product, so the only option was to collaborate with the enemy. Ford saw that Japanese firm Toyo Kogyo (Mazda) had something called the B series pickup truck, sold in America with a 1600cc motor.
Notice how the brochure described it as the “piston engined” truck since Mazda was still selling the ill-fated Rotary model at this time as well.
Ford decided that a badge-engineered version of this truck would be just the trick and launched what they named the Courier in 1972, a name they unearthed from their old sedan utilities. Incidentally, that was the same year that rival Chevrolet did the same thing with a badge-engineered version of an Isuzu pickup that they called the LUV (Light Utility Vehicle, get it?). The Courier gave Ford exactly what they needed for seemingly as little effort as possible.
Ford’s version of the Mazda featured a 1.8-liter four with 74 horsepower; a step up from the 1.6 offered in the Japanese-branded models. You got a 1400-pound payload rating, great fuel economy, and a low starting price of only $2,200 (about $17,000 in today’s money, so basically a Slate truck). To get to that price, Ford needed to circumvent the so-called “Chicken Tax” that had been put into place to protect American brands but was now biting them in the ass. The trick was for Ford to import the Mazda trucks to the U.S. without the beds in place, resulting in only a 4% tax versus the standard 25% rate applied to imported small commercials.
The thing was hardly lavish, but you got a full set of gauges and vinyl-trimmed door panels inside. An automatic transmission and even air conditioning were available. Over the years, it’s amazing how little Ford did as far as year-to-year changes on the little truck, with the exception of a 3-inch increase to the cabin length to accommodate Egg McMuffin-fed Americans and a five-speed manual option in 1976. You can see that they were starting to get more brazen with the Ford logos on this thing.
For 1977, the Courier received a major refresh with a more angular body design. As an option, you could now get the ubiquitous 2.3-liter “Pinto” engine with a whopping 88 horsepower.
And for 1978, Ford moved the turn signals from the bumper to a space in the grille. After just one year! I bet you’re hyperventilating now, right?
The smaller, standard motor was now a two-liter that really sipped the gas, didn’t it? I thought that these were just unexciting workaday machines back in the day, but there are some things about them you might not be aware of.
Cute Haul
Importing a truck with absolutely nothing behind the cab actually has some advantages if you aren’t interested in putting a standard bed on it. Attention Jason Torchinsky: Look, yet another turn signal location Ford tried!
There were two different bed and frame lengths to choose from as well.
For truck rental agencies like U-Haul, that made the Courier perfect for conversion to a tiny box truck to complement their line of larger Ford F-Series-based products. Boy, was it small.
Mercedes Streeter has written about this one before, but the mini-mover debuted in 1978 on the revised second-generation Courier.
The cargo box on back was a mere six and half feet long and under six feet tall; barely enough for a Manhattan-sized starter apartment.
After the Courier disappeared from Ford’s lineup, Toyota stepped in with Hilux-chassis moving trucks with bigger, more usable boxes on the back. But they weren’t as cute as the Courier.
Ford By Four
Couriers might have been everywhere in the seventies, but they rarely ever made an appearance on backwoods trails. That’s because, despite showing images of Couriers on dirt with trail bikes in back, the one thing that Ford never tried to explore was the four-wheel-drive off-road mini truck market. Even Chevrolet offered a four-by-four edition of their Isuzu LUV to go head-to-head with Datsun and Toyota, but Ford was content with their pickup being a rear-drive-only proposition.
Not everyone was happy about that. A firm called Northwest A.T.V. in Kelso, Washington created something that they creatively called the 4WD “Courier Sasquatch.”
These were fitted with a Dana Spicer two-speed transfer case sending power to a solid front axle to run alongside the other Japanese off-roaders.
Reportedly, around 1500 of these off-road capable Couriers were sold along the west coast of the U.S., but Dearborn never felt the need to make an in-house version over the life of the truck. I’d buy a Sasquatch for the name alone.
It’s Electric, Boogie Oogie Oogie
The compact electric American pickup is not a new thing. We’ve written about an electric S-10 from a few decades ago, but the idea goes back even further to the early eighties.
A company in Texas called Jet Industries converted a number of different cars, trucks, and vans to primitive lead-acid battery power in this era of high fuel prices. You can see the wide variety of products they converted from Dodge Omni 024 sport coupes to full-sized Dodge vans and even a compact Kei van called the Ada, which our buddies over at the Lane Museum have an example of, and I know our Mercedes Streeter would buy if it came on the market.
Reports vary, but one of their dealers claimed that they converted upwards of 1400 electric vehicles before going belly up by the mid-eighties when gas prices killed the interest in such compromised alternative transportation.
The small pickup entry was the ElectraVan 750. Calling it an “American” EV truck might be a bit of a misnomer, since it was based on a Mazda-built Courier. With a 30-horsepower motor, it likely wasn’t a rocket ship, but the compact truck didn’t weigh much to start with, so it probably worked as an urban commuter and even something to carry larger loads. Well, larger if not exactly heavier loads.
Top speed was around 70 mph, but you’d have to go slower to get the full 50 to 60 miles of range on a full charge. Unverified sources state that at least 90 were sold (primarily to government agencies) between 1979 and 1982.
The Miracle Truck
On a stormy, near-zero-visibility morning in 1980, a massive freighter hit the base of the massive and skyscraper-tall Sunshine Skyway bridge in Florida. The collision caused the road surface of one full span to fall into Tampa Bay, far below.
It must have been a terrifying experience for Wesley MacIntire, a D-Day veteran who was on his way to work in his Ford pickup when he felt the road disappear from under him. His truck fell 140 feet, ricocheting off the side of the tanker that hit the bridge before going into the drink. MacIntire was able to get himself free and swim to the surface, the only survivor of all the drivers who tragically fell.
It turns out that Wes’s “Ford truck” was actually a Japanese Courier. Click here and you’ll see him standing next to the wrecked neo-Mazda that he reportedly wanted to “fix up” after it was pulled from the bottom of Tampa Bay.
When the remaining span of the other side of the old Skyway was demolished years later, MacIntire was the last one to drive across it. I don’t think he did the drive in the Courier, but based on that photo, it appears it could have been relatively easy to get the tough, now-roofless little truck to at least start again.
It Sure Wasn’t Lords Of Dogtown
One of the oddest appearances of a Courier is in the 1989 film Gleaming The Cube, the Citizen Kane of cheesy skateboard movies that gets a whopping 23/100 on Rotten Tomatoes. It stars shredding king Tony Hawk and Christian Slater before we all came to our senses and realized that his Temu Jack Nicholson act was too annoying to watch on screen.
In this epic turd, there is a scene where the skateboarders surround a Ford Courier that is doing duty as a Pizza Hut delivery vehicle. We can surmise that it’s doing this task because the little Mazda-in-disguise has a scaled-down Pizza Hut/Stuckey’s-shaped roof stuck on top of the cab.
I am extremely old and was very much alive during this time period and do not remember seeing such pickups prowling the streets. I did some internet sleuthing and cannot find any other appearances of such customized delivery Couriers outside of this flick, which was shamefully shut out of the Oscars by Driving Miss Daisy.
Am I missing something? Do any other Pizza Hut Couriers exist, even regionally?
If you know any facts about this spectacular pickup, please share! Skateboarding is not a crime, man!
Ford F****g Ranger!
The Courier was dropped after 1982 when Ford came up with their own domestically made compact pickup, the Ranger. Wow, that only took you what, twelve years, Ford?
As you can see from the ad for an ’81 below, they did very little to change the Courier near the end. Mazda’s version soldiered on alone as the B-series. If you bought the Mazda version, there was an ultra-efficient diesel engine option that the Ford-badged truck never got.
In some ways, you could call the Courier a stopgap, but that seems a bit of a misnomer, since Ford sold it for twelve years before offering an American-built replacement. One of the bigger contributions the Courier made was to begin the Ford and Mazda partnership that ended up becoming a much bigger thing as time went on and resulted in some great cars like Miata-powered Escorts and the awesome Probe GT.
In retrospect, a Japanese-made Ford might have been one of the best products to ever bear a Blue Oval logo. Maybe that’s just what Henry Ford II was afraid of.
Top graphic image: Ford
Recall seeing a Courier running around my old high school in the early ’90s
I’ve owned an early 70s Courier, a LUV, and a Datsun 620 and the Mazda/Ford was far and away the best built truck. It was solid, drove nicely, and just seemed well thought out for a compact pickup. That said, the LUV was my favorite. It had a tiny bit more pep and looked terrific. I miss that truck all the time.
Couple thoughts:
Why would anyone spend (presumably) big bucks for a bespoke 4WD conversion on a Courier, when thy could buy a 4×4 “off the shelf” from Toyota, Datsun, or Chevy?
It’s true that Ford didn’t offer a Diesel Courier, but by the time Mazda was putting Diesels in the B-series trucks, Ford was installing the exact same Mazda Diesel engines in the Ranger.
Do I have to explain the power of brand loyalty again?
Even the most loyal of Ford loyalists could see this wasn’t a Ford.
Yes they could but it’s still easier to rationalize the purchase because of that badge on the grill.
Those are first gen Couriers, 1972-6. The factory 4wd Luv and Toyota didn’t come onto the market until 1979 and the Datsun in 1980.
The Ford/Mazda dance continued for decades. Outside of the Americas Ford sold rebadged Mazdas as Couriers and later Rangers. Here in the US Mazda sold a restyled Ranger as the B series for about 10 years. Then everything converged with the BT-50 generation which was a joint product of Ford Australia and Mazda, and was sold in the US as the new Ranger. As a final convergence, the current Mazda B series is a rebadged Isuzu D Max, descended from the Chevy LUV.
I rode a Courier U-Haul once but my experience is with the later generations. The late 80s B2200 extended cab was a great little runabout
I know a guy who had a few old Couriers, including two Sasquatches IIRC, but sadly he lost them in a wildfire a few years ago.
Nice Lords of Dogtown reference. It was filmed in a sleepy little corner of San Diego where I grew up.
Might you be thinking of this one?
https://live.staticflickr.com/454/19465992252_c1c64842ff_c.jpg
I believe his other one was light blue. Quite a bit was lost in that fire.
Yep, you know Pete.
Incidentally? I’m sure corporate espionage was alive and well back then.
…now I want that blue Sasquatch. But with triple Predator carbs sticking through the hood. And “SASQUATCH” on the doors in big chrome-effect block letters.
Since…y’know…the other Ford pickups named like the same cryptid.
To be the only survivor of the 36 people that fell into Tampa Bay, somebody was definitely watching over Wesley MacIntire. But then I read that he was the only survivor from his landing craft on D-Day, and had also been involved in multiple accidents during his trucking career. Survival instincts indeed.
You ever see that movie Unbreakable?
“There is a sole survivor, and he is miraculously unharmed.”
When I watched it, waiting for the M. Night Twist ™, I thought Mr. Glass was somehow going to steal his invulnerability.
After reading the article, I found it interesting (and sad) that his greatest PTSD was from surviving the bridge tragedy, not D-Day, truck accidents, etc.
The article is a harrowing tale but sympathetic. I hope we have improved in our response to PTSD. I remember my grandfather also had been at D-Day and he hardly moved much from his rocker chair and he was about this gents age which by today’s standards isn’t even that old. I believe he was similarly impacted.
Dad bought a 1978 Courier XLT longbed 5 speed brand-new off the lot to replace the big and slow 1973 F100 Custom which was a horrendous yellow and brown two-tone combo.
The Courier was white with a red interior – he had AC and the big swing-away mirrors added like the lead photo. Once he bought it home the first thing he did was remove the huge “Courier XLT” badges on the sides – so ever after it had a few holes in the fenders where the badges used to be.
It was a good little truck – and the first vehicle I attempted to learn to drive a manual transmission in.
It was sold when my family left California after Dad was transferred to the Azores.
Curious – did your dad say why he removed the Courier XLT badges?
IIRC, when he brought it home he washed it and dried it, put on new seat covers, floor mats and a steering wheel cover. When he was done there was water trapped behind the badges which kept dripping out – so he removed them as a preventative measure against rust.
OK. Thanks for sharing the background reason.
Did your family enjoy living in The Azores? A retired coworker is from there and now spends half the year there and half in California.
Think you intended to ask your question of Urban Runabout. Maybe ‘Reply’ to their first comment in this thread?
Yeah, that what I meant to do, tried again.
Did your family enjoy living in The Azores? A retired coworker is from there and now spends half the year there and half in California.
They did enjoy it quite a bit –
I tried to get them to settle there in retirement which they decided against (and now regret that decision) – Now I’d like to have a place there or on mainland Portugal.
For articles like these I dont want to sell my 2009 Ford Ranger, when you own a small truck that is no longer in the market size wise (Only the Maverick but the bed is way smaller), the few times I actually use it for truck stuff, its amazing. Its mostly sitting right now thanks to gas prices but Home Depot runs = driving my f ranger.
My 03 S10 with a 6’ bed appreciates your commentary
I need that Pizza Hut truck. The Pizza Hut roof on it is amazing
Anyone know if any Pizza Huts actually has such a vehicle? I don’t ever recall seeing one in person and Pizza Hut was definitely a presence in out town.
No, it was made for the movie so they could use it jump and do tricks. I do wish it had been real tho…
Since I’m a person who does things with their hands, fixes stuff, keeps a garden, etc., every time I start looking for a car the people around me just assume I’d want a truck. They are always surprised with how emphatically I reject the idea. “I don’t like pickup trucks,” I say. That is a lie. I don’t like today’s trucks, but I love little trucks like these and would love to see small trucks make a comeback. I’m not towing car haulers and I don’t want to have to deploy a staircase just to reach in the bed to grab a skilsaw.
Reminds me I need to ask to borrow my neighbor’s small utility trailer (they must be registered and plated here in PA). I need to get some sheet material and I’ve found tying to the roof racks less than ideal.
As far as I know you have a massive truck that won’t even fit in your garage but can’t even haul a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood because it only has a 5 foot bed so you have to resort to borrowing your neighbors trailer, I’m sure a common scenario these days.
No, a Camry Hybrid, Corolla and an older Highlander with a class 3 hitch. Sheet won’t fit inside and sheet on roof racks is a no go on the highway. Last pickup I considered buying was an ’89 F150 last fall.
Yes I replaced my small trucks with a utility trailer decades ago. I probably would not go back.
My boss has one, I use it frequently when I don’t want to get the interior of my V60 all dirty or something won’t fit, but I wouldn’t if they still made small trucks.
It is strange how people are ok with expensive crossovers and suvs and somehow say trailers are unattainable. They start at $500 new.
I think a lot of them just don’t want to admit they can’t back a trailer or they overestimate how difficult it is and are afraid to try.
Learning is “commie liberal satanic stuff” these days. I think your are correct.
We can’t have too much learning or people might realize that these big corporations would be perfectly fine with things like having our children lose limbs maintaining their factory machines and they would actually love to go back to those “great American” times given the opportunity. Generations of people were raised on cold war era propaganda where they were taught how we became a perfect nation, beyond reproach, and to suggest otherwise would be just plain anti American.
WELL SAID!!
It’s not difficult at all. A 4×8 utility trailer at about 11 feet tip to tail is certainly more difficult to back than a larger trailer the first few times. Hint: it’s what empty parking lots are for! It’s nowhere near needing superhuman tier trailer backing skills like backing a 53 foot trailer uphill with inches of clearance on either side. Even a mere mortal like myself can back a small trailer adequately.
You need a modern pick up truck but too small of a bed that has automatic backup capabilities for trailers.
Trailer are cheap but take up room.
The last house I rented had a 20 x 24 foot driveway. If you had a RV, boat or trailer you were paying minimum $200 a month for storage because they were not allow per HOA rules.
Not everyone has a boat and an RV, if they do then a truck is fine
You completely missed the point. The HOA bans trailers. You cannot park a trailer in the driveway or on the street.
Anyone that owns a trailer has to pay to park it at a storage yard. The closest one is 7 miles away and charges hundreds of dollars per month. That makes trailer ownership less than appealing as an alternative to a truck that can be parked in the driveway.
A pox on the HOA’s! I have my camper in the driveway and a Seadoo on a pad next to the driveway. Other neighbors have campers and boats in their driveways too. There’s nothing wrong with that. Checked to see if the HOA president also owns the storage yard nearby? It’s been known to happen.
My solution was to not buy a house in that neighborhood. I’m 3 blocks south in an older development with no HOA. Never been a fan of HOAs but that particular one was crazy. Rules on types of bushes, percentage of yard that had to be grass, types of grass, mandatory to water the grass in a place that doesn’t get rain for months, approved colors for houses ……
HOA’s have an interesting and dark history.
I agree. I don’t hate trucks, just the oversized thirsty can’t-fit-in-a-garage pedestrian smashers. I wouldn’t even mind THOSE if there weren’t so damn many of them.
I like the Ford, but I LUV the Chevy.
It’s so adorable, I love it.
“Courier” would be a great name for Ford to bring back, especially since they didn’t use it for the Maverick.
Was thinking the same, maybe the new small EV trucklet.
Ford has used the name a lot outside the US initially for newer versions of the rebadged Mazda pickup and later for a,Fiesta based van and finally a Brazilian unit body pickup
I remember the Fiesta-based van! 🙂
Somebody should make a little 1-2-3 trucklet like these and sell them today in the U.S.
1 row of seats
2 doors
3 pedals.
Best we can do is 3 rows, 2 pedals, and the top of the cabin lifts up on a single big complicated hinge assembly for all occupants to access at the same time.
Hey, don’t give Elon any more crazy ideas!
I think the Slate is the closest thing to what you are describing. I grew up with 3 pedals and continued to drive them until I started to have to commute in traffic. After a while a clutch just was not much fun crawling along in stop and go traffic. Now I’m 100% EV.
I’m really interested in the Slate. Not enough to put down a deposit yet until I learn more about two concerns that I have.
1.) What kind of warranty are they going to offer on corrosion resistance? I live in the rust belt and my town dumps tons of salt on the roads every year.
2.) Will it be ownable and drive-able without me being forced to use an app? I enjoy a nice relaxing life without a smart-phone and I really don’t want to have to buy one and pay a subscription to use one just so I can drive an electric pickup.
It looks like they swapped in the grille & headlights from the Ford Escort
Actually it reminds me more of a Fairmont.
My father had one of these when I was learning how to drive. It had an after market A/C and was a five speed. Sometimes the solenoid that was use to idle up the engine when the A/C was on would not work correctly resulting in a lowered idle speed. There was a railroad crossing near where we lived. One night as I was driving and dad was in the passenger seat we rolled up to the crossing which was elevated. There was a train coming and as I had watched my parents in their automatic equipped cars, I tried to beat the oncoming train. I let out of the clutch too fast the engine stalled and the courier had enough momentum to die on the top of the hump that was the railroad crossing. Front axle on the top of the hump and side rear axle on the bottom with the train bearing down on us! I panicked and started clawing for the door handle in the dark of the truck. The Mazda designed recessed door handle was not going to be found. My father grabbed me by the shoulder and yelled “push in the clutch pedal!” i did and we rolled backwards just in time to miss the train… We went home and never told mom. He had a beer and i had a coke. He suggested that I never do that again. Come to think about it now the dumb things I did as a kid my have been the reason he kept drinking more and more but he was a terriffic dad and I would not be where i am today without his imparted knowledge.
I had a yellow plastic Ford Courier toy truck with racing stripes when I was a wee tot. I can still remember the smell and the weird plastic residue that those types of toys had back then. It got a lot of use, along with the generic, plastic “red station wagon” and “blue sedan” that probably came from Woolworth’s.
I had the Mazda B2000 in ’84 trim. Sundowner Sport LE. Bucket seats! Carpet! It was lavish compared to the base models. It was actually one of the best pickup trucks I owned due to size and durability, but lacked power to the point of being no fun at times, such as being limited to 50 mph on an expressway due to headwinds, while being passed by everything else at 75mph.
That Pizza the Hat truck looks vaguely racist.
I wasn’t thinking that until you said it. I get where you come from on it. I just see the iconic Pizza Hut roof on the, er, roof.
“Yo, dawg, I heard you like roofs, so we put a roof on your roof…”
Hey The Bishop, you could always buy a Ford Bronco with the Sasquatch package.
I’m old enough to remember that Pizza Hut roof on their restaurants. You can always tell an old repurposed one by the roof (and their trapezoid windows). I don’t ever recall that roof being applied to a vehicle, though.
This!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Japanese small trucks are like 1000x better than any shit Detroit can cough up LOL
Fuck Trump, time to get rid of the stupid chicken tax
I’ve always wondered – when did bed perimeter tie-down cleats disappear for good? Was it an aero thing, or more likely, a cost-cutting measure? They always seemed such an easy way to make something useful even more so.
You answered your own question. Let’s say they’re 30 cents a piece time six times 100,000.
The last cleated truck I can recall is the Ford Explorer Sport Trac.
There might be some kei trucks or other markets with them. Some models come with cleats on the inside of the bed (Fords IIRC).
I imagine they disappeared for liability purposes, and with the standard stake holes in the bed rails owners can put in tie-down cleats in if they want.
Can confirm-a 2000 Subaru Sambar has cleats on the fold-down bedsides! Love my Sambar-it is just the right size, manual gearbox, 4WD, has fuel injection (one anyway-port injection!) and an air bag, even. It’s so slow that you really can’t tell when the AC is on.
I had a 2006 Ford F-150 flareside, the bed had the perimeter tie downs. Honestly though, they weren’t as usuable as they looked and me being irrational about paint scratches I wouldn’t put any straps through them cause the hook would rub on the paint
The 1st-gen Colorados and Canyons had them in the four corners up until 2012, but they were not at the top of the bed-sides, but rather lower. I hook my ratchet straps to them when I haul 4X8 sheet goods.
Man, I miss small real trucks or real small trucks, or both.
Even after being out of production for many years now, the ubiquity, volume, reputation and sales numbers of the Ranger lead me to a different conclusion than this headline.