Ford Motor Company had a big chunk of Mazda in 2006 when the Japanese brand launched the BT-50 pickup, a vehicle that shared the same underpinnings with the European Ford Ranger.
Mazda was not at its first pickup model. The BT-50 replaced the former B-Series, known in Europe as B-2500. Ford considered that the Japanese brand was very appreciated on some markets and decided to do a badge-engineering product with the Ranger/BT-50 range.

The Japanese carmaker already had a good reputation in terms of reliability and ruggedness from the B-Series. When it designed the BT-50, it counted on that, but it noticed that pickups attracted some customers for recreational activities, not work. The front area resembled the Mazda Tribute SUV. Its headlights were slightly curved on their upper sides, and the body-colored plastic bumper didn’t look like it belonged to a utility vehicle. The carmaker installed a chromed horizontal slat in the middle for the grille, flanked on the upper and lower side by two additional chromed trims.

Inside, it was more of an SUV than a workhorse pickup. The carmaker designed the dashboard in the new-edge design style, with a curved line that emerged from the center stack to the passenger’s side. Mazda installed steering wheel buttons and a binocular-style instrument panel for the driver, with separate clusters for the speedometer and tachometer. In the back, the four-door version featured a flat bench for three, which was not the most desirable place to sit in a pickup.

Under the hood, Mazda offered the BT-50 with a choice of two engines carried over from Ford. Depending on the market, the carmaker provided the vehicle with either a 2.5-liter or a 3.0-liter unit, both paired to a five-speed manual as standard, with an option for an automatic transmission.