Mazda and Ford used to build their pickups together for the European and Australian markets in Thailand, and the Japanese cousin of the Ranger was named BT-50.
Even after Ford and Mazda split, the two carmakers continued to work together on several projects, such as pickup manufacturing. After all, Ford was the most successful carmaker in the world in that area, while Mazda was still a newbie on the market. The 2015 BT-50 was the facelifted version of the 2011 model, which was made together with Ford. It shared only the windshield, the cabin’s structure, and some parts of the bed for the bodywork and the chassis.

Mazda tried to apply on the BT-50 the same design language used for the rest of the range on the outside. It was difficult to say if it was a good idea to have a Mazda pickup with a Mazda3 front fascia, but it was a good idea in some ways. Thus, the vehicle seemed to be more of a lifestyle pickup than a hard-worker. Its swept-back headlights and the chromed grille were not supposed to face the harshness of a construction yard. It was meant to be driven on a ski resort. But the BT-50 was able to do both.

Inside, the carmaker used the binocular-style instrument cluster with the tachometer and speedometer in individual casings. Between them, Mazda installed a red-on-black LCD. The carmaker had to use whatever Ford had in mind for the infotainment system, but with a different front fascia.

Under the hood, the BT-50 was still a rugged off-road pickup. It featured a strong ladder chassis with independent front suspension and a live rear axle. It was paired as standard to a 6-speed manual transmission, while a six-speed automatic was on the options list.