Junkyard Find: 1979 Ford Courier
We took a look at a Mitsubishi small pickup with Dodge badges last month, and now it's the turn of a Mazda small pickup with Ford badges. I spotted this Courier at a self-service boneyard in Carson City, Nevada, last month.
In 1972, GM began importing the Isuzu Faster pickup and selling it in the United States with LUV badges. At about the same time, Ford made a deal with Mazda to sell the Mazda Proceed with Courier badges here.
Mazda was still known as the Toyo Kogyo Company in 1979, having dropped the "Cork" part of its name during the 1920s.
The Courier (which took its name from Ford's sedan deliveries of the 1950s) was sold through 1982, after which it was replaced by the homegrown Ranger.
All that time, Mazda was selling the same trucks with B-Series badges here, with a rotary-powered version in the mix for a few years. The final B2600s were sold in the United States as 1993 models, after which they were replaced by rebadged Rangers.
The 1979 Courier longbed had an MSRP of $4,859, or about $22,351 in 2024 dollars.
Meanwhile, the 1979 Dodge D-50/ Plymouth Arrow Pickup was $4,819 ($22,167 today), the Chevrolet LUV was $4,486 ($20,635 now), the Toyota Hilux longbed was $4,938 ($22,714) and the Datsun 620 longbed was $4,929 ($22,673 after inflation). My advice to time-travelers going minitruck shopping in 1979: get the Hilux!
If you wanted this truck with Mazda badges in 1979, the MSRP was $4,945 ($22,747 today), which meant you got a better deal with the Courier version.
The engine is a carbureted 1.8-liter SOHC straight-four. For 1980, the Courier (and the Mazda B2000) got the 2.0-liter engine out of the (then-rear-wheel-drive) 626.
The base transmission was a four-on-the-floor manual, with a five-speed overdrive unit available as a $172 option ($791 in 2024 frogskins). A three-speed automatic could be had for $375 extra ($1,725 after inflation), and the only two-pedal Courier I've ever found in a car graveyard was a REPU.
Being a Nevada truck, it managed to avoid the rusty fate of Couriers living anywhere near road salt and/or high humidity.
Is that 36,950 miles of 736,950 miles? There's no way to know!
For 1979, Ford would sell you every kind of truck from a Courier to a big ol' cabover diesel, all with a crime-show "whocka-whocka" soundtrack playing (in your head, probably not in the showroom).
Annihilates those gas-swilling competitors, just in time for the Iranian Revolution.
1979 Ford Courier in Nevada junkyard.
1979 Ford Courier in Nevada junkyard.
1979 Ford Courier in Nevada junkyard.
1979 Ford Courier in Nevada junkyard.
1979 Ford Courier in Nevada junkyard.
1979 Ford Courier in Nevada junkyard.
1979 Ford Courier in Nevada junkyard.
1979 Ford Courier in Nevada junkyard.
1979 Ford Courier in Nevada junkyard.
1979 Ford Courier in Nevada junkyard.
1979 Ford Courier in Nevada junkyard.
1979 Ford Courier in Nevada junkyard.
1979 Ford Courier in Nevada junkyard.
[Images: The Author]
Become a TTAC insider. Get the latest news, features, TTAC takes, and everything else that gets to the truth about cars first by subscribing to our newsletter.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
More by Murilee Martin
Comments
Join the conversation
I hadn't seen a second-generation Courier with a Mazda engine before. I've seen a few with Ford engines. There was one at the Cox Driving Range that they used to collect golf balls. Golf would definitely be more entertaining to watch if they used moving targets.
Why do I have the insane desire to rescue this truck and drop in the 3.0 liter SHO engine into this thing?