{"id":39041,"date":"2022-12-27T00:03:46","date_gmt":"2022-12-27T05:03:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=39041"},"modified":"2022-12-27T00:03:46","modified_gmt":"2022-12-27T05:03:46","slug":"junkyard-gem-1991-mazda-navajo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=39041","title":{"rendered":"Junkyard Gem: 1991 Mazda Navajo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Noting the way American Motors and then Chrysler<\/a> printed money by putting former sedan and wagon drivers into new XJ Cherokees<\/a> during the second half of the 1980s, Ford<\/a> got busy designing a suburbia-friendly SUV based on off-the-shelf Ranger<\/a> powertrain and suspension components. This was the Explorer<\/a>, which debuted for the 1991 model year and sparked the commuter-truck craze that boomed during the 1990s and continues to this day. We all know about the prominence of the ’91 Explorer<\/a> in the annals of American automotive history<\/a>, but do we remember that Mazda<\/a> sold a badge-engineered version for a few years? Here’s one of those rare trucks<\/a>, found in a Denver self-service yard<\/a> recently.<\/p>\n

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Ford had a close relationship with Mazda when this truck was being designed, and had in fact sold Ford Courier-badged Mazda pickups<\/a> here from 1972 through 1982. Starting in the 1986 model year, North American Ford Dealers offered the Mazda-designed\/Kia-built Festiva<\/a>, which became the Aspire during its second generation. Even the sacred Mustang<\/a> nearly became a sibling to the Mazda MX-6<\/a> (this car ended up with Probe badges<\/a>). 1991 may have been the year of Peak Mazda in Dearborn, with the brand-new Escort<\/a> moving onto the 323\/Proteg\u00e9<\/a> platform and Mercury dealers<\/a> debuting a Capri built in Australia on Mazda hardware<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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With all that Mazda hardware going into Fords, it was time for a Ford to get Mazda badges (Japanese car shoppers were able to buy 13B rotary-powered big GM sedans with Mazda Roadpacer badges<\/a> for a few years in the 1970s). Mazda had just poured many yen into developing the MPV minivan<\/a> for the North American market and didn’t have enough left over to design a new truck to compete with the Cherokee<\/a> (not to mention the Chicken Tax<\/a>, which was applied to imported SUVs beginning in 1989), which meant that such a truck could be sold here more cheaply if built on our shores.<\/p>\n

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So, Mazda made a deal to put its badges on Kentucky-built Explorers with different grille, taillights and wheels over here. Presumably to make the comparison with the Jeep Cherokee<\/a> more explicit, the name of a Native American nation<\/a> was appropriated for this truck.<\/p>\n

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Unfortunately for Mazda, Ford wouldn’t allow the five-door Explorer to be sold as a Navajo. Since the main reason Americans were going nuts over SUVs at the time was a desire to replace their Squaresville sedans, minivans<\/a> and wagons with tough-looking trucks that could still haul the family to the mall in comfort, having just two doors up front meant that Navajo sales never amounted to much. After a paltry 40,000 or so sales, Mazda gave up on the Navajo after 1994<\/a>, ceding the North American SUV market to its competitors until the introduction of the 2000 Mazda Tribute<\/a> (a rebadged Ford Escape<\/a>).<\/p>\n

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Every Explorer and Navajo built through 1995 came with a German-built pushrod Cologne V6<\/a> under the hood, giving this truck something in common with the Ford Capri of the 1970s<\/a>. This one displaced 4.0 liters and was rated at 155 horsepower.<\/p>\n

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Believe it or not, some buyers of early Explorers and Navajos chose\u00a0not<\/em> to “upgrade” to an automatic transmission. The original purchaser of this truck (who may have been in Canada, since the build tag shows the code for the Canadian sales office) took the base five-on-the-floor manual<\/a>, made by Mazda.<\/p>\n

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It took Ford until the 21st century to give up on building Explorers with manual transmissions.<\/p>\n

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In 1991, the Navajo was available only with four-wheel-drive; a rear-wheel-drive version could be had for the 1992 through 1994 model years.<\/p>\n

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The Explorer was a truck at heart, with the Ranger’s<\/a> body-on-frame chassis design. This meant that it was thirstier and rougher-riding than the unibody XJ Cherokee. Had Iraq’s August 1990 invasion of Kuwait done for fuel prices what the 1979 Iranian Revolution<\/a> and 1973 Yom Kippur War had done<\/a>, the SUV boom may never have happened and the Explorer would have become a footnote in automotive history; as it was, gasoline stayed fairly cheap and shoppers for commuter trucks didn’t care about a single-digit fuel economy<\/a> penalty. I know I felt like an idiot for getting a 350 instead of a 454 for my 1965 Impala in the fall of 1990<\/a>, but a childhood of gas lines<\/a> tends to make you cautious.<\/p>\n

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How many miles were on this one when it retired? We’ll never know, because Ford still hadn’t gone to five-digit odometers across its model range by 1991.<\/p>\n

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I’ve learned that\u00a0really<\/em> high-mile vehicles<\/a> in junkyards tend to look pretty nice<\/a>, because a half-million miles don’t pass beneath your tires<\/a> if you fail to take fastidious care of your ride. This interior in this one is fairly rough but not completely trashed.<\/p>\n

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The plastic-and-tape window replacement and hood graffiti suggest that the final owner of this car\u00a0knew<\/em> they’d be the final owner and refused to invest any extra dimes into its upkeep.<\/p>\n

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The roof rack and gas-can mount suggest decades of off-road adventures in the Rockies.<\/p>\n

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It’s getting to the point where I have a hard time finding vehicles in Front Range Colorado boneyards that don’t<\/em> have any cannabis-business-related stickers<\/a>. Those other states can legalize it<\/a> all they want, but Colorado was first!<\/p>\n