Mazda stopped importing the B-series truck line from Japan in 1994 for two reasons. First and foremost, the Japanese automaker entered into an agreement with the Ford Motor Company to market a badge-engineered Ranger in the United States as the B-series. Secondly, the Japanese manufacturer preferred this agreement over its very own B-series line of trucks because Mazda wanted to circumvent the 25% Chicken Tax imposed in 1964 under LBJ.
Offered between 1994 and 2010, the Ford-produced B-series has been hit with a safety recall. The long and short of it? Certain trucks received replacement front passenger air bag inflators under a previous recall, namely one of many recalls addressing the deadly air bag inflators produced by Takata Corp.
The recalled trucks had their replacement inflators installed in the incorrect orientation, a condition that increases the risk of injury for the front passenger in case of a crash. A grand total of 12,741 vehicles produced for the 2004 through 2006 model years between May 2003 and May 2006 are called back.
Documents published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reveal that service technicians didn't follow the repair instructions completely. It was Ford rather than Mazda who discovered the root cause for the mis-positioned front passenger air bag inflator back in February 2023.
Mazda North American Operations proposed a voluntary recall to the NHTSA in May 2023, which resulted in field inspection program SSPC9 in July 2023. But alas, the automaker ultimately opted to cancel the field inspection program at the end of November 2023 due to four cases of mis-installed air bag inflators. Given these circumstances, Mazda decided to conduct a proactive field action, as in a full-on safety recall, on potentially affected trucks.
Photo: Mazda
Fortunately for everyone, no accidents or injuries have been reported as a result of incorrectly installed inflators. The inflator's part number is 1FT1-57-K50A, and as opposed to the inflators that led to Takata's downfall, this one won't spew sharp bits of metal into the front passenger in the event of a crash. However, said inflators need to be correctly oriented in order to work as intended. Dealers have already been instructed to reinstall the air bag inflators, whereas owners will be informed by Mazda North America via first-class mail on or about January 12.
Recalled trucks were previously repaired under recalls 17V-806 and 18V-039. Affected owners should get in touch with their nearest dealer or use the NHTSA's VIN look-up tool to determine whether their good ol' pickups are recalled or perfectly fine.
Mazda left the US truck market in December 2009. considering that Ford also abandoned the compact truck segment in December 2011, the Japanese automaker's decision shouldn't come as a surprise. Be that as it may, the Ranger returned to North America for the 2019 model year. Mazda does have a mid-size truck that it could sell in this part of the world, yet said truck is manufactured by a company that cannot circumvent the aforementioned 25% Chicken Tax.
Of course, the midsizer in question is the BT-50. Manufactured by Isuzu in Thailand with underpinnings from the Isuzu D-Max, the Mazda BT-50 is available in Australia, New Zealand, and certain Asian markets with four-pot diesel muscle exclusively.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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