As is amply documented on this website, I’m not typically a fan of modded cars, though I will concede that sometimes some mods (in moderation) can make a lot of sense. In the present case, those wheels make no sense at all. As I was looking at this entire car, that was not the only thing that left me scratching my head. For one thing, I was also wondering how this huge Mazda managed to look so damn sharp.
I really have not much more than a fleeting acquaintance with the Mazda B-Series line of pickups. There are still plenty of these tough trucks (albeit in 2-door form, usually) in Southeast Asia, so I have seen them around – but that’s not quite the same thing as really looking into them. But then I ran into this oddball (well, odd rectangle) B-Series in north Tokyo, things did not fully compute.
In 1985, Mazda launched the 4th generation (UF) of their B-Series range of pickup trucks. These were quite traditional body-over-ladder chassis vehicles with a double wishbone IFS and a leaf-sprung live rear axle, available in three wheelbases from 276cm to 316cm (109-124.5 inches) and with a variety of body styles, depending on the market. Engines were all of the 4-cyl. variety, be they petrol or Diesel, and were comprised between 2.0 and 2.6 litres in displacement – again, depending on where they were assembled and/or sold. The bulging hood on our CC seems to indicate a fuel-injected 2.6, but who really knows?
Because the Mazda B-Series was assembled and sold all over the place. The mother ship in Hiroshima supplied a half dozen global locations (including Australia, China, Colombia, South Africa, Thailand, Zimbabwe…) with necessary parts for local manufacture, using a variety of names – and even, as in Australia, branded as a Ford. Some places had local body variants not seen elsewhere, which might be what we have here.
Initially, this generation of B-Series was not sold in Japan, being over the size limit for the lowest tax band. But in 1990 Mazda felt they could reintroduce them on the domestic market as the Proceed, with the extended cab body. In 1991, Mazda did what Isuzu, Nissan and Toyota were all doing at the time and slapped a roof on their pickup truck to make a quickie SUV called (bafflingly, but that’s the JDM for you) “Proceed Marvie.” They used the double cab as a base, despite that body style not having been sold in Japan.
So that’s what we have here, right? Well, there are a few issues – beyond the stance and tiny wheels. One is that this vehicle is registered as a proper full-size truck (the “130” number on the license plate), just like Escalades or Navigators. Or 8-ton Hino trucks. And unlike standard issue Marvies, which were 300 (registered as a large car). This may seem like a trivial matter, but it means the Japanese taxman knows something we don’t about this vehicle.
All of the Marvie add-ons, from bumper overriders to running boards, are absent – they could have been taken off the vehicle, of course, just like the turn signal repeaters, which are also MIA. But then that’s par for the course, given the look this wagon is going for.
To top it off, it’s left-hand drive – a sure sign, when Japanese cars are concerned, that it was not manufactured domestically. And I’m not seeing the necessary controls for the transfer case: all B-Series sold here came with a part-time 4WD transmission, but it looks like this is a purely RWD vehicle.
Let’s take a minute to appreciate the amazing condition of the interior and the available space. There should be a third row of seats behind this one, or rather there would be in a standard issue Proceed Marvie, but here all I saw back there was a sizable carpeted cargo area. Perhaps the rearmost seats were taken out, or can be folded away. Or perhaps this is a completely different vehicle, not the RHD 7-seater 4WD station wagon that Proceed Marvies are supposed to be.
Source: Wikicommons
Incidentally, there was another B-Series production station wagon, made in Thailand. But it’s yet another body. Our feature car’s clearly based on the Marvie, not this. And those Thai B-Series would all have been RHD… Maybe our Marviesque contraption came over from China or the Philippines. I’m not sure if they made those there, but they did assemble the B-Series.
Yet it’s such a perfectly formed wagon. It’s an Asian ‘90s equivalent of the IH Travelall, but with an added element of cool. Perhaps that was added by the owner of this particular Mazda, to be fair, but even that Thai wagon looked somewhat appealing.
The owner’s choice to adding small touches of chrome – the door handles, the mirrors – and spraying the whole thing black are ones I can fully get behind. Gotta do something about those wheels, though! Something in a 15 or 16 inch, sans whitewall please.
Finding out solid info about this Mazda proved rather difficult. I’m not sure what engine is in there, what transmission, where or when it was built, why it’s classed as a heavy truck, why it has roller-skate wheels or why I still find myself strangely drawn towards to it, despite my better judgment. Ah well, c’est la Marvie.
Related posts:
Curbside Outtake: 1989 Mazda B2600i 4×4 – Something Of A Rarity, by PN
Cars of a Lifetime: 1986 Mazda B2000 Pickup – Short Timer Hauler, by David Saunders
Sharp? To me, at first glance, this looks like a hearse.
+1
The proportions on the black one look way different from those on the stock Marvie. Is it just the stance and small tires? Or am I missing something? The black one looks far larger.
I do like it, though.
It’s the lowered suspension. The wheels are stock and the tires look to be stock size or very close to it. But lowering it changes the visual impact. That’s precisely why people have been lowering cars for many decades: it makes them look longer. It’s especially effective on trucks and SUVs, which normally ride higher.
“Proceed, Marvie!”
“Thank you, Bruno.”
My wife had a regular cab long bed (7’?) 2wd Mazda B2200 of this generation when we met. It was LHD (we’re in the US), made in Japan, and had 14” wheels.
I’m guessing from the license plate that it’s a 2.6 liter. One thing that I’ve noticed from all the Japan pictures is that those 4 digits on the plate are often indicative of the year of a car, or some other custom factor.
beyond the stance and tiny wheels.
If you actually look at the wheels, it’s quite apparent that they’re the stock ones that have been chromed. And the tires look to be close to stock size too. It’s just been slammed.
Looks good to me!
Makes me wish Mazda would have sold crew cab B-Series and the derived 4wd SUV here. I wonder why it took until the 2000s for automakers to give us compact crew cab pickups. I love the concept myself.
I always blame the American obsession with bed length for keeping crew cabs limited to 3/4 tons and heavier. Even today, you’ll still see comments like “if the bed’s not 8′ long, it’s not a Real Truck™!” The first compact crew cab in the US, the 2000 Frontier, had a bed 4.5′ long, but soon offered a LWB model with the 6′ bed of the other cabs. Most other compact/mid-size trucks now have a similar LWB model.
Agreed. I find a 4.5′ bed very useful. There’s plenty of stuff I carry in my long bed Chevy that would fit in a 4.5′ bed.
I bought a GMC Sonoma crew cab truck and although it became a mechanical nightmare, I thought the bed was the perfect size for hauling parts from the junkyard, an engine on a pallet, a set of wheels/tires, etc.
I plan to have another eventually, a crew cab compact, that is. Probably a Ford Maverick.
At the top of the plate are Japanese characters (usually in Kanji, Chinese characters, occasionally Kana, say for Naniwa), noting the place of registration, and a 2 or 3 digit numbers – indicating the class of vehicle. In this case, the vehicle is registered in Adachi (one of 4 in Tokyo), and the 100 indicates a privately owned truck over 2000cc, issued after 1998.
Plates with a 2-digit number for vehicle class next to the registration location would be issued between 1967 to 1999. Those would be pretty original for an older car.
The main numbers, say with a Kana charater preceding a “XX-XX” sequence aren’t indicative of the year, though obviously if they’re lower, it’s probably been issued earlier…
Many of the vehicles in Tokyo will be registered in one of 4 offices:
Shinagawa (most central – almost analogous to a “75” plate in Paris)
Adachi
Nerima
Tama
Here is a ready reference:https://www.licenseplatemania.com/landenpaginas/japan.htm#Trade%20series
The Proceed Marvie/Ford Raider always stood out to me from the many other “truck wagon” small SUVs produced over the years, since it was built on the LWB rather than the SWB chassis. Like you said, it was more like an IH Travelall or Chevy Suburban than Chevy Tahoe.
I especially like that this owner removed the plastic …rack? arch? thingy from the rear roof. It really cleans it up. The wraparound windows almost look like they were taken right off the Bronco II.
Good pictures of that Thailand-exclusive B-Series wagon have been tricky to find. Besides that Wikimedia pic and a few stock images, the only other evidence I’ve found that it even exists was an odd YouTube vid that popped up a few years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuXrw4_gc6o
Like the Proceed Marvie, it was built on the longer frame, but everything from the B-pillar back looks like it’s been changed.
It looks like a Marvie Proceed thats been dropped onto a regular 2wd chassis and power train hence the little wheels that dont fit the wheel arches like the real things do.
I’d love to get a Proceed Marvie imported to mount the body onto a California-legal US B2600i 4×4 frame. I have just such a B2600i, and while it’s overall in good shape (no rust AT ALL, which is a minor miracle), the paint is completely fried, the front seat needs not just recovered but completely redone, and much of the trim is just plain tired from too much West Coast sun. I’m almost certainly just going to paint and reupholster it – or even just do a wrap for now – but if the opportunity presented itself to get a hold of a good Proceed Marvie body and interior, I’d take it.
Using the US drivetrain helps with smog here in CA – yes, it still runs great and passes smog with flying colors. The VIN not matching on the places it’s on the body could be an issue, though.
It’d mostly be fun to baffle folks who don’t know there was an SUV version outside the US, or excite folks who do know. That said, there’s not that many of the original B-series of this body style left in the US at all. I just saw one similar to mine – much better paint and fewer miles, but more corrosion and a rougher body overall – go on BaT for a little under $10k. I certainly wouldn’t make money restoring it, but these days it’s no longer dumping money into something that has essentially no value, either.