Test Drive Mazda B Series (Bravo) Freestyle Cab since 1999 Pickup
And the stamps we and carpenters ...
You are surprised by the fact that all of America slowly, but is correctly transplanted with passenger cars for pickups? So you just never drove such a car! After all, in fact, in a pickup, like in any other vehicle, the features of the passenger cars, the sough and truck are combined. Soul mates
Until recently, the market of Russia's pickups consisted of a single model of Mitsubishi-L200. Two years ago, a narrow circle of revolutionaries replenished Mazda-B2500. And in this June, the sales of Ford-Ranger of the third and not excess official pickup began. Immediately alleged, Ford and Mazda essence the same car. They are collected at one plant in Thailand, and all the differences are reduced to some elements of external design and, of course, the branded emblem. However, a different approach to the configuration leaves space for comparison. So, let's see what each of the multi-axis is capable of.
Charming Archaica
Traditionally, leaving on the conscience of the public argument about appearance, we will immediately move on to the interiors. But first we recall that everywhere in the world, for the happy exception of the United States and Canada, pickups are considered working horses. And it became stupid to expect that in the cabin you are waiting for the latest achievements of ergonomics, the upholstery materials of the extra-class and in general, even at least the last squeak appeared on Mile. Deep breath and welcome inside! Let's start with old L200.
Even a person prepared and he can politely calm down: and what is clean and only. Of course, if approaching a pickup with the standards of a modern parquet, then it is easy to come into despondency. The promotional seats, covered by the simplest of all existing fabrics, the plastic panels, which seem to remember the distant 80s, thin rims of the steering wheel, devoid of a pleasant fullness of airbag, climate control unit, apparently borrowed from the armored personnel carrier. Not a car, but an antiquity shop on wheels.
Pleasant to the touch velor seats and quite modern torpedoes give the interior of Mazda feature
Due to the lack of the usual parking brake lever between Ford's seats managed to place the bulk box
Salon L200 in the GL configuration is more ascetic. However, in an expensive execution, GLS Mitsubishi is not inferior to competitors.
But let's try to look at all this with a slightly different point of view. Inexpensive finishing materials have the main property for workers they are easily clean. The side regulator of air flow will be faithfully serve you even in a 40-degree frost, when fashionable modern systems with sensory control may be given oak. As for pillows, you can simply pay for them. Green portraits of American presidents will easily replace you with a magic wand. And if the budget does not crack on the seams, the L200 can be turned into a real pajero-sport, at least from the inside. Including the famous Krenomer on the torpedo.
During the movement, the right hand hand overlaps the electronic clock is almost the only puncture of B2500 / Ranger in terms of ergonomics
Inside Ford looks like Mazda as two drops of water. The only noticeable difference of the steering wheel with a branded oval looks, perhaps, easier
The front panel of the L200 compared to rivals seems deliberately rude. But the handbrake is on the place
And yet inside Ford or Mazda immediately understand the interior here is more from a passenger car than from the truck. After all, the overall impression is made up of trifles. Let's notice: the steering wheel here is more pleasant and cross-section more, and plastic is better. The climate block also looks modern. And in general, the front panel docked in Mazda and Ford from Pybittniks Tribute and Meperik. In fact, this is not the case, but it seems!
But where did Mazda-Ford have such a parking brake lever, I do not know. Isn't from the old Volga? Bone footman's foot under the steering column, exactly like on an unforgettable stelock machine. And here you can decide that this is a charming archaic or inappropriate nostalgia.
Mazda dashboards (left) and Ford (center) are completely identical. The main claims are no complaints
Tesnea pledge health
If you agree that freedom of choice is one of the most cruel flour, then smile lucky you. Even far from pickup fever, Europeans need to determine at least with the type of cabin single, one-time or double. In Russia, almost like in ancient Ford advertising you can buy a pickup with any cabin, provided that it is double. Well, in my own way and quite well appear at least some chance to talk about the capacity.
Why chance? Remember, even a 4-door pickup in any case is more closely expensive. It is just very difficult to make a spacious car with a length of 3.5 m. It is so much that remains from the five-meter L200, if you delay the length of the one and a half meter body.
Considering this introductory, I want to shake courageous hands, I want to engineers-linkers of all three firms. And the guys from Mazda and Ford even kiss. After all, both in the B2500, and in the Ranger you can sit behind. Well, or almost possible. It would still be literally two centimeters of space in the knees, and I wonderfully settled behind my meter eighty-five. Of course, we do not forget to make a discount on a short pillow and an incredibly narrow doorway is such a constitution of pickups and nevertheless the result is not bad.
Booth not for Barbosa
The rigid roof on the cargo compartment is an option using the greatest demand among real and future owners of pickups. Such a booth, in our opinion, deprives the pickup of a fair share of the external charm, but turns open to all winds and thoras a platform in a full-fledged trunk. The pleasure will make a reservation not cheap. The rigid top of the ranger, for example, is 1970 euros or a small $ 2500. However, on any of the pickups you can purchase plastic or soft body covers.
Dachnik's dream, bombing enemy Fully pickup talents are revealed when transporting heavy blunt objects. If conventional cars are coupe and even the trunk is usually measured in liters, then a pickup truck which is already a trifle! better suited centners. The payload of any of the participants in our test more than a ton. And you can not imagine how much! Ask the truckers, the fall in industrial scale forwards the potatoes to the city. But the potatoes! Anyone who builds or equips house in the village, once drove the construction market, will fall in love forever pickup. Dozens of bags of cement, cumbersome tool bar and a small truck other junk that is, if you believe the fish is on the Gazelle, less than three separate raids not uvezesh smoothly perekochuyut in the back of your pickup truck. Therefore, we will not quibble. Yes, Mazda and Ford loading platform three centimeters long and one narrower than the Mitsubishi. Nonsense. The truck talents eventually each developed perfectly.
Another thing is that, unlike the car in the trunk of a pickup is not closed places of permanent deployment chute, pump and rusted bolts. And if the fifth wheel is painless to register in a niche under the body, then for the rest there is a modest pocket for the back of the sofa. Not great, but for the pump, jack, first aid kit, fire extinguisher, tool kit place there. By the way, Mazda and Ford backrest folding couch, so that if desired, the useful volume of the pickup can be increased solidly. It is particularly urgent in the winter when throwing anything covered with snow in the body there is no desire. For the lack of such a useful Baubles disclaim Mitsubishi half a point.
Everything is good in moderation Despite the fact that the stated capacity of the three pickups exceeds ton (it includes, however, the weight of the driver and passengers), we recommend that you still do not get involved in a record load. Yes, all of our trio to cope with the transport of more than three hundred bricks or 20 sacks of potatoes. However, in this case, the front wheels are very much unloaded, which is very dangerous, especially on slippery roads. Also note suspension springs begin to bend in the opposite direction. Several of these flights, and they will have to change.
Make haste slowly Modern diesel engines with pump-nozzles on dynamics are starting to plug in the belt of gasoline colleagues. But our pickups of diesel engines are pre-revolutionary, in which the fuel injection is in charge of a high pressure pump of the TNVD. So, they rarely refuel, but also we are not easy. So? Not really. Of course, if we argue about the dynamics armed only with passport data, it is easy to come to despondency. Well, what is for a semi-trial machine 100 liters. with. Mitsubishi's power and 109 Mazda and Ford? The maximum speed of 142147 km / h, overclocking up to hundreds at the tempo of the classic Zhiguli as in the joke: Sui, I would have ... But do not hurry. Believe me, the main thing is to overcome yourself and take the steering wheel. And after a short trip, Skepticis dispel.
Even the least powerful in our Trinity L200 is by no means appropriate. It is only necessary to remember to remember that its engine lives one dimensional and craving life to turn on the turbine and is completely different, even a pretty-harsh after. If you teach yourself to ensure that the tachometer shooter never leaves the frontiers of 20003500 rpm, then few people can call Mitsubishi sloth. No, there is even a pleasant turbophust, very useful in urban bustle. Of course, to keep a pickup in a tone, you will have to actively wrap the gearbox lever, and outside the city you need to accept the threshold of cruising speed of 120 km / h. But such a result for a 100-strong car, you see, not bad.
So, if the dynamics of the L200 can be called adequate, then Mazda and Ford, it is completely close to the concept. The rules for turbo diesel engines here are the same before and after 2000 rpm. These are two big differences. Only when the turbine is triggered there is much more effective pickup. Accordingly, it is easier to shrill in the urban stream.
But the effectiveness of the brakes in all three could be higher. To achieve a decent dynamics of deceleration, you need to push the pedal without regretting the shoes. But here the main thing is not to overdo it! After all, the anti-locking system for a pickup is elevated to the rank of luxury.
Do not require much But the controllability of Pickups is good, predictable. In the sense that, turning the steering wheel to the right, you can not doubt that the car will go there. Well, if seriously, to expect from trucks of the passenger chassis, it is like to count on a crocodile hanale.
Imagine a frame sacrifice with a rear spring suspension, and there is still no place to be worse. The character of the steering uniquely indicates that the notorious reactive force was not included in the list of chassis adjustments. And if so, you turn your nose on the nose only in the case when 200 percent are confident in the happy outcome of the maneuver. Pickup drift develops literally in the same place.
There are nuances and high-speed straight. Especially when driving a yield. It is worth a smooth asphalt with a wavy ridge, pickups begin to capricious. Mitsubishi jumps like an unnecessted horse, Mazda and Ford swinging that a fishing boat. A more humble temper on the high-speed direct will give a 200-kilogram steel plate, laid in the body. With such a cargo, the car will goat noticeably less.
To a certain degree An independent life of the rear axle affects not only manageability, but also on comfort. Pickup is almost impossible to break through the cargo suspension, but this does not mean that your trip will be cloudless. Calculated to a greater degree for the transport of inanimate objects, the chassis is by no means trying to tear the nature of the road surface.
First of all, this is true for the L200. All bumps, cracks, tramways, as they say, yours. Moreover, it is especially getting passengers of the rear row. You need to either come up with this, or go to search for a suitable steel plate. But that's not all. Newbie with unusual can shock diesel vibrations on the gearbox, obvious at idle. In motion, they, however, disappear, but the rear roar of the motor, on the contrary, without meeting the resistance in the form of serious sound insulation, fills the salon.
So spending time more pleasant in Mazda and Ford. First, it is noticeably quieter. And on the move B2500 and the Ranger will be softer. In the back row, yes on the bumps, of course, it is better to strengthen the handles. But at least the driver and front passenger do not bounce up to the ceiling, lean policemen.
In his element
If you have not yet forgotten, pickup is a mixture of not only cars and a truck, but also a sough. And I can immediately calm the fishermen, hunters and other adventure lovers outside the solid track, our heroes are really good. Perhaps, from the point of view of geometric passability, the palm of the championship should be given L200. Although the protection of vital crankcase of the engine and disduction, the suspension elements from Ford with Mazda looks more powerful, and the benzobac, unlike Mitsubishi, is covered not only in front, but also from the bottom, higher bumpers and depletion of decorative rubbing, like footrest, increase chances Mitsubishi on off-road.
The arsenal of ossev-high tools in three pickups is completely the same. A rigidly connected front axle, downward transmission and self-locking reverse bridge differential. Gentlemansky set is not a god news that, but everything you need. Of course, on a diagonal hanging, you can catch any of the trinity, but if you use a pickup not as a means of satisfying off-rowder ambitions, but as a means of movement, then you can go far away.
In the duel of decent Mussers L200 we liked a little more. Perhaps, Mitsubishi's rear suspension moves are slightly inferior to rivals, but the self-block works much more efficient. Where the differential Mazda and Ford must be deceived, pressing the wheel by the handbrake, the L200 rows itself, and the rowing is very confident and useful.
Useful button
On the front panel of Mazda and Ford there is a button with an infording of RFW (remote connection of the front hubs Remote Free Wheel). If you snapped on the rear drive, the front wheel connects nothing to the L200 they will need at least a few centimeters of the stroke. Avoid such traps and help RFW. Overcoming a difficult area on a full drive, you can turn it off, but if you are waiting for off-road, leave the RFW locker. And then you can get a torque on the front wheels at any time right on the go.
Be careful!
We are not told by us. First of all, it is associated with a higher center of gravity, because of which the jeep is inclined to the coup. Pickup with his distant from the ideal of a rave and a gatess back bridge, as you understand, the sacrifice is more likely inferior than the opposite.
As for the specific calculations in terms of security passive, then here, alas, information is extremely small. On euro-test euro tests, a single pickup is still not broken. And for help I had to turn to the American Sveta crash tests Insurance Institute of Road Safety (IIHS). On the tests in this respected organization, Mazda and Ford were visited, which received an appreciative somewhere between the top three and four. True, the experts noted the most rigid body of the deformation zone penetrated the salon, threatening the driver's feet.
The situation with the L200 is still confusing. After all, this compact pickup is not sold in the United States. And there is no crash test. Indirectly about passive security can be judged by the tests of the pajero-sport because it is built on the basis of L200. And here the Japanese have something to boast. After all, Pajero-Sport is one of the few frame jeeps that earned the highest assessment of IIHS well. Only unambiguously tolerate this achievement on our hero, we would still not become. And for what reason. The fact is that the basic version of the L200 costs without a single airbag. Moreover, the driver's airbag can only be obtained at the most expensive performance at 30 thousand! Against the background of Mazda and Ford, in the database offering front cushions, such a solution looks at least strange.
Cheaper parquetnikov
The most affordable pickup on our Mazda market. In the base bundle for $ 21,350 it is not so little. Here are both front airbags, full electric circuit, including mirrors, power steering, central locking and audio preparation. For workers are quite good. For an additional $ 1100, your B-series will be elegant at the expense of cast discs, arch expansion and thresholds. Of the vital things there is not enough conditioner. It can be installed at the official dealer for $ 1800. Total Mazda in the maximum configuration will cost $ 24 250.
This is not a golf club and not a subference so Mazda and Ford looks like a parking brake lever.
Rear side can be completely folded or fixed in a horizontal position.
Thanks to the envy of the rear suspension, squeeze the Mazda wheel is not so easy
Folding back sofa Another cargo talent Mazda
Basic L200 from Mitsubishi is more expensive than Mazda for only $ 300. But the execution of GL is a purely utilitarian, if not to say ascetic. There is only the most necessary for work, and from the adventures of luxury only an audio preparation. However, a relatively recently appeared equipment Gl + for $ 24 190. This option with air conditioning, a full electric car and heated front seats is much closer to the rank of a full-fledged car. As we have already noticed, there are not enough driver's airbag. Finally, the L200 in the top version of the GLS looks (and costs $ 27,950) a real scope. Arch extends, bumpers in body color are beneficially distinguished by this L200 from simpler versions. A list of mandatory equipment complement ABS with a brake force distribution system and a hybrid differential in the rear axle.
Twire-heated front seats is required for GL + version
Double cup holder easily hides in front panel
The climate console does not shine design, but it is simple and clear in the work
The back of the sofa from Mitsubishi, alas, not folds
The price tags for Ford are affixed in the euro, and as a result, the Ranger turns out to be the most expensive. A simpler version of XL is estimated at 19,270 euros (approximately $ 23,700) and almost completely repeats the minimum of Mazda. Is that instead of the electric drive mirrors installed cassette radio. But in the version of the XLT, the Ranger turns out of the workhorse in an impressive jeep. Here and more elegant parts of the arches, footnings, alloy wheels, arc in the cargo compartment. In addition, the air conditioner is required in such a runger, the CD player, the velor's upholstery and the leather steering wheel, as well as ABS. Finally, Ford is the only pickup on our market, which can be obtained with a completely leather interior. This option reserved for the configuration of the XLT will cost an additional 1330 euros.
Anti-lock brake system, full electric car, air conditioning and even CD receiver are mandatory for configuration XLT
Rear suspension scheme Whole beam-bridge plus springs applied on all pickles
Pickup with skin is very American. And just for 1330 euros
We decided:
Calculating the final estimates, we were at first surprised. How so versatile gifted machines managed to score less than four points on the brother? But after all, each medal has two sides. The modest capacity is combined in pickups with stunning carrying capacity, mediocre dynamics with economy, weak controllability with excellent behavior outside of roads, no more than satisfactory indicators of passive safety with an almost complete lack of interest in such machines from hijackers and traffic police workers. On the average, it is not more than four with a minus. If you are ready to put up with it, each of the three participants of our test is a worthy choice.
Mitsubishi (average rating 3.5) summed up enough powerful in comparison with competitors engine and frankly ascetic interior. But if the pickup is primarily necessary for pickups in the mountains and forests, the L200 will certainly become your faithful friend.
Ford and Mazda, as we said, essentially the same car with different emblems, which confirmed almost identical estimates. The only difference in the approach to the settings. Mazda-B2500 (average rating 3.9) For those whom the pickup is needed as a universal vehicle and to the cottage, and on vacation, and in general anywhere. Hence the spartan equipment and a little more affordable price. While the Ranger (, the average rating is 3.8) especially in the configuration of the XLT attempt to attract those in a pickup sees an extraordinary car, which is not the neighbor on the garage.
Mikhail Medvedev, Maxim Potcharov
A source: Limousine magazine [06/04]
