Small pickups sold pretty well in the United States during the Malaise Era, and Ford and GM cashed in by importing and rebadging Mazda and Isuzu trucks, respectively. Chrysler, late to the party, turned to longtime partner Mitsubishi and began bringing in first-generation Forte pickups, starting in the 1979 model year.
Here’s a Dodge-badged version I found last week in a Denver self-service yard.
The Dodge Ram 50 (aka Dodge D50) and Plymouth Arrow pickup were cheap, fairly reliable, and got the job done. Once Mitsubishi started selling vehicles in the United States under its own badging, small-truck shoppers could buy a Mighty Max version as well.
The 2.6-liter Astron four-cylinder engine powered a bewildering assortment of US-market vehicles, from the K-Cars with “Hemi 2.6” engines to the exquisitely 1980s Mitsubishi Starion.
This truck has plenty of body filler and general hooptieness, but doesn’t seem rusty.
A very simple little truck, with simple controls and not much to go wrong. And now its constituent materials will reenter the commodities food chain.
The best EPA fuel economy of all small pickups with optional automatic transmissions? Yes, the D50 and its optimistic 28 highway miles per gallon.
You don’t have to look tough to be tough.
By 1983, the Ram 50 had to compete with the identical Mighty Max.
Chrysler and Mitsubishi are like that couple who end up featured on Cops in three different seasons. They’re no good for one another, but they end up in bed together over and over.
Dancing with an ugly partner is almost always better than being a wallflower.
My ex Father-In-Law bought one of these and simply loved it to death .
I wasn’t impressed but it was a tough little Trucklet .
-Nate
I never even saw one of these until I was in college (1995-1999) and it was a little 4×4 model with a small lift and knobby tires on it.
The contingent of students from Michigan (and specifically North of Detroit) ensured that there would always be little lifted trucks in the parking lot being used as commuters and backwoods rigs.
Dayum, those are some sporty seats in the 1981 ad. Probably 99.5% of these were sold with the standard vinyl bench.
28 mpg might be optimistic for the auto, but a stick could hit it easily.
I owned an ’82 and an ’86 D50, both with 2.0 engines, manual trans, manual steering and A/C. Both were very reliable and did their job well. They also handled very well considering what they were. I wish trucks of their size were still sold in the US rather than the current crop of behemoths.
You, me, and a lot of other people have the same wish, but apparently our numbers are not enough to make updating such trucks profitable enough. Face it, we’ll have to chop up a compact like a Focus to get what we want. Anybody know somebody with a Focus who would like to take a stab at it?
ugh. the sight of that Mikuni carburetor brings back unpleasant memories.
semi-OT: This weekend while driving up north I saw a fairly minty Jeep Comanche that was cruising along on the highway. That’s a rare sight in Michigan.
A nice truck with straight lines.
I can never wrap my mind around all of the half-assed uses of bondo and other DIY body work that seems to happen all too often. Here it looks like they slathered it on, but never bothered to sand. Or the primer-but-never-painted look. What sort of life calamity came up that you couldn’t take one more afternoon to finish the job?
I had a friend in the 90’s with a first gen 4runner who would use spray foam a skim of bondo and white rustoleum, he usually did the whole repair in under an hour (including drying time hot batch of bondo) As he said I’m just going to knock if off again in the woods why take the time.
There is a group of people who are “project people.” They never actually finish anything, every item is half-assed and then left that way. This person probably also had wood furniture which needed stripped and varnished, patio furniture they intended to paint, a roof with fifteen patches but never new shingles, and a stereo from 1982 that just needed a quick re-wiring. They also have four or five cars, only two of which have tires on them at any given time.
You never want to live next to this sort of person.
Haha I think you’re right Corey. Quite CrabSpirit-esque I might add.
Oh shoot now I wanna write something. Hadn’t even considered it before.
Yeah we rarely finish a project, but the important thing is we *can*. Except those that criticize us have never finished a project ’cause they’ve never started one, for some strange reason. Heck I’m not sure they have any actual hobbies, beyond criticizing everyone. But the best part of any project is starting the project. Then it becomes just another chore.
Sounds like my comment hit home, eh?
What’s bizarre to me is not having a few ongoing projects, if you’ve got the means to do them in the first place. And I fully expect chicks not to understand the whole concept, totally different DNA.
The “In Tow” in tape on the back window makes me wonder if it spent the latter part of it’s life hooked up to the back of a motorhome.
I suppose it could have been put there while it was towed to a junkyard, but doing that with tape seems kind of elaborate – at that point I think most people would either not bother, or go with spray paint.
Not only have I seen people use masking tape for an in tow warning I’ve done it myself, though bringing something home to fix.
Barring finding an elusive Fire Arrow, I wouldn’t mind a clean Arriw truck (even have seen a few with the wild arrow decal on the hood).
The non-turocharged 2.6 liter Fire Arrow was one of the 10 fastest cars you could buy in 1979 according to Road and Track (or was it Car and Driver), 0-60 in a heart-stopping 9.6 seconds.
Back in 79-80 the rabbi at the Reform synagogue in the town where I grew up drove a Fire Arrow. It was white with the black striped Fire Arrow package. His previous car was a 72 Toronado in brown. I guess buying the fuel efficient Arrow was his way of sticking it to OPEC.
I owned a Mitsubishi Sport pickup, purchased in Denver in the latter half of ’83. All told it was a good little truck and absolutely loved it because it was the “perfect” size for a single young male. The only thing I would have changed is to take the extended-cab version that came out the next year (IIRC). A lot of people besides myself would like to see THIS size of truck come back.
Me too – I have fond memories of the first vehicle I got to drive, my mom’s ’84 Nissan king cab 4X2. And the first truck I bought, a used ’94 Nissan hardbody king cab. They were both good run-arounds that could also do some work when required.
Could a truck of “THIS size” even incorporate enough stuff to meet current FMVSS?
If a Fiat 500 can, then a truck of “this size” can.
I keep straying into your area of expertise. Effing munchkins don’t believe in posting this yellow road.
I miss my ’93 Mazda truck. Those and the later (87+) D-50/Mighty Max looked almost identical.
Not advertising per se (no ads on site for anything) but my opinions about what today’s trucks really are. http://www.roadwhale.com
My grandparents owned a D50 Sport much like the one featured in the second video. It was black with gold tape stripes and wheels with sport seats and the manual transmission. My grandfather was partially paralyzed by a stroke in the mid-80’s, and he loved how comfortable the seat was and how easily he could get in and out with his bad leg. The commercial doesn’t lie – they were roomy little trucks and a 6’+ guy could get very comfortable with all the leg room offered in the passenger seat.
My grandmother drove and rather enjoyed putting all 2.6 liters to work while rowing through the gears. I got to ride in the bed when Grandpa was with. You could do that in a small town in the ’80’s. It was their favorite little truck and it never gave them a bit of trouble. God, what fond memories I have of that truck and those bygone days. Thank you for finding this and posting the pictures and video…it brought a tear to my eye.
I had one of the first turbo diesel 4×4’s in the northwest for a demo in ’82(?). Did everything I asked of it, including towing a loaded up Fiberform Tahiti to Pend Oreille Lake, while getting 25 mpg. Later, I would see it with the mayor of Rathdrum on occasional trips to C’dA. Since they would wave with their whole hand, I assume it was reliable for them as well.
That rear bumper wouldn’t shame an F350 !
Seriously. And on the snow that’d be worth at least a couple bags of salt in the bed but with max leverage.
It looks like someone grabbed the wiper motor. I guess it fits other vehicles or there is some lost soul keeping their Ram 50 on the road.
Given Chrysler’s habit of re-using the small stuff – and Mitsubishi doing the same – that wiper motor probably fits a half dozen different cars/trucks over a 12-15 year span.
I had an 85 Mighty Max in European Silver with a 2.0 I-4 4 speed manual for 14 years. It was a very good truck.
I used to really like these when I was doing new car prep at the Chry/Ply/Dodge dealer. This was the last model year I worked on before moving on. It seemed like it had a pretty stout ladder frame and I always daydreamed about putting a 340 in one. The assembly was jewel like compared to the domestic products. Prep wasn’t much more than a fluid/tire pressure check.
@Vulpine-I read your website. Your Ranger is a nice truck and in really good shape. If I had it I would keep it even if it is a regular cab. It is hard to find a smaller truck with low miles and in good condition. As I have said before my 99 S-10 is going on 18 years old with 109k miles and is in excellent shape except a rocker panel below the driver’s side extended cab is starting to bubble and I might have that repaired. I had an 84 Might Max similar to the one in your picture except mine was silver.
I still have an 87 D50 in my driveway. It ran until a few years ago. No power steering, no a/c, no radio, no cupholders, no tint at the top of the windshield, no power anything. Something happened with the stupid Mikuni carb. I took it off, and managed to break it. Yes. The bottom half was plastic. You can buy a Weber carb kit for it.
Great little truck and very tough. There is still a demand for small trucks but for some reasons they aren’t being built anymore as far as I can tell.