Mazda is planning a return to the UK pick-up market in early 2012, after pulling out of the sector early this year. The manufacturer will reveal its new BT-50 pick-up (see sketch, right) at this month’s Australian motor show and a spokesman for the brand said the vehicle would be introduced to the UK “at some point in the future,” but not with the same specification as the Australian version. Mazda is presenting the model as an “active lifestyle vehicle” with less rugged styling than a conventional pick-up.
The previous BT-50 had traditionally appealed to farmers and builders, said Mazda, but UK sales bottomed out at just a few hundred per year.
