Mazda - Eastern Wisdom

First introduced in 1966, the Bongo had decent success, in 1978 Ford began to co-produce along side of Mazda with their own version, and popularity would continue to rise, along with a decline in reliability unfortunately. Not to bash Ford, as they are in general a good company; but some of their parts in the past (such as automatic transmissions) were faulty and gave a few Mazda’s an unnecessary bad name. In the UK however, Bongo has never had much of a bad name. Most of its previous versions have been imports from Japan, and today still the UK based customer cannot get enough of the Bongo; used and/or new.

Buying a Mazda Bongo Friendee used was the only way those in the UK would ever see the new 1995 SG platform Mazda Bongo Friendee, as unfortunately for them Japan did not import a single one in the beginning. Now ever since, the 8 passenger Mazda Bongo Camper van has become the most popular Japanese import UK Mazda Bongo in history, and is in fact even more popular than the newer Mazda Bongo’s of the late 90’s. But who can blame their desire when you look at the unique features of these Japanese imported Mazda Bongos (I am talking about the patented Mazda Bongo’s with the aero tops and nifty factory fitted kitchen units).

With the aero top raised the Japanese used Mazda Bongo Friendee can easily sleep two more adults comfortably… and yes I did say comfortably. In the downstairs section, all of the Bongos have fold down seats that easily make-up a double bed. All Bongos have the patented “Bongolows”, but you are going to have to look harder to find the aero-top versions, as they are taken off the UK dealer lots as soon as they are put on. In fact the local Mazda Bongo dealer UK has been having such a hard time keeping up with the demand, that it is not uncommon for other non camper editions to be converted over to the kitchenette Bongo variety.

Getting around will definitely not be a problem with either the 2 wheel drive (SGL3) or w4 wheel drive (SGL5) versions with the 2.5 turbo diesel engine; which in all cases are outstandingly powerful and reliable engines by anyone’s standards. Featuring Aircon (climate control), electric blinds, and all the other trimmimgs you would expect out of a luxury Japanese vehicle. There are a few gasoline V-6 versions available, and by all accounts are very highly recommended as well. Do not feel haste with either variety, as neither will do you wrong.

On kind of a cool side note: Did you know that a first generation Mazda Bongo was used in the movie Mad Max (it was actually the personal vehicle of director George Miller); who sacrificed his own van to a crash scene in order to keep with his tight budget. The next time you run across a Bongo you probably will never see that cute little transporter the same way again. I personally would have rather seen it super-charged, with giant machine guns mounted on both sides of the doors; but then again there is always that chance in a remake!