Death Of My Death Trap
// February 20th, 2006 // My Stuff
For months now Sara has been referring to my 1991 Mazda B2200 as a “death trap”. I protested this assessment saying it has a bit of rust, but overall it’s still plenty solid. Oh how wrong I was…
I needed to do some work on my truck so it could pass inspection. It has a small exhaust leak, a few minor rust holes in the body, and a bad power steering pump. The power steering pump is a special order, non-refundable, part and was going to run me around $200. I decided to hold off on that part until the other stuff was cleared up. We took off for my parents where my dad has a lift in his garage which would make this easier.
As we began to lift the truck, the cab went up, as the bed continued to angle towards the floor. Clearly something was wrong. We took a look underneath at the frame, both sides were rusted all the way through. There was no way this truck was going anywhere, ever again.
I was glad I didn’t buy the power steering pump, but I had just put $20 of gas in it.
176,000 miles. 15 years. 2,000 miles for me. 18 months of my life. Less than $600 invested. It lived a good life and served it’s purpose.
2012 
The death of a beloved ‘death trap’ is always a sad moment. I myself used to own a 89 Mazda pickup and it remains to this day my favorite vehicle I ever owned. It was the source of my online name ironmule. Man I wish I still had that truck.
Unfortunately I sold him when the cost to repair him became to high. :-(
I had a 1980 F-100 with step sides that was my favorite vehicle ever. I originally purchased it for $50, fixed it up a ton, and after driving it for three years sold it for $1500. I wish I’d kept that truck…
This Mazda however, I never had any love for. It was merely a means to an end, cheaply travel to and from work and the dump.