This nameplate appeared in the U.S. for the 1991 model year as a Ford-built, Mazda-badged sport-utility vehicle derived from the first-generation Ford Explorer. It was part of the close Mazda-Ford relationship of the era and gave Mazda an early entry into the booming compact SUV market without developing a unique truck from the ground up. Marketed as a two-door adventure-oriented SUV, it shared its basic body and hardware with the Explorer Sport, but wore Mazda styling cues and branding to fit the company’s North American lineup.
The vehicle ran through a single continuous production period and was sold only for a short span. Mazda’s own history pages place the launch in 1990 as a fall introduction for the 1991 model year, and contemporary automotive references consistently show the nameplate through the 1994 model year. After that, Mazda discontinued it rather than extending the nameplate into the four-door Explorer era. That means the model’s history is best understood as a brief, first-generation-only U.S. SUV experiment rather than a long-running Mazda truck line.
Today it is remembered as one of the more unusual badge-engineering exercises of the 1990s and as an early sign of how Japanese manufacturers used partner platforms to fill gaps in their product ranges during the sport-utility boom. Its limited run, two-door layout, and direct connection to the original Explorer give it a distinct place in Mazda history and in the broader story of early American SUVs.