Ah yes, the carburetor. A humble device that mechanically mixes fuel and air, which gets sucked down the intake manifold and into the cylinders to feed the internal combustion process. The carburetor, or just carb for short, had a long run as the de facto fuel metering device on American automobiles, beginning with the Duryea brothers’ converted horse buggy in 1893 — several years ahead of Henry Ford’s slightly less rudimentary Quadricycle.
Fast forward 100 years and the writing was on the wall for the carburetor. By the late 1980s, California was mandating stricter emissions control equipment on all vehicles sold in that state through the California Air Resources Board, which amusingly abbreviates to CARB. California is such a large market for automakers that it’s frequently simpler and less expensive to make all production cars intended for U.S. markets compliant with California’s rules than to make a slightly different configuration for the Golden State. On a related note, California may no longer be able to set its own unique emissions standards, but we digress.
The other death knell for the carb was the implementation of the OBD-II onboard diagnostic system in California by 1994 and nationwide by 1996. For those who aren’t mechanically inclined, the port to connect to the OBD-II system is that trapezoidal dongle that’s under the driver’s side dashboard of your modern vehicle. Computer-controlled carburetors were attempted as a stopgap measure prior to perfecting economical fuel injection in the 1980s, but proved troublesome for both motorists and mechanics alike.
Domestic OEMs quit after 1991
By the final decade of the 20th century, domestic automakers had abandoned the carburetor in all of their vehicles except for two. First up is the Ford LTD Crown Victoria equipped with the larger 5.8-liter V8 engine. While the regular 5.0-powered LTD Crown Victoria had long been equipped with fuel injection, the 5.8-liter 351 Windsor soldiered on with a two-barrel carb for fleet sales — such as Crown Vic cop cars – throughout the 1991 model year.
Jalopnik readers probably won’t be surprised to hear that the other carburetor-equipped American car on the market in 1991 was the Jeep Grand Wagoneer (SJ), which looked like it teleported straight from 1963. By its final production year the SJ was down to just one powerplant, a 360 cubic inch AMC V8. Perched on top was an anemic two-barrel carburetor provided by Ford’s Motorcraft division because, well, why not? Of course, this article is about the last carbureted engine sold in America, not just produced here. So let’s move on, shall we?
And the winner is…
In spite of the onboard diagnostic equipment mandate looming large, a few Japanese automakers opted to continue selling carbureted vehicles right up until the bitter end. The primary recipients of the antiquated fuel delivery device were bargain basement compact pickup trucks and SUVs. For example, Mazda’s B2200 pickup retained a carb in non-California trucks until that model was discontinued after 1993.
Still basking in the afterglow of its wildly successful Joe Isuzu advertising campaign, Yokohama-based Isuzu also continued foisting carburetor-equipped masterpieces onto the American motoring public well into the 1990s. Take, for example, the base-engine-equipped 1993 Amigo, a sort of Wrangler-esque member of the two-door SUV club. Isuzu also has the distinction of making the very last carbureted vehicle sold new in America. The same 2.3-liter four-cylinder that powered the 1993 Amigo was also found throughout 1994 in very basic rear-wheel drive iterations of the brand’s pickup truck, literally called Isuzu Pickup.
So there you have it. The 1994 Isuzu Pickup with a base engine was the last carbed passenger motor vehicle sold new on U.S. soil. Automakers may have been nudged into fuel injection by California’s rigid emissions monitoring and nationwide OBD-II requirements, but the change was indisputably for the better. Fuel injection is more efficient, both in terms of increasing fuel economy and lowering tailpipe emissions. It also makes more power than carburetors while requiring less maintenance and tuning. Finally, fuel injection is more readily adaptable to changes in operating conditions, such as temperature and altitude.
RIP to the carb — it had a good run.