Return of the Ford Ranger to America?

mad_machine wrote: well.. maybe ford should drop the F150 and concentrate on the 250 and up.. and move the ranger in to that slot

Right- ignore the 750,000 sales of F150s. The CEO who tries that will be fired quickly.

Dang, I guess I'm late to the party, but BFD? I've looked at the Colorado and if the proportions hold the same, it's utterly small inside and huge on the outside. On top of that, for just a few bucks more a month payment, you can have one of those $55k EcoBoost 1/2 tons that have way more of "everything". You'll never see a "compact" truck again unless you can get the EPA to relax those CAFE standards about emissions vs MPG vs road surface area. HA!

mad_machine is on the right path though. The lines are already so blurred, it's hard to sell the Ranger that is almost as big and gets the same miserable MPG as the F150. If someone wants a real truck and not a luxury car with a truck bed, the 6.7 F250 4x4 in whatever high end package is 67k, or "only" ~10k more then the loaded F150....

Just my plugged nickle....

Competition. Along with GM, Nissan and Toyota have new smaller trucks.

Crew Cab Courier + ecoboost turbo= take my money

I agree with the desire for a proper small truck, but I wonder whether they would ever sell enough to make it worthwhile. You'd think Ford might have opened up their world view when they finally brought the Focus crawling out of a Quonset hut (Transit) over from Europe and sold a boatload of them to service people who bemoaned the loss of the Astro van.

Has anybody mentioned how big new pickup trucks are?

RossD wrote: In reply to yamaha: Wasn't that the Chicken Tax? Shouldn't that actually going away with the Pacific Treaty thinger that was recently done up?

Yep, chicken tax.....the question however is if removing it removes the tariff on them coming from Africa.

My BIL AVERAGES 28-29mpg in his 4x4 3.2 Wildtrack (off-road package) diesel. Is that what are realistic real world figures for the 2.7 4x4 f150?

Streetwiseguy wrote: Has anybody mentioned how big new pickup trucks are?

This a the global T6 Ranger next to a 2wd Ram 1500:

While I bemoan the loss of a true "compact" pickup, the newer generations of "midsize" trucks are nearly as big as fullsizers.

I had a '91 Ranger 4cyl that I dearly loved. I really wish we could get a modern, fuel efficient, safe compact truck.

A few days ago, I was looking at 2002-2007 Nissan Frontier crew cabs. Those push all the right buttons for me. Nice size, decent engine and available in 4wd with a manual.

As far as the Ford bringing the Ranger back, well I'm sure everyone predicted that if another manufacturer ventured back into the not-fullsize market, others would follow. It seems that GM can't keep the Colorado/Canyon on the lots. Now Ford will want a piece of the pie. But I won't believe it until I see it

In reply to Nathan JansenvanDoorn:

Does he live in the Philippines? Do they use the US gallon? Because the UK gallon is about 20% bigger than our US gallon. If so it's 23.3 to 24.2 miles per US gallon?

Jeep is giving serious thought to a pickup based on the new Wrangler.

More competition.

iadr wrote:

Streetwiseguy wrote: You'd think Ford might have opened up their world view when they finally brought the Focus crawling out of a Quonset hut (Transit) over from Europe and sold a boatload of them to service people who bemoaned the loss of the Astro van.

And then promptly screwed up the redesign so badly sales went to near Zero. I hope a couple people lost their careers over that. Actually minimum 100 employees on that team should never be allowed to work another day in the auto industry. Their families? Guess they should have thought of that before. It ranks up there with some of the decisions Yahoo has made over the last decade.

And... There's the question of the Aussie only model Ford Falcon. I know that a lot of the newer Mustangs components are based off this model so the question was why didn't they bring this to the US? They could re-badge it, luxify it as a Lincoln and take on the CTS and 300.

iadr wrote:

Streetwiseguy wrote: You'd think Ford might have opened up their world view when they finally brought the Focus crawling out of a Quonset hut (Transit) over from Europe and sold a boatload of them to service people who bemoaned the loss of the Astro van.

And then promptly screwed up the redesign so badly sales went to near Zero. I hope a couple people lost their careers over that. Actually minimum 100 employees on that team should never be allowed to work another day in the auto industry. Their families? Guess they should have thought of that before. It ranks up there with some of the decisions Yahoo has made over the last decade.

I hadn't heard anything about that. Care to fill us in? The Transit is probably the ugliest vehicle on the road, but I thought that functionally it's pretty good.

Merc wrote:

iadr wrote:

Streetwiseguy wrote: You'd think Ford might have opened up their world view when they finally brought the Focus crawling out of a Quonset hut (Transit) over from Europe and sold a boatload of them to service people who bemoaned the loss of the Astro van.

And then promptly screwed up the redesign so badly sales went to near Zero. I hope a couple people lost their careers over that. Actually minimum 100 employees on that team should never be allowed to work another day in the auto industry. Their families? Guess they should have thought of that before. It ranks up there with some of the decisions Yahoo has made over the last decade.

And... There's the question of the Aussie only model Ford Falcon. I know that a lot of the newer Mustangs components are based off this model so the question was why didn't they bring this to the US? They could re-badge it, luxify it as a Lincoln and take on the CTS and 300.

Have you seen the Chevy SS? It's just a rebadged Holden Commodore for what $50k? Especially since dealers know they will sell very few and loaded them up to the hilt. Lower that price 10k and you have a potential family hauler vs the luxobarge SUV.... But alas the exchange rate won't allow that at this point.

Merc wrote:

iadr wrote:

Streetwiseguy wrote: You'd think Ford might have opened up their world view when they finally brought the Focus crawling out of a Quonset hut (Transit) over from Europe and sold a boatload of them to service people who bemoaned the loss of the Astro van.

And then promptly screwed up the redesign so badly sales went to near Zero. I hope a couple people lost their careers over that. Actually minimum 100 employees on that team should never be allowed to work another day in the auto industry. Their families? Guess they should have thought of that before. It ranks up there with some of the decisions Yahoo has made over the last decade.

And... There's the question of the Aussie only model Ford Falcon. I know that a lot of the newer Mustangs components are based off this model so the question was why didn't they bring this to the US? They could re-badge it, luxify it as a Lincoln and take on the CTS and 300.

Falcon is going out of production. A very solid reason it was never imported.

That, and which parts of a newer Mustang came from one? I'm not aware of any- as the new Mustang is out the same time the Falcon is gone.

As for Transit Connect sales taking a dump, if bad sales going to zero actually means a +20% increase of sales, I'll take that all day. Not sure how a big increase of sales is the same as a re-design screw up.

And if it helps, Transit sales (the big one) for 2015 is less than E series for 2014 through July. But I wonder how much of that is ramping up for the new van.

In reply to alfadriver:

A lot of the suspension was based off of the Falcons design. If it wasn't for the Falcon, the Mustang would still have a SRA. Well, maybe not entirely but they would of had to develop a new IRA for the Mustang.

Merc wrote: In reply to alfadriver: A lot of the suspension was based off of the Falcons design. If it wasn't for the Falcon, the Mustang would still have a SRA. Well, maybe not entirely but they would of had to develop a new IRA for the Mustang.

This for the brand new Mustang. The one that is still around while the Falcon is gone.

Also, the Mustang that is based off of the DEW98 platform, still- which had independent rear in this car a decade ago.

Where did you get that information? I find it really hard to believe. Was it from some magazine, or from a Ford engineer?

As for the live axle, this was the one every one panned on but was faster than a BMW around some tracks with similar power. Yea, that sucked bad. I'm not a fan of live axles, but the last iteration was quite well behaved. The current IRS is there to sell the car in Europe, as they would not accept the live axle in enough numbers to matter.

(that, and another reason which we will all find out in a couple of years)

In reply to alfadriver:

Ah okay. Makes sense. Looks like it's been a (long) while since I've been back in the car scene.

I always thought it'd be cool if Ford did a sawzall job on the Transit Connect and brought back the econoline pickup. It would be smaller than the modern ranger, get better gas mileage, have a silly low load floor. It would look goofy as hell, though most new cars do anyway.

Isn't the Transit Connect FWD? That would take it out of contention for a lot of truck guys. Nevertheless, I like the idea. Most of the engineering is already done, although you'd have to beef up the chassis considerably.

Kreb wrote: Isn't the Transit Connect FWD? That would take it out of contention for a lot of truck guys. Nevertheless, I like the idea. Most of the engineering is already done, although you'd have to beef up the chassis considerably.

It's also basically a big Focus.

In reply to alfadriver:

Yep, still loosely based on the Lincoln LS platform isn't it?

yamaha wrote: In reply to alfadriver: Yep, still loosely based on the Lincoln LS platform isn't it?

No, that platform was RWD. The S197 Mustang was loosely based on it, is that what you're thinking of?

Not many "truck" guys buy the Transit connect since it is not really a truck. Plumbers and electricians like it. Flower shops too.

On the Connect, it's not so much plumbers because their stuff is so bulky and heavy. Electricians, copier repair, flowers, data wiring, that sort of stuff like it. Plumbers, HVAC and carpenters need the big vans. I plan on buying the big ones for my service guys (HVAC) with the high roofline. They love not having to bend over much when looking for stuff.

I'm also seeing a lot of station-wagon versions of the Connect hitting the road. The sort of people who'd want a big Element or a SUV without the fru-fru.

Tom_Spangler wrote:

yamaha wrote: In reply to alfadriver: Yep, still loosely based on the Lincoln LS platform isn't it?

No, that platform was RWD. The S197 Mustang was loosely based on it, is that what you're thinking of?

I should have quoted Alfa's post I replied to.....I was referencing the comment he made above about the s550 chassis mustang.