New Ford Ranger mega thread

It doesn't look bad, but when I look at this truck and especially the Colorado, it feels like I'm looking at a truck with good lines but through a fun house mirror. Almost every line on this truck does something unexpected.

 

Looks like a nice truck, good that Ford is coming back to the segment. I had experience with 2 rangers in past and found them solid, simple and dependable. They will get a lot of buyers who had experience with the old rangers.

This thrust to ever more power out of highly technical smaller displacement motors under ever tighter emission requirements makes a guy wonder but it looks good on paper anyway.

Ford walked from the Ranger in 2012 with sales of around 65 thousand units I think, with over 60% of sales going to fleet sales, companies like orkin. Honda was selling half that with the Ridgeline and didn't back out, Toyota was selling well over 100k. The Ranger was an older, simple, affordable, outdated but proven platform and it was much maligned in the automotive media. On price point it was too competitive with the entry level flagship F150. Ford thought Ranger buyers would go into either the F150 or a car like the focus. Yea, no so a lot went and bought Tacomas and Frontiers.

At any rate my sense is that domestic manufacturers don't thoroughly understand the midsize segment, that's why you can't get options like manual transmissions. American companies look to Japanese companies to tell them what midsize consumers want in America's back 40. Domestics all pulled out and are coming back hard pushing the limits of features, technology and performance. Whatever its faults, Toyota's steady more conservative approach to the market and it's buyers is comforting and it will likely stay on top of the segment.

 

The manual transmission will definitely be a differentiator for Toyota going forward. For some it’s a must have.

The whole story on abandoning the Ranger is a lot more complicated. Ford detached development on the Explorer from the Ranger in the early 2000s. After that the Explorer line got its own midsize truck and Ford didn’t update the Ranger. The Explorer midsize truck didn’t really fit the market and died off. Ford then considered making a unibody Ranger based off the Explorer again but realized that wouldn’t fit the market either. At that point Ford realized they could either dump a lot of money into updating the Ranger plant and build the global Ranger, something that had never been done before building a global truck for North America, or they could just go forward with a more efficient F150. They choose the cheaper option. After watching GM have success with a global platform here though Ford has reversed their position. It also helps that plant capacity was available after Ford moved Focus production to another car plant. Globally the Ford Ranger is a leader and outsells the Colorado by a wide margin especially in difficult work conditions. It’ll be interesting to see how that model is received here.

 

what about the open deck on the 4.0 in the 2nd gen? is that questionable also?

 

http://www.mlive.com/auto/index.ssf/2018/01/ford_new_truck.html

Just an FYI.

 

Mines been perfect, so I don’t have any motor issues. If it takes a shit, I’ll bring it to Ford and let them fix it, I don’t drive around stressing about it. It’s a 40k Focus, I had no illusions about resale value on the thing, it’s a really fun car!

 

Our friends have an RS as well. They are Lexus people but went Ford for the performance and drive. They love their RS. Actually it’s their second RS. There first was stolen and it’s a long story lol.

 

I have not read if they will offer a configuration with an actual truck bed or just the DCSB. Did I miss it?

 

I wonder if the FX4 package will be like on the F150 where you can order it on the base trim level. If so that could be really appealing as a starting build.

 

Only Extended Cab 6ft Bed and DCSB.
Check TFL Truck on YouTube.

 

But it is not.

Articles have mentioned frame.

 

The Ridgeline looks like a pickup even though it really isn't.

 

depends on how you define pickup. One could say it is a pickup built on a unibody platform. For the record, imo, the target audience for the Ridgeline is not the same as for the Tacoma.

 

This Ford looks like the Global Ranger which gave the Hilux a run for its money overseas.

There is already an aftermarket for it and should be easy to obtain once production begins here.

I'm honestly excited that there is another competitor in the mid-sized truck market. The Global Ranger did amazing things overseas. If the power train holds up for the domestic Ranger, it should do the same.

 

What is this? Tacoma World or Ranger World?

 

Agreed. This isn't 1950 anymore. The lines that defined what's "domestic" and what's an "import" were blurred decades ago with vehicles like the Chevy Luv and Ford Courier....rebaged Japanese trucks. Then a couple decades later...flip that with the Mazda B and Isuzu Hombre...both redaged Ford and Chevy products.

And to blur the lines even further modern trucks like the Tacoma are designed and produced in N. America with a domestic part content of something north of 70% last I read. That qualities it has a domestic vehicle according to the government.

We live in a global environment.

 

Power train is thought to be the turbo 4 mated to the 10 speed auto

Like it or not this will definitely get people's attention when shipping for a mid sized truck

https://www.usatoday.com/story/mone...d-shows-new-ranger-midsize-pickup/1032446001/

Discuss

 

10 speed auto... wow... Meanwhile the 3rd genners are talking about excessive gear hunting with the 6 speed auto. Can't wait to see how this works out for Ford.

Edit: Really not being sarcastic, I just haven't driven a 6 speed auto that I enjoyed.

 

It kinda looks like the 3rd gen Tacoma.