the skinny on the rangers death

The Ranger is Dead – Long Live the Ranger
April 17, 2008
The Ford Ranger will take a short holiday

By Igor Holas

04.17.2008


Much has been written about the stupidity of letting the venerable Ranger wither on the vine and lose its sales crown to Toyota’s Tacoma. Many writers, editors, and bloggers took it upon themselves to come up with new and innovative ways to call Ford shortsighted and use the Ranger’s demise as a case in point that Ford is in the fast lane to bankruptcy. However, behind the scenes, Ford is readying a duo of new trucks to be released in the wake of the Ranger’s demise, and is also planning an ultimate return of the Ranger to the US market.

Internal sources have recently confirmed that the Ranger will be discontinued after the St. Paul assembly plant is shut down next year. We also had it confirmed that, at least for several months, Ford will not be producing any truck smaller than F-150 in North America, and will be just selling down inventory of already-built Rangers. However, Ford is not to be absent for long in the mid-size segment.

Our sources indicate that for the past decade, Ford has been working on a new mid-size truck. This truck was to answer the competition’s move from truly small trucks to something bigger – about the size of an old F-150 – offering more space, better ride, more capability, and more power. The new truck under development was to be released several years ago, but it fell victim to the changing of the guard among Ford’s top brass and the volatile product development plans. The project moved to and from the back burner several times as Ford shifted its attention to more “important” causes. As a result, not only did the Ranger miss the move from small to midsize trucks, it was left on the market way past its expiration date, and will leave the scene without a direct successor. Luckily, however this new truck is finally again settled on the front burner and will be released in the fall of 2010 as the 2011 F100 midsize truck. It will be built alongside its bigger brother in the Michigan Truck Plant.

The new Ranger built in Thailand will not become truly global and will not be sold in North America

The underpinnings of this truck are familiar – a shortened and lightened F¬-150 frame with numerous shared components. The truck will copy Dakota with a V6 and V8 engine lineup, but position its V6 engine as the key power plant – restricting V8 to limited-volume trims. The truck will be a little bigger than its competition with dimensions just slightly smaller than the 1998 – 2003 F150. Unlike the Ranger, the F-100 will finally include a true five-seating double-cab, upscale version of which will serve as a Sport Trac replacement.

This new truck platform will spawn one more vehicle: a new Ford Bronco. Secretly (until now), Ford has been preparing an answer to the success that is the Wrangler, and the threat that is the Hummer H4. The Bronco will stay true to its original roots and be a capable off-roader with two solid axles, true 4×4 and a truck frame. After the 2004 Bronco concept which was built on the Fiesta platform, many diehards were worried the Bronco would become a soft-roading lifestyle SUV for the urban youth market. While I and some others saw potential in this move, it seems Ford is playing it safe with the Bronco name and affixing it to a true, rugged off-road capable SUV. Like the Wrangler, the Bronco is to feature a removable top and folding windshield. It could debut alongside the F-100 in 2010, or a little later.

The Bronco is to make an honest return to its off-road roots. Ford is aiming at the Wrangler and the upcoming Hummer H4 with this new truck.

Finally, by the end of 2012, the Ranger is scheduled to return to the US showrooms. Last year, the F-100 was evaluated as a potential global replacement for the Ranger, but it was not awarded this prestigious position. Instead, Ford’s Australian branch was tasked with developing a brand new small truck platform dubbed T6. Unlike the current “Thai” Ranger or the upcoming F-100, the T6 “Global” Ranger is to return to its humble compact roots. The size will be very close to the current North American Ranger, and it might even shrink. The result is to be a one world-beating small truck that is happy to run on four-cylinder power. This new truck is to replace all the different Rangers around the world, along with the Bantam, Courier, and other locally-designed Ford compact trucks. While 2012 is a ways away, the T6 Ranger is being developed with US sales in mind.

So here you have it folks. Ford will discontinue the Ranger next year – it will happen. However, within a year, Ford will replace it with the F-100, add a new Bronco, and about a year after that revive the Ranger as what it is today – an honest, humble, hard-working compact truck without any pretense.

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Ford May Make an F-100 in 2012 from the F-150
May 19, 2008
Ford may bring back revered nameplate

By Brendan Moore

05.19.2008

According to Automotive News this morning, Ford is considering producing a smaller, lighter and more fuel-efficient pickup truck off the F-150 platform and calling it the F-100. Ford sources caution that the revival of the F-100 name is not a done deal; in fact, they say it could just as easily be the new Ranger replacement.
The proposed truck is known internally by the code name of P525, and is expected to commence production in early 2011 calendar year at Ford’s Michigan Truck Plant in Wayne, Michigan.

The F-100 nameplate was used for decades; starting in the 50’s, and has a lot of brand equity among Ford truck fans. I had a few of them myself. Of course, the Ranger nameplate has a lot of fans, too, and Ford has so far been mum on whether the model will continue after the scheduled 2009 build-out.

Pickup truck sales are in free-fall as the price of gasoline continues to climb, and there is no doubt that Ford would like a more fuel-efficient offering for the future in the pickup segment. It is assumed that the new truck would not even have a V8 option, but instead have some variation of Ford’s new V6 EcoBoost engine, a turbocharged, direct-injection marvel that puts out a lot of usable horsepower while still providing good fuel economy.

Ford makes a lot of money in the pickup truck market, and if the market is changing to a smaller average vehicle offering, then there is no doubt that they will want to be first out of the blocks with a pickup that is not too small and not too big (and thirsty). It is obvious that Ford, like other vehicle manufacturers, has made a decision that the price of gasoline is going to keep going up.

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Ford Loses $8.7 Billion in Q2, Confirms Plant Retoolings
July 24, 2008

By Chris Haak

07.24.2008

As Autosavant previously reported would happen (and in the process, scooped the rest of the journalistic world by five whole weeks), Ford announced the details of its newest turnaround plan today, including the conversion of several truck plants that were otherwise slated for closure, and instead will be retooled for production of European-based small cars.

In the light of an $8.7 billion loss for the second quarter of the year (of which $8.0 billion was non-cash impairment charges to write off the value of troubled assets, such as the $5.3 billion write-down for the company’s North American operations that are part of the $8.0 billion charge), Ford CEO Alan Mulally provided a lot more detail about the plant retooling that Autosavant had previously reported.

The company will move production of the Expedition and Navigator from its Michigan Truck Plant in Wayne, Michigan to the Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville early in 2009. The Michigan Truck Plant will then be retooled to produce C-segment small vehicles based on the platform shared with the European Focus. That accounts for one of the three plants.

The Louisville, Kentucky plant that currently builds the Ford Explorer (a former cash cow for the company that has seen its sales nearly collapse for the past few years) will also be converted to build more C-segment small cars beginning in 2011. The plant will be available then because the next Explorer is due in 2010 and will move to a new unibody architecture, so will be produced at a different plant, likely where the company’s other large crossovers are produced in Ontario.

The Cuautitlan, Mexico truck plant will produce the B-segment Fiesta small car for North American sales in early 2010. That plant currently builds F-series pickups.

Since Ford’s F-series truck sales have struggled this year, and the company has commensurately reduced production plans, Ford will only have three shifts at two plants building F-series trucks, which is quite a shift from years past, when multiple plants were running multiple shifts just to keep up with demand for the pickups back in the “good old days” of cheap gasoline.

Other product moves (or non-moves, as the case may be) that Ford announced this morning was confirmation that the Ranger pickup will soldier on for two more years than originally planned, until 2011. Its plant in the Minneapolis, Minnesota area that builds the small pickup had been slated for closure at the end of 2009, but concern about fuel prices – plus the fact that the Ranger is the only true compact, non-midsize pickup in the North American market – gave the Ranger a new lease on life. The company also restated plans to introduce a seven-passenger Lincoln crossover based on the Ford Flex in 2009, the Transit Connect small van in 2009. The European Focus will also finally hit the US market in 2010, shortly after the Fiesta small car makes its debut.

The changes will be difficult for Ford to implement, and the company’s financial results will probably look worse in the coming quarters before they start to look better, but the company is making all of the right moves to address the US market’s seismic shift of the past quarter. With these announced moves, Ford appears to have taken far more aggressive and decisive steps to fix its situation than GM or Chrysler have taken. It makes one wonder if GM or Chrysler will announce similar ideas in the coming months.

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Isnt this kinda old and inaccuarte news. Its been confirmed the Ranger will live on through 2011.

The F-100 has been shelved for now and likely won't be produced in the foreseeable future.

As it stands, the Ranger will be sold through the 2011 model year, then replaced with a new global platform Ranger, which I hope will not be a rebadged Mazda BT-50.

The date of that "News Flash" was July 2008 so yes, quite old news.
Dave

looks like they care about the UK's Ranger more.


The redesigned, wind-tunnel tested Ranger pickup receives a complete revamping both inside and out, and safe to say, it looks pretty well done. Built in Thailand and shipped to Europe for sale, the Ranger can be had in three body styles with two diesel engines -- 2.5L Turbo (141-hp/ 243 lb-ft) or 3.0L (154-hp/280 lb-ft) -- mated to five-speed automatic or manual transmissions. It can also come in 4x2 or 4x4 configurations for those looking for off-road capability and touts a claimed towing capacity of 3000 kg (6614 lbs). Europeans will get all the new Ranger fun beginning this April.

http://wot.motortrend.com/6434828/auto-shows/bring-them-over-revamped-ranger-headlines-fords-geneva-show-lineup/index.html

^^^^Hmmm doesnt look like a small sized pickup anymore. Wonder what the regular cab will look like?? Though I do like it more than the Thailand concept.

Here's some more pics from Autoblog: http://www.autoblog.com/photos/geneva-2009-ford-ranger-euro/1369869/

http://www.autoblog.com/photos/geneva-2009-ford-ranger-euro/1369871/

http://www.autoblog.com/photos/geneva-2009-ford-ranger-euro/1369872/

http://www.autoblog.com/photos/geneva-2009-ford-ranger-euro/1369870/

I kinda like it. Make it Black, no chrome!

^^^Yeah its a nice lookng vehicle no doubt. It may not look much like a pickup any longer but it is nice. That interior look great.

Keep that Mazda BT-50 in Thailand.

If I buy something with a Ford badge on it, I expect it to be an actual Ford.

all i got from the first one is that its a bigger pick up powered by a V6 and you have to beg and shell out your left nut to get the V8.

BDAB said:

all i got from the first one is that its a bigger pick up powered by a V6 and you have to beg and shell out your left nut to get the V8.

Click to expand...

That was going to be the case with the F-100, but it has been shelved. It's not going to happen in the near future.

I just wish Ford would keep the current platform. Give 4x4s a coil over front suspension, make the 3.5 Duratec the V6 engine option, throw in an EcoBoost engine option, change the sheetmetal, add a crew cab, change the interior, and be done with it. The Ranger is one of Ford's best products, and there's no need to fix what isn't broken, it just needs serious updating.

At the very least, design the thing in America like the original. I don't want a foreign truck.

thats what i am saying, it sounded like a much bigger truck powered by a way too small engine. The F100 is a dumb Idea because at that point you either $30,000 for an F100 or $30,000 for an F150. if they are really that close in size then why not just buy the bigger one....... Dakota's get horrible mileage with the V6 and are too light for the 360 V8.

the talk of bloating it like the new taco scares me,why the hell do we need a new truck thats too big AND too small at the same time? f^$@'N american "super size me" bullshit