- Joined
- Aug 6, 2007
- Messages
- 5,701
- Points
- 2,001
- State - Country
- GA - USA
- Vehicle Year
- 1999
- Vehicle
- Ford Ranger
- Engine
- 5.0
- Transmission
- Automatic
- Total Drop
- few inches
- Tire Size
- ~30"
I'm with everyone else on this, what you are proposing is an unrealistic pipedream.
Even if you could pull it off, there are already a classic styled truck the size of a Ranger out there. It's called the Ranger. There's also the Courier, some Chevies, Mazda, Nissan, Toyots, etc if the Ranger isn't to your liking. If I'm going to put 10-15K into a classic styled, compact pickup, I'm going to buy an older one of those for 1-2k and dump the rest into fixing it up or set aside for future maintenance. Buying something new production in that price range gains me exactly nothing over investing that money into something older.
As for finding a car manufacturer to build it, there is a reason you don't really see any small scale car companies around any more, at least none that last for an appreciable period of time. Those few that do manage are all expensive to purchase due to their production scale. The companies that can afford to absorb the cost of engineering and tooling for a new line are building in mass quantities and would not be interested in a design like you propose brought to them by a third party. They's also have to add so much equipment to meet EPA and NTSB requirements that you can figure at least an extra 10K to the starting price you're wanting just for the safety equipment they'd have to add.
Even if you could pull it off, there are already a classic styled truck the size of a Ranger out there. It's called the Ranger. There's also the Courier, some Chevies, Mazda, Nissan, Toyots, etc if the Ranger isn't to your liking. If I'm going to put 10-15K into a classic styled, compact pickup, I'm going to buy an older one of those for 1-2k and dump the rest into fixing it up or set aside for future maintenance. Buying something new production in that price range gains me exactly nothing over investing that money into something older.
As for finding a car manufacturer to build it, there is a reason you don't really see any small scale car companies around any more, at least none that last for an appreciable period of time. Those few that do manage are all expensive to purchase due to their production scale. The companies that can afford to absorb the cost of engineering and tooling for a new line are building in mass quantities and would not be interested in a design like you propose brought to them by a third party. They's also have to add so much equipment to meet EPA and NTSB requirements that you can figure at least an extra 10K to the starting price you're wanting just for the safety equipment they'd have to add.

