The recently received report clearly suggested that the 2018/2019 Ford Ranger will be returning to the US in the mid-size truck segment. This information was simply forced by politics and Ford’s representatives had no choice than to give more details about it to avoid negative publicity.
We could hear Donald Trump attacking US carmaker for moving Focus production from Michigan facility to Mexico. In short statement from the company, they said that this step is needed as the two new models will be produced in Michigan and that jobs of people working there are safe. We are glad to hear that and even more joyful to hear that Ranger is coming back alongside Bronco.
The first version of Ranger was introduced in 1983 while the second generation model came in 1993. After 29-year production, it was finally stopped in 2012, at least for U.S. market. It survived on the international market in more than one form but most interesting for us is the mid-size truck.
Many may wonder why Ford is returning it after it has been dismissed and abandoned. It is pretty simple, during his last years of production it came very close in size to F-150 flagship truck in Ford’s lineup, and it simply didn’t have enough space, and the company didn’t want to jeopardize the sales of their number one pickup. On top of that sales were going down and crisis on the market forced them to make changes.
Now, if we take a look at the numbers of mid-size models that are sold by other car makers, it is clear that there is enough space for Ranger to return. In 2015 Toyota managed to sell about 180,000 Tacoma’s, plus, Canyon and his corporate brother Colorado reached almost 100,000 units. If the blue oval company manages to push all the right buttons, we think that Ranger could take a decent piece of the market.
Some reports say that entirely new platform will be developed for this mid-size truck, but we are sure that even if this happens many design cues will be taken from F-150 chassis. Currently, in the international lineup we have 2.5-liter gasoline and 2.2-liter diesel engines, those are expected to be dropped and replaced by new EcoBoost powerplants. The 3.2-liter diesel might be in the lineup with figures that would allow it to beat Canyon/Colorado in both power and fuel economy figures.
Source: Ford Ranger 2018
