Last week, Ford came out with the big announcement that we have been waiting to hear for such a long time. The announcement was about bringing the Ford Bronco and Ranger back in the US. The Ranger will come back in 2019, while the Bronco is scheduled to hit the market in 2024. The announcement itself was not quite surprising because there have been hints about the comeback of these vehicles, especially in 2016. But why exactly did Ford decide to bring these models back now?
2019 Ford Ranger
The 2019 Ford Ranger will be just what you expect to see, and we believe that nothing important will be changed. In 2011, Ford decided to stop producing the Ranger in the US, but it can still be found in the dealerships across the pond. The reason for the discontinuation was that the Ranger would negatively affect the sales of the more profitable F-150. Meanwhile, the Ford staff conducted market research, and they decided that the time has come to bring back the Ranger to the US.
What they found out in that analysis is that the potential Ranger customers wanted a smaller pickup truck. The customers didn’t show interest in the midsize truck because an F-150 was too big for them or because of its fuel efficiency. With this in mind and the fact that the gas prices decreased, the company decided that now is the right time for Ford Ranger’s comeback. Furthermore, General Motors also introduced the midsize Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon, so their success on the market probably had some influence on Blue Oval decision as well.
The new Ranger that will hit the US market will be a version of the one sold in Europe, Australia and Asia. It will come as a 4×4 pickup, and it is expected that its off-road abilities will attract American buyers and that these abilities will be a key selling point in the States.
2020 Ford Bronco
Just like the Ranger, the 2020 Ford Bronco will also brag about its off-road abilities. As announced, the new Bronco will come a year after the Ranger, while the Ford Global Product Chief Raj Nair confirmed that the new model would be based on the Ranger’s architecture, but it will receive new styling cues. What is also great news is that the Bronco will be on sale in other markets in the world and not only in the US. The SUV market has blossomed, and this is one of the reasons why Ford decided to bring back the Bronco.
It has been speculated that the new Bronco will be based on the Australian Ford Everest, but Nair denied those rumors. All the Bronco fans probably felt relief upon hearing this news, because we all want to see a new Bronco that will resemble the classic Bronco. Speaking about the Everest, Nair also mentioned that Ford has no plans about selling this model in the USA.
Ford hopes that some of the fans of the excellent Jeep Wrangler could become enthusiasts of the new Bronco. In the past, the Ford Bronco had two doors, and it was a 4WD SUV, but it is not completely clear whether the new model will also come with two-door design or the carmaker will move to more practical design with four doors. Nevertheless, we can claim without a shadow of a doubt that Blue Oval wants to bring the essence of the old Bronco days back.
This means that some of the rivals of the new Bronco will be Jeep Wrangler, GMC Canyon, Toyota Tacoma, to name a few. The 2024 Ford Bronco will be a tremendous off-road vehicle also practical for running some errands around the town. We expect to see different trims of both Ranger and Bronco, and we cannot wait for these models to come out.
