Ford talking unibody Ranger replacement

Gallery:
http://www.autoblog.com/photos/2011-...photo-3467316/

Now here's some welcome news. Car and Driver reports Ford is seriously mulling a replacement for the recently deceased Ranger, but the successor to the compact pickup's throne may not look anything like what we've seen from the nameplate in the past.

While speaking at the 2013 Chicago Auto Show, Doug Scott, marketing manager for Ford Trucks, said there's still a market for a smaller pickup, but that buyers expect to see a larger differentiation between the smaller utility vehicles and their full size counterparts in price, capability and fuel economy.

According to Scott, that means a vehicle with a payload capacity of around 1,000 pounds paired with a towing capacity of 3,000 pounds and "a dramatic reduction in fuel consumption." But the biggest piece of that recipe is the price tag, and Scott says to keep the MSRP far enough away from the already cheap F-150, the answer could come in the form of a unibody design. Scott says target customers in this market don't care whether the truck has a traditional frame or not, so long as it's tough enough to do the job and has the capability they need.

We should be clear here: Ford hasn't approved such a vehicle for production, but the company is working on developing a business case for the model. Even so, it could be years before buyers see another small pickup on dealer lots.

http://www.autoblog.com/2013/02/18/f...r-replacement/

 

Thank goodness talk of a replacement is still in the cards. There is certainly a market for a smaller pick-up.

Very true, and smaller trucks should be able to hit the magic 30mpg within a few years

 

It's BACK in the cards. Their strategy was that everyone would automatically jump up to the F-150, but Ford has found that's definitely not the case. Something like 60% of Ranger owners were leaving Ford altogether. Most headed to Toyota Tacoma.

 

Yes the Tacoma currently enjoys good numbers amongst its peers like Frontier, Colorado/Canyon, Ridgeline, Defunct Equator and Defunct Dakota mainly because they are aging or lackluster. Nissan would have been wise to update the Frontier sooner as it and it's Titan sibling are long in the tooth.

Ford would be wise to get another Ranger going, as would Dodge and a Dakota replacement. The latest F-150 and Ram 1500 are very capable and advanced. Smaller trucks would surely benefit from the same engineering and technologies

 

It will have to be priced correctly. One of the main reasons the old Ranger died off in the American market is that too many truck-buyers found they could get a bigger F-150, for not much more money, that could do more work.