It seems that the Ford executives feel that most Ranger buyers bought it on price alone, which I don`t feel is accurate. Certainly most commercial buyers may have bought on price, but speaking for myself, the Ranger platform was the perfect size for a commuter vehicle in downtown traffic with occasional light hauling now & then. I also own an old F350 for hauling my race cars, or heavy loads, and we have a "normal" car for trips, or when we need to carry more than 2 people. I bought my Ranger BECAUSE of it`s size & utility value. Even if a base F150 was the exact same price, and got the same mileage, I still would have chose a Ranger. And by the number of other Rangers I see on the road every day, I`m not alone in my thinking. I see a lot more "loaded up" Rangers on the road than stripper XL`s, I`m sure that many of these fancier Rangers were pretty close in price to a mid line F150. I`m guessing that many people would have chose a loaded Ranger to a plain F150 for the same price. Now that option is no longer available to them. Since I prefer manual transmissions, and Ford has chosen to make all the F150-350`s automatic only, Ford couldn`t have sold me a F series anyhow. As I understand it, Ford was selling twice as many Rangers as Flexes, yet they killed off the Ranger, and kept the Flex. Go figure. Hopefully my 2010 Ranger lasts me a good long time, like 2 of my other Fords (74 F350, 24 years, 78 Fairmont, 26 years, no plans to sell either of them.)