Heard the news that Ford was ceasing Ranger production in September and officially closing the St Paul Ranger plant. Just happened to be in St Paul for "Back to the 50's" the other weekend, so we took a little roadtrip across town to the Ford Parkway in the Highland Park neighborhood and visited the plant, from the outside anyway (there are no public inside tours). A sign out front proudly proclaimed "Home of the Ranger". The front of the plant is very nice looking, part of it is almost Mission style and flanked by stately rows of leafy trees. This is probably the original facade from the 1920's and it has a 1960's looking addition. The accompanying damhouse and powerplant are equally attractive. It in no way looks like an old smokestack industrial complex that it has been made out to be. In the rear, a few dozen shiny new Rangers stood gleaming in the sun. I think the blue 4x4 wanted me to take it home. It was a Friday night and the employee parking lot was eerily empty. Sadly, 600 people will be out of a job by the time the plant fully shuts down. Business is business but I am sad to see the iconic Ranger finally go out of production. It is also sad to see this very nice assembly plant about to be mothballed. Maybe the economy will pick up and Ford may again need that production capacity.

 

BlueOval,

It's a sad story playing out across the United States. Poor leadership in business and government along with the lack of visionaries has led us to a bad point in our countries existance. A good many of these leaders need to exit business, return the money they've been bilking out of them, and give others with vision and more altruistic beliefs a chance to lead.

Here are a few links to consider -

http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/rankings/Compact-Pickup-Trucks/
http://money.cnn.com/2011/06/22/autos/ford_jd_power_initial_quality/index.htm
http://www.edmunds.com/car-reviews/top-10/top-10-most-fuel-efficient-trucks-for-2011.html
http://www.edmunds.com/car-reviews/consumers-favorites/best-pickup-trucks-2011.html
http://www.cars.com/go/crp/buyingGuides/Section.jsp?section=Pickup&subject=Pickup&year=New &story=index&knc=ResAybTGEnwNmmTRK&domainid=68&det id=2202382335&aff=aybsemc

The fact is that the Ranger, despite it's many virtues, misses the mark when it comes to consumers. Ford lost the business because it's leaders lacked proper perspective: what consumers want. No doubt short term thinking overwhelmed any possibility for good judgment: profits before customers. Now, the customers are looking elsewhere, profits are gone, and workers to be tossed amongst the heap of unemployed. The main purpose of any business is to provide products and solutions that people need and want (but mainly need). Management is charged with meeting these needs and for expanding the business to provide jobs. Instead of a redesign and platform optimization, Ford squeezed out all it could from this product line and will abandon it. The F-150 will suffer a similar fate if they don't wake up and make some changes (in design and LEADERSHIP).

I've been in several of the Big 3 plants - antiquated compared to the new Big 3 (Toyota, Nissan and Honda). This deterioration is a manmade mess and completely avoidable. But, without a plan to stay in business and provide more and more jobs, our Big 3 opted to maximize profits ahead of good business. Consider that for the past 30 years, Toyota alone has enjoyed more profit than Ford, GM and Chrysler combined. They did that with selling far fewer cars over that same period, likely around 6 to 1 in favor of the big three but as high as 10 to 1 and more recently, Toyota is ranked with GM at the top. This was achieved through good business planning and a high emphasis on Quality. The shame of it is that one of our greatest pioneers in Quality (W. Edwards Deming) was the one who taught Japan (including Toyota) about Quality and Quality Management. It has been used against us quite effectively over the past 50 years. He warned this day would come, but his warnings are distant whispers these days. It's truly a crime in my opinion to create the waste of humanity that we do here, something I wish greedy politicians and businessmen would take notice of - but they are too busy getting a bigger piece of the pie for themselves.

Enough of my rant here. I appreciate the description of the plant; painted a nice image in my mind for the most part, but the lonely blue Ranger in the picture in my mind also brings sadness. This great nation of our deserves a lot better than we are getting.

Kevin

 

My choice of truck will of course shift to the F150 but I will never buy or drive an American made car again. Especially a Ford made car. I've been loyal to Ford all of my life and now realize after buying my first Toyota car, that Ford makes a car that is so low in quality that my decision was an easy decision

 

Greeny,

I have some thoughts on Brand Loyalty too, but I'm off to the fort. I'll post some thoughts later but needless to say, our Big 3 count on Blind loyalty. That's disappearing.

Kevin

 

I'm not sad, there are plenty of used Rangers for sale for people to buy. No one says you have to buy a new vehicle, used vehicles can be just as or more reliable.

 

I ran across this quite awhile back and found a lot of really neat history and picures in it. There were some more showing the cars coming out of the bottom tunnels to be loaded on to barges.
Dave
Ford Motors Plant Sand Mine Tunnels | Saint Paul MN

 

The Ranger is not dead..........To use Arnold's words, "I'll be back".

Ford will not abandon this market for long, there are too many folks who do not need a F-150. Ford has been in the small truck market since the first tiny Courier hit these shores, there may be a hiatus, but Ranger will be back in some improved form in a couple of years.

 

The best a manufacturer can hope for is Brand Loyalty; a customer who buys on past experience and reputation (good on both accounts). I think that most Ranger owners I've had conversations are generally brand loyal. But if the relationship sours, like it did for Greeny on cars, then it takes enormous resources to get that customer back. Too often, the cost exceeds practical/pragmatic limits, so once gone, always gone.

I hope 93 is correct and that they don't take long to jump back into the mix. Out too long, then the customer becomes brand loyal to your competitors. There will always be diehards amongst the population, but not enough to sustain a resurgence (e.g. the Ford Thunderbird). Ford would be better off taking their lumps for another year and developing a strategy to remain competitive in a market space that they helped to create. What will their Mission be? Style and reliability are at the top of the list. Ride comfort too. Listen to the customer: they are often right about what they want (imagine that!). Innovate: give them something that they find useful that they hadn't imagined (hard to do, but Korea and Japan are busy, busy, busy...innovating).

To remain competitive in today's marketplace and economy, a business has to be creative. The reality is that even though investment in future innovation is painful (and you may have to explain to your stockholders that the dividend is lighter because of this), most realize that without it, your business is doomed. Enough about meeting Wall Street expectations (to be frank, WS hasn't met the vast majority of US Citizens expectations). Focus on building products people need...and desire. Create brand loyalty...not blind loyalty. Blind loyalty will ultimately result in a lose-lose proposition, not one either the business or the consumer can afford.

(off my soap box again)

 

Some variation of the "world" Ranger will be made acceptable to our EPA ****'s.

 

That's a good point: NA sales and distribution are ceased, but elsewhere you can get the Ranger. I suppose this may be the lifeline back to the domestic Ranger Sales if they can right the ship elsewhere in the world. Still, I'd have to believe that the NA market was the largest market for worldwide Ranger sales.

I'm feeling though that in order to attempt a top billing for the F-150, Ford is hoping for prospective Ranger buyers to move up to the F-150 and boost sales there. A numbers game with no real upside. Then the F-150 slides further down the list.

I hope I'm wrong.

Kevin

 

Would be nice if the 2.5 and/or 3.0 I4 turbodiesel were to make it past those EPA gooks. Ford, as well as many other manufacturers, has been selling diesel powered cars and small trucks all over the world, aside from the NA market, for many years. The EPA and government "claim" to pushing for improved MPG, and the diesel technology has a proven record of achieving this "goal", yet the EPA imposes major restrictions on the use of this fuel. I feel that if it meets the emission requirements of europe, it should meet them here.
European auto sales is nearly 50% diesel powered, due to the excellent MPG. Some of the models sold there can achieve 75 MPG or more. Granted, this figure is skewed slightly due to a "Gallon" in europe being 4L. Still, that 75 MPG figure would be over 65 MPG using our gallon measurement.
No wonder the Europeans think we are idiots........ As a country, we are. We elect idiots, who make idiotic decisions, so we re-elect them......
Our auto industry is even worse. They hire idiots, who make idiotic decisions, so they pay them millions in "bonuses" every year..........

 

I'm not so sure it's the EPA but having to meet all the safety rule on construction, heard one of the main concerns was in the "A" pillar design. One problem with the diesels is that we were so slow to adopt the requirements for low sulfur fuel, not the technolege of the motors.
Someone posted a sweet looking four door with the turbo diesel here awhile back from the Netherlands. Think it even had the long bed.
Dave

 

I just read in Detroit News they're going to make Rangers in Africa. Hope this article is still there by this time tomorrow. go to www.detnews.com/article/20110625 . If you can't find it there,, just go to det.news. com and go into the Autos section link at top of page,, its there as I type this.

 

Well, just how is that going to help us? They have been making Rangers in Tailand and Brazile, Argentinia for years. See one of them show up yet? You won't either! Maybe a better link would help.
Dave

 

We need to start taxing the hell out of things comming into this country so it cheaper to buy things that are made right here providing jobs to Americans. We can't keep loosing jobs to overseas labor