With the demise of the Ranger, Ford gave up the mid-size pickup market several years ago. They have been operating on the assumption that because their larger F150 with a six gets as good or better fuel economy then the Rangers and the mid-size competitors it was an adequate replacement.
I don't like the near F250-size of the F150 for a daily driver. Hence, I found me a 1969 F100. I drive it or my 2011 Mustang most of the time or my H-D Ultra.
But this weekend when I was picking up my rescue Beagles, there was a 2015 Chevy Colorado there. Still a little big for my tastes - about the same size as the 2015 Explorer my wife drives, but a vast improvement in size over a full-sized Ford or Chevy pickup. Owner said he was getting 22-24 MPG with 4WD and the tow package. Reasonable in my book. Much better than my son's Nissan Frontier (with 4 doors) which is another reasonable offering in this segment.
To the best of my knowledge, Ford has indicated no desire to return to the mid-size pickup market in the States. I think they are making a mistake.

 

The so called "compact" trucks are all actually 3/4 sized trucks with little or no actual benefits in MPG's, towing, payload or otherwise.

 

If it's significantly lighter and the powertrain efficiency is reasonably close, the smaller truck has to do somewhat better in mpg. Ford just went all out to save some lbs on the F150 for that very reason.

As to why you'd want one -- it's personal preference. In my case, and I suspect the same is true of the OP, I don't like driving a huge vehicle. It's less manuverable, harder to park, things like that. That's just me -- and a few others.

hj

 

It's my opinion that Ford should bring back the Ranger for the slightly smaller more parking lot friendly vehicle. The difference in MPG's will be negligible based on my personal experience with my truck.

 

It is disappointing the Blue Oval will not even attempt to compete in this market segment. I read they will be focusing resources on higher performance vehicles and continued improvements on the F150 line.
So they are leaving this segment to Toyota, Nissan and GM.
I daresay there are a few of us out there who would be content, even prefer, a pickup capable of towing a 5K pound popup as opposed to a 12,000 pound fifth wheel or travel trailer and be able to throw the fishing rods and bicycles in the back for quick getaways. A vehicle somewhat easier to maneuver, yet still be able to haul a few bags of soil, mulch, some fencing without messing up the back of their SUV.
Just the height alone for the F150 and up make them less appealing to some, including me.

 

If I controlled Ford I'd bring to or make a ute for the US market. Specifically likely a small unibody pickup/ute based on the explorer platform.

 

As much as I dislike it, the Ridgeline seems to be selling decently.

Sent from my Brigadier using IB AutoGroup

 

That's a real question mark, as that thing was down to what, 6000 per year? And the kept it--not sure what the current numbers are.

Funny Ford couldn't stand selling what, 25,000 Rangers, but Honda soldiers on under 10k.....

ON EDIT--disregard the above, see the next post for real numbers. This is what happens when you pull numbers out of your air-infused memory, which may be residing in a body cavity not originally designed for memory. I think.

 

Discontinued until 2016.



According to wikipedia...

Honda Ridgeline
2005 42,593[24]
2006 50,193
2007 42,795
2008 33,875
2009 16,464
2010 16,142
2011 9,759
2012 14,068
2013 17,723[25]
2014 13,389

Ford Ranger (North America)
2005 120,958
2006[37] 92,420
2007 72,711
2008[38] 65,872
2009[39] 55,600
2010[40] 55,364
2011[41] 70,832

 

Ridgeline = Retarded useless thing based on the pilot platform thus cheap to make.


Ranger = Great useful little truck but no longer shares anything with anything else thus expensive to make.

 

The last Ridgeline produced was in 2014, 2015 will be skipped for a redesign and the new models will be out in 2016. Not a great seller if they can afford to shut it down for redesign and retooling.

 

The Ridgeline reminds me somewhat of the Ford Ranger Sporttrack. It was an odd duck of a vehicle itself. Probably pretty close in specs to the Chevy Colorado of today.

 

Like the Taurus.

 

The Taurus never went on hiatus, it was renamed the Ford 500 but the same chassis and drive line was used. It didn't sell well because people just didn't want a Ford 500, they wanted a Taurus.

 

The Ford Five Hundred was a full-size sedan[2] produced by the Ford Motor Company during the 2005 to 2007 model years in North America. Intended as an upscale option to the company's popular mid-size Taurus, it was built on their slightly larger "global" D3 platform. The "Five Hundred" name was intended to evoke the successful Fairlane 500 and Galaxie 500 models of the 1950s through 1970s.