Jeep is a cult. Take a duece. Fish it out. Slap Jeep on it. Make yourself some extra cash. Anything will Jeep on it or next to it, it is going to garner attention. I know someone who makes Jeep based accessories. He cannot keep them on shelf. The last time I spoke with him, he said the last Jeep event they went to, they had very little product come back. The same event they ramped up the product line up by 30 percent!. If they had normal stock amounts, they would have packed up early and left. Plus they would not have taken on another reseller if they left early.

I went to a local 4X4 show last year. There were plenty of trucks. Full sized. Mid size. Old. Classic and new. (My friend was in the mid size class class with his Tacoma.) By far, the number of the Jeeps that were there was insane. I would have to say at least 2/3 of the show was Jeeps. After 2 rows of looking at Jeeps I went back to look at the trucks. Speaking of the new Jeep truck, I know of at least 2 Jeep owners looking at them and even thinking about trading in their jeep for one of the new Jeep trucks. The one guy on my facebook was just gushing about them. Jeep has the cool factor. The Jeep truck will have the cool an "retro" factor. The higher ups at Jeep know this and capitalizing on it. So to me it is a no brainer why people would be flocking to the Jeep truck at this time.

 

I'm not even a Jeep fan and I was drooling over the pics of the Jeep truck. Jeep gets it pure and simple.

 

Last I heard the Ranger is rated at 260 hp, that's a far cry from the hp you mention. Every time I hear the hp rating on the Ranger it gets lower.

 

The Focus RS uses the 2.3 engine rated at 350 hp.
The new Ranger is officially rated at 270 hp, which is about 60 hp more than the last US Rangers in 2011.

 

My point was more about the durability of the lower end standing up to hard work or modifications. But 260-270 sounds like a conservative rating. My 2002 E150's 4.6 V8 was rated at 235 hp and I drove it for 130k miles without suffering that much. (I did miss the torque of the Chevy 350's I had in GM vans.)

They may have tuned it for max low-end torque and gave away some horsepower in the higher end. Tow rating is over 7k lbs, right? The 2.3 won't be a wimpy engine and I hope it can last for 200k+ miles but we won't know that for a while.

 

I am a Jeep a fan. I've owned both 2 and 4 door models in the last 7 years. I am absolutely not a fan of the pick up. A Jeep is a off road SUV to me, not a truck. They needed to differentiate the look. I think it will sell decent to well, but I think it will be mainly Jeep loyalist. I think the Dakota that will be based off this platform will be a force to be reckoned with. The videos of the Ranger look much better than the previous pics I saw. I am only disappointed that the 2.7 didn't make it to the truck. And, now seeing that the 2.3 delivers basically the same mpg as an F-150 2.7, I don't think the 2.7 will ever be offered simultaneously with the 2.3 as it (2.7) would likely achieve better mpg in the lighter more aero Ranger platform than it does in a F-150. I think it will still be a successful truck and I know there was probably a lot considered going into it because of Ford's current financial health, but dang.......a 2.7 would have killed it.

 

The 2.7 Ecoboost is supposed to be available in the upcoming Bronco so it is probable that it will be offered in the Ranger sometime after its initial introduction. Ford needs to get the Ranger on the road before they complicate things by offering too many options. I think someone said that the Ranger was being redone 2 years after it is introduced in the US, so that might be a good time to re-engineer it to take the 2.7 from the get-go.

Jeep has a special foothold in the hearts of most American men (and women) who are currently alive, ranging from WW2 veterans to 2-year olds who can recognize a Jeep. (My own son, now 30, could identify Jeeps well before he turned 2--he may have learned the word "Jeep" before he learned "Daddy"...) There is a unique and patriotic American history tied to Jeep, and the looks and construction of the Wrangler (and the upcoming Gladiator) benefit from that history. The Jeep Wrangler looks like a toy but can be used as a daily driver with reasonable compromises--it is not as comfortable, economical, or quiet as most other SUV's but it gets lots of style points in high school and mall parking lots... It's an American icon.

 

We've been looking at getting a new one to replace our 2011 in a few years, but it only has 63K on it.

 

[QUOTE=2.7EcoBoost;18362671 And, now seeing that the 2.3 delivers basically the same mpg as an F-150 2.7, I don't think the 2.7 will ever be offered simultaneously with the 2.3 as it (2.7) would likely achieve better mpg in the lighter more aero Ranger platform than it does in a F-150.[/QUOTE]




That was what I was afraid of with the new Ranger. I also suspect that it will cost more initially than the F150 given the newness of it. 150 has incentives and I don't see the Ranger having any initially. I'll probably have to wait and see, but likely will get the wife a F150 unless she absolutely insists on a smaller vehicle .