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Honestly I can't explain the popularity of Ranger and S10 during the 80s and 90s. Maybe it's because people reluctantly went to foreign compact trucks during the late 70s and early 80s in a move to save some gas money and "downsize", but they missed their "American trucks", so when Ford and GM finally released their own small trucks that took design cues from the full sizers, and had more power than the foreign trucks, it appeared at the time to be the perfect truck? I don't know.
All I know is that they were wildly popular and the Ford 4.0L and GM 4.3L engines went into the hall of fame. I always told myself that when I graduated college I'd buy myself a new (or newer) truck and the first vehicle I ever bought for myself was a 1999 Ranger Supercab 4x4 with the 4.0L. I traded it a few years later for a brand new 2003 Ranger FX4 (the truck in my avatar). Everybody wanted a Ranger for so many years.
It was disappointing when they killed it because it was still #2 in sales at the time behind the Tacoma.
Ranger launch was an unmitigated disaster for Ford -- 9421 units thru the first three months of the year (2019) was a flat out BUST.
Product will very likely start to cannibalize F-Series sales too -- can't believe Ford did this............dumber than dirt.
I think that had this launch happened 20 years ago, it would have been a wild success. But in 2019 with the power of the internet at consumers' disposal, everybody in America knew this was a truck that is nearly a decade old and Ford was just dressing it up a little for the U.S. market. As an automaker, you can no longer pull the wool over consumers' eyes.
Oh well. It'll get better. My local dealers are doing up to $8,500 off Colorado pickups now, and Ford will likely be doing the same on Ranger later this year and I think at that point we'll start to see them move a lot more units.
Oh well. It'll get better. My local dealers are doing up to $8,500 off Colorado pickups now, and Ford will likely be doing the same on Ranger later this year and I think at that point we'll start to see them move a lot more units.
lets hope your correct on this statement. My F150 lease is up later this year and really want to downsize but I’m not stupid and not going to pay more for a smaller truck just because. I prefer the Ranger but the Colorado is a pretty bad *** little truck as well.
Obviously you've never owned or driven a Ranger or you would understand better why the truck is so popular. It is anything but mediocre. The older Rangers proved that a truck doesn't have to be exceedingly large in order to be a good truck. The older Rangers were very over-engineered for their time because Ford had taken everything they had learned from the F-Series over the years, and scaled it down. The result was a small, fuel-efficient truck that could still work just as hard as any F-150. My 86 that I had in high school took some incredible beatings, and yet still kept on going. Granted, the 86 wasn't the most refined truck in the world but it was simply a product of its time too. My 1995 Ranger was a much more refined, much quieter truck to drive; and overall more reliable with its legendary 3.0 liter Vulcan V6. That Vulcan motor was bullet proof!
Obviously you've never owned or driven a Ranger or you would understand better why the truck is so popular. It is anything but mediocre. The older Rangers proved that a truck doesn't have to be exceedingly large in order to be a good truck. The older Rangers were very over-engineered for their time because Ford had taken everything they had learned from the F-Series over the years, and scaled it down. The result was a small, fuel-efficient truck that could still work just as hard as any F-150. My 86 that I had in high school took some incredible beatings, and yet still kept on going. Granted, the 86 wasn't the most refined truck in the world but it was simply a product of its time too. My 1995 Ranger was a much more refined, much quieter truck to drive; and overall more reliable with its legendary 3.0 liter Vulcan V6. That Vulcan motor was bullet proof!
The truck is popular because it has a FORD blue oval on it. And I would not call 9400 units sold in Q1 as exactly selling like hotcakes.
My 2007 Ranger was no luxury car. I traded it in on a base Jeep Patriot that rode and drove far, far better. The old Ranger was a crude vehicle that people now see through rose colored glasses.
The current Ranger was designed for use in 3rd world countries. Ford did its best to disguise that heritage, but there is only so much that you can do with a pig's ear.
To be honest, the Colorado/Canyon are no great shakes.
The Ranger is not Ford's best effort and we deserve better.
The truck is popular because it has a FORD blue oval on it. And I would not call 9400 units sold in Q1 as exactly selling like hotcakes.
My 2007 Ranger was no luxury car. I traded it in on a base Jeep Patriot that rode and drove far, far better. The old Ranger was a crude vehicle that people now see through rose colored glasses.
The current Ranger was designed for use in 3rd world countries. Ford did its best to disguise that heritage, but there is only so much that you can do with a pig's ear.
To be honest, the Colorado/Canyon are no great shakes.
The Ranger is not Ford's best effort and we deserve better.
I don't want to be argumentative, but I continue to be confused by your negativity.
The Ranger is a small/medium sized TRUCK. People who use trucks want trucks. It is not a luxury vehicle, and it is not a sports car. If you are too fragile to drive a truck, maybe you need a Buick or something(?) The Jeep Patriot you speak of was based on a small car platform and was not a truck but a crossover SUV. Honda Ridgeline is a car-based pickup and you might like that.
If a truck works in 3rd world countries, it is likely to withstand off-road excursions, towing, and cargo-carrying duties. People I know who actually *use* trucks are good with a bit of crudeness in order to get a tough vehicle. Trucks are traditionally not about heated and cooled DVD players for each seating position.
Very seriously, could you clearly articulate what you would like in the Ranger that it does not currently provide? If it's about "styling" or "looking new", that is irrelevant to its function as a truck. So far, your input seems to be pure trolling, aka complaining to get attention, without any concrete or useful input.
I don't want to be argumentative, but I continue to be confused by your negativity.
The Ranger is a small/medium sized TRUCK. People who use trucks want trucks. It is not a luxury vehicle, and it is not a sports car. If you are too fragile to drive a truck, maybe you need a Buick or something(?) The Jeep Patriot you speak of was based on a small car platform and was not a truck but a crossover SUV. Honda Ridgeline is a car-based pickup and you might like that.
Perhaps you should stop making excuses.
I know that the Ranger is a truck. OK. I get that.
But but being a truck does not preclude a vehicle from having a nice, well-built interior. Good brakes. A good (for a truck) ride. Good (for a truck) handling.
The turbo 2.3 is probably the best thing on the Ranger, but the 2.7 EB in the F150 is only off 1 MPG despite the 2.7 having a lot more stink and the F150 weighing at least 300 lbs. more.
Originally Posted by YoGeorge
Trucks are traditionally not about heated and cooled DVD players for each seating position.
The I guess that you have not heard that Lariat trims and above are something like 60%-70% of F Series sales. And the Denali trim is 30% of GMC sales.
Originally Posted by YoGeorge
Very seriously, could you clearly articulate what you would like in the Ranger that it does not currently provide? If it's about "styling" or "looking new", that is irrelevant to its function as a truck. So far, your input seems to be pure trolling, aka complaining to get attention, without any concrete or useful input.
What I want Ford to do is move the needle. Not make something that is just "OK" or just "competitive".
Ram did this with its new interior and, a few years ago, with its coil/air suspension.
I want a Ranger with the interior of the new Ram Limited. The ride of the Ridgeline. The engine choices and bed configurations of the Colorado/Canyon. The towing capability of an F250.
So how is that for articulation?
I will never get all of those. But the Ranger does not give me any of them. I expect more and I want more. Ford reads this board. If people do not complain and push back, then Ford will stick with good enough.
Thanks for elaborating your desires, but I think moving your bar would require going in with a price point of $40-50k and up. Compact and mid-sized pickup trucks have never been leading edge vehicles; they have always been the "economy cars" of the truck world. I can't think of a large buyer demographic that would be interested in high end small pickups.
If Mercedes, Land Rover, BMW, or Audi saw a market for a groundbreaking pickup truck, they could probably pull off some of your desires but for bigger prices yet. But Mercedes vans like the Sprinter and Metris are pretty spartan and functional, not glitzy.
It sounds like your desires come closest to a completely loaded Ridgeline pickup, where you will give up payload and towing capacity but get the car-like attributes that you seem to value. For a daily driver for a recreational user, I'm guessing a lot of buyers would do great with the Ridgeline but might choose the Ranger (or GM midsize pickup, or Tacoma) because these are real trucks built by truck companies.
The F150 and other full-size trucks can afford to be evolutionary (aluminum bodies, etc.) over time because they sell in huge numbers and for huge profit margins.
US buyers approach cars and trucks as though they are priced "by the pound" or "by the cubic foot". Building a high end interior in a Ranger is going to cost virtually the same as it will in an F150 or Dodge pickup. And Ford needs to hold the Ranger pricing below the F150's. (How much is it gonna cost to replace the air pumps and sensors in the Ram coil/air suspension WHEN it breaks? I have memories of ***-dragging Continentals when their air suspensions blew up.)
As for your comments on Ranger sales numbers, hold off for a year until production, demand, and prices stabilize. And to measure true success, we'll have to wait until there are trucks with a lot of miles and years on them.
04-18-2019, 04:02 PM
