If you equip a competitor's crew cab mid-sized truck equal to the standard options of a Sport Trac, they're about the same price.

Even if Ford were to introduce a crew cab Ranger, you could probably expect most of them to be pretty loaded. Dealers probably won't keep many stripped (read: no A/C, basic radio, steel wheels) on the lot simply because they don't sell except to fleets or someone who is looking for a cheap work truck...and those two customers most likely aren't going to be buying a crew cab.

What I'm getting at, the price of whatever crew cab truck you'd be able to find on a lot wouldn't be much less expensive than the Sport Trac.

 

Well to those that think a quad cab compact isn't a truck I say you must be hauling longer stuff then I am. I love my Colorado. It's got nice power, room for 4 adults and a 5' bed. There's no reason Ford shouldn't be offering its counterpart here. The market does change and there is a sizable need for these types of trucks. Who cares if people want something odd, if they want it then offer it so they can buy it.

I picked up my GM brand new for a ton less then a full size with similar options and I am getting better mileage. My full sized ATV still fits in the bed and when the wife wants landscaping supplies the local yard just dumps a couple buckets of what ever in the rear and I'm on my way. We're redoing the homestead too right now and it seems like most of the supplies I need wouldn't warrant an 8' bed anyway. Either it's truck length and fits in the bed hanging out a little or its 14' plus material that I would put on the trailer anyway.

There is a need for a quad cab Ranger in the US, I just don't think we need a whole new redesign. Not everything needs to be edgy and new. If you have a good product it will sell. If Ford wasn't so worried about loosing Sport-trac sales they'd start importing the quad cabs they already make. It's a real shame of a decision not to because I know I'm not the only one that went to GM to fill my needs. You know, a quad cab ranger would be a good re-badge offering for Mercury if they wanted to keep that name alive.

 

The Sport Trac was about 6K more when I was pricing. That's more then enough difference to defer a lot of people.

 

I'd look for the Sport Trac to dissapear and become the new Ranger. However, if Ford wanted to make it a truck, they'd make it more affordable then the Sport Trac-maybe a little more truck like. And give the new Ranger the F150's interior-complete with the flow-though center option with the gear shifter, and rear seat power point. The Sport Trac is more SUV, despite what the useless 4ft cargo bed suggests.


I had a rented crew cab Colorado for a week and didnt care for it at all. I dont like the interior design and the bed was too short to but my mountain bike in. There wasnt enough room to be useful as a passenger vehicle, and not unough bed to be a useful truck(for me anyway) The Sport Trac is the same.

 

"Lord", it's bad enough to buy a chevy and then brag about it on a ford truck forum. If I was to buy a chevy to full fill my needs, I sure wouldn't show up afterwards ha ha. I would full fill my need for walking before I would by a chevy ha ha. We just got our december issue of ford world today. In it was an article entitled, "showroom previews, ford models through 2010". Mulally say's that 70% of ford products will be new or significantly freshened by 2008 and will have a 100% of it's lineup upgraded by the end of 2010, the ranger is included on the list. Mulally added that there's still some vehicle surprises yet to come. It's covered by a sheet, but one of them looks like it could be a bronco, kinda squared off with a spare on the back like a 1st generation bronco, could it be ?

 

Wendell was feeling good then I started talking about GM and this happened -->

It's all good buddy but it has been everything I was looking for. I should PM ya about an I5 3.5L / 4.0 SOHC comparison now that I drive and tow with both. I was a little surprised about how they compare.

I still say Ford needs a 4 door ranger and that they should stay far away from a Bronco. I mean I'd like a new Bronco but they won't help the company with the current crop of competition.

 

I heard the bronco was a go, unlike the concept, it's to be a rear wheel drive, with hose out flooring, straight front and rear axles and a removable top. It's to compete directly with the jeep wrangler. With the bronco and if they would bring back the defender 90, they could put a hurting on jeep. I've allways loved jeeps, but thier getting more and more chryslerized, I still got the old ones.

No offense OSln86, but it wouldn't matter if the 3.5 was made of gold, I'm from a ford family, have allways been antichevy and thier products don't excite me. I have a lot of money dumped into my 4.0 and it runs like a champ and great lowend torque for wheeling. It will move on down the road, burning tires as it goes, it runs like a v8, so I'm quite satisfied. The only thing uglier than a colorado, is the new tacoma. I liked the S-10 crewcab Z-71 better, I mean looks wise, That colorado is just hard for me to get my arms a round. All I've read on the 3.5, it's a little weak in the lowend, makes it's power higher in the rpm range, I'll never know ha ha .

 

I don't understand why people think there is no need for little work trucks or why everything needs to be loaded. Give me a CC xl 4x4 with the 4.0L and 5speed and I'll be happy. This can be done for <$23000 and thats giving the CC a $2000 premium over the extended.

Save the independent rear suspension, leather interior, carpet, automatics and climate control for those who want/need it. I'm not saying I wouldn't buy a sport trac, but not for those prices. The lowest model you can get is xlt for 30k...no thanks.

and if they won't stock it...I'll order it.

 

There's no way they better even think of putting an independant rear suspension in a ranger, thats not even a good joke. It gives me images of a honda ridgeline, "yuck" !! Not to mention it would jack up the price even more, "no", real trucks have straight rear axles. With IRS, it would be a sport track, I guess folks would get thier v8 option they've been screaming for, but no manual tranny, "double yuck"!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Like Customz said, I don't need two vehicles to spend money on. Sure I can buy a trailer, but I rarely have enough to haul that I need to have a trailer hanging off the back of my truck. The sporttrac won't see my driveway ever as it could never handle the roads I'd throw at it, I still am not convinced of a plastic bed, and I want a full frame and a solid rear axle...oh yeah and that whole cost thing again. I'm amazed at how many people don't feel a truck is a truck unless its a reg cab long bed, and to be honest I used to be that way as well until I purchased an ext cab and realized the versatility of having that extra space. I've got to ask, those of you with 8 or even 6 foot beds- how often is your bed at full capacity when your driving your truck? And please drop the sheet rock comment, I've owned 6 trucks and not one of them has EVER had a piece of sheet rock in it.

 

My bed is allways full, full of air and I haul it everywhere I go ha ha. This all seems sorta pointless to me, ford allready has a reg and xtracabs and thier going to have a crewcab, a cab for eveyone, so buy the one you need. It's not the pont that one is better than the other, it's what you need thats important. 3 cabs, no harm, no foul, everyones happy !!!!!!! THE END

 

Well actually now that you mention it. I've been hauling sheetrock for the past 2 months in my truck. It's quite handy in doing that, especially with the cross planks in place - nice tip I picked up here too.

Next week - hauling sheets of plywood and chipboard in my truck.

Some people use their trucks as trucks. Buy hey, it's your money and your life so how you use your vehicle is none of my business.

 

not a ford hater, i would trade my vehicle in if i didnt like it, or ford. like all of us its easy to put our two cents in on a topic. me personally, had a bad buying experience,plus a sh$# service experience so far. as for that im just kind of baffled by the fact that, our ranger options consist of a few trim levels, no cab or "half a crew cab", lowest rated H.P. in its class, the company has one of the worst warranty's in the business. with this bold way forward what has anyone seen so far that this company is going to do a turn around?? maybe its not as dire as the company is making it seem. i dont know, except for the fact that nothing positive has come out in the last year.

 

I haul sheet rock and plywood in the back on my 5' bed too. Actually the design they did with the tailgate and wheel wells is pretty smart. You can hook the tailgate so it's laying half way down so the material has 6' of support from the front of the wells to the tailgate. That only leaves 2' hanging. With a hitch brace you can safely go a lot longer then that too.

Like Wendell said "it's not the pont that one is better than the other, it's what you need thats important" but on the other hand we don't need to pretend that a smaller bed is incapable of hauling simple stuff like 4x8 sheets of material.

 

That tailgate thing is handy feature, and in fact Ranger owners can enjoy the benefit of it as well, thanks to an extremely simple mod that I first heard about from FTE member 2K3 Mach.

What you do is replace the top bolt on each tailgate latch (on the bed) with the same type of bolt found on the bottom of the latch (the one that holds the cable). As a result of this mod, you now have an adjustable tailgate. By unhooking the cables off the lower bolt and hooking them back onto the higher bolt, that leaves the tailgate at an upward angle so you can haul longer items and they won't slide out. Part # N806909S100 at the dealer (a few bucks each) or just grab some at the junkyard like I did.