Bad News

cjcnomor4 · Post by **cjcnomor4** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 8:12 pm

http://www.autoblog.com/2007/11/20/its- ... come-2009/

No further comment

MalcolmV8 · Post by **MalcolmV8** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 8:54 pm

I don't know if that's true or not but if it is I can see why. I myself want a small truck that can fit my kids in the back too. The Ranger just isn't cutting it, the F150 is so big, leaves me with a Toyota Tacoma.
It's sad to say but as much enthusiasm as I have for the Ranger I would probably never buy another one.
I wish Ford would bring the crew cab Rangers to the States. Look at the Ford websites from other countries, they get crew cab Rangers. I would have bought one in a heartbeat for many years if I could just get one.

cjcnomor4 · Post by **cjcnomor4** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 7:10 am

I was in Cancun last week and there were dozens of these 4 door rangers running around. They had these cool Ford Ka too. Smaller than a Focus and could get 40 mpg or better I'm sure. The Ecosport is like an Escape but maybe a liitle smaller. I saw a few Couriers, like an El Camino only small. If you google it look for mexican Courier, the 4 door Ranger is called a Courier in some countries

http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z201 ... 170077.jpg
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z201 ... 170075.jpg
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z201 ... 170078.jpg

MalcolmV8 · Post by **MalcolmV8** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 10:26 am

I got to sit in a crew cab Ranger in Detroit at the Ford advanced engineering plant back in 2001. I also saw the ka and another tiny one like it but more stylish, I think it was the puma.

Still seems odd that the Ranger would be going away. Is it not the best selling compact pickup for many years running?

cgrey8 · Post by **cgrey8** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 11:24 am

I honestly think that as popular as the 4-door Tacoma has been that it's been a HUGE mistake not releasing that Crew Cab Ranger in the states.

So what will Ford's Mid-size truck be? I can't believe they are going to just hand the whole market to Chevy, Dodge, and Toyota. Although I would agree what whatever redesign they do would need to be wider to be comparable to the Tacoma and Dakota.

MalcolmV8 · Post by **MalcolmV8** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 12:11 pm

My guess is that a 4 door Ranger would dip into sales of their cash cow F150 and hurt them more than help. After all everything they do can be traced back to money. Possibly the few customers they loose that go and buy a Tacoma is chump change because the majority will fork out the extra cash for an F150. Just guessing here. Somehow someway it probably hurts their bottom dollar. It's always about money

cgrey8 · Post by **cgrey8** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 12:25 pm

I fully agree with you that their decision is based somehow on money. But it seems to me that something else is affecting things. A sale of one vehicle or the sale of the other shouldn't make a difference as long as they got the sale and their competitor didn't...UNLESS contracts are dictating a lot of this. Perhaps they have union or supplier obligations related to the F150 which dictate that they have to keep the sales of them up similar to why the Explorer got the 5.0L in 96. In that case, it's quite possible they've deemed that the loss due to union grievances would be greater than the lost sales to Dodge and Toyota.