The body count continues to rise for classic Ford models. Crown Vic? Dead. E-Series vans? Marked for Death. Ford Ranger? Hasta la Pasta. The Minnesota plant that builds the trucks will send the last one down the assembly line today, ending the Ranger’s almost 30 year production run. Sales have been on a steady decline since Ford stopped updating or upgrading the Ranger years ago in favor of spending money on the F-150 model line.
There has been no Ranger replacement displayed or named at the point, so it seems like Ford is going to try to steer potential compact truck customers to the F150 half ton line instead. After sales peaked in the mid 1990s, it seemed that Ford simply forgot about the Ranger when it came to advertising, styling, and powertrain upgrades. Don’t believe us? Get in one built in 1997 and one built today. Unless you are some sort of Ranger freak, you won’t see any significant differences.
The toughest part of this whole story is the fact that the St. Paul plant that builds these trucks will be closed and with it 800 people will be out of work. Those people will apparently be offered jobs in other plants or areas of the country, but it still sucks. Uprooting your life to chase a job at a plant that might make the next model to the cancelled isn’t something many people would look forward to or see as some sort of great deal.
We find it hard to believe that Ford will completely abandon this market segment. Like the vans, we’re guessing a model from one of Ford’s operations in another part of the world will take the place of the Ranger in the coming years. Japanese manufacturers are going to stay in small trucks and GM will do the same.
Lots of guys on the west coast build Rangers into pre-runners and dune trucks with wild long travel suspension systems and more powerful motors. It is time for those guys to stock pile one of two because as of today, the supply of fresh trucks will officially begin to shrink.
It probably costs as much to build a Ranger as an F150 only less profitable. Too bad because small trucks have always been popular among young men with a little money to buy a new truck.
Aussie Ford Rangers are rebadged Mazdas… Boo!!
AFAIK, the NEW Ranger is made by FORD. They are available in almost every country, excluding the NORTH AMERICAN market.
Too bad they waited so long for the redesign, and DENIED the NA market the CREW version they have sold other places for over ten years….not to mention the TDI diesels the other markets also got….
see link below…..
[URL]http://www.ford-trucks.com/article/idx/0/822/article/_2012_Ford_Ranger:_One_Tough_Tease.html?=ontopicnews&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=ExactTarget&utm_campaign=[/URL
[URL]http://www.trucktrend.com/roadtests/pickup/163_1202_2012_global_market_ford_ranger_first_drive/index.html[/URL]