The Ranger is (nearly) dead, long live the Ranger

Source: AutoBlog

And then there was one. All of the Ford Ranger's contemporaries have forsaken the compact segment for the middleweight class. The Ranger is long in the tooth, to say the least, but we love the smaller size and many find it a good blend of truck functionality without the bulk and heft of a full-size. You can buy into a Ranger for $15 grand, which is a reasonable point of entry for a work truck. There used to be F150s outfitted for labor in that price range, but good luck finding a decontented full-sizer now. While the Ranger's platform is now exclusive to the model, it did sire the Explorer, via the Bronco II. Lineage aside, it's typically expensive for an automaker to have a platform that doesn't get shared, but the underpinnings of the Ranger have long been paid for. We suspect that's part of why we're not seeing much action in the trucklet arena from Ford. To engineer a new Ranger would cost money (that's arguably better spent elsewhere right now), and moving the smallest Ford Truck to a new platform raises conflicts with other models.

 

I really hope it isn't. Its the only true compact truck left. Its all the truck a lot of people need. If the did a full redesign, I'm sure they'd sell a ton as a fair amount of people want to downsize.  

I hope it is.  

Why do you hope it dies?  

keep the ranger! keep it as small as possible, b/c this trend of bigger truck will pass and pretty soon small trucks will be desirable again, b/c of gas. seems logical...  

Found this on Motortrend.com..

Ford's Ranger: Remake it, replace it, or kill it?

Ford is quickly reaching a crossroads with its long-neglected Ranger compact pickup. The St. Paul, Minnesota, plant where it's built is scheduled to be shut down at the end of next year, and the current model is in dire need of a redesign. If Ford lets the Ranger ride into the sunset, it'll be the second segment it's thrown in the towel on, following its exit from the minivan game last year.

Of course, it hasn't always been this way. Ranger entered the market in 1983 as a compact alternative to the F-Series, battling at first with the then-nameless offerings from Toyota and Nissan, who had defined the segment in the 1960s.

Ranger quickly gained ground and held the segment's sales crown for some 17 years, starting in 1987. But by the turn of the millennium, Ford, then embroiled in the Firestone/Explorer rollover fiasco and focused on the more profitable F-Series, seemed content to let Ranger float along. Marketing dried up. Development, save a nip here and a tuck there, ceased. Like the Taurus before it, the Ranger seemingly became a victim of Ford's "milk it 'til it's dry" policy.

Since then, the Ranger's sales performance year to year has been worse than Katie Couric's ratings. It's lost more than two thirds of its market share since 1999 and is now outsold nearly two to one by the new king, Toyota's Tacoma. Eight years ago, it had close to a 200,000-unit edge on Tacoma. The Ranger's swoon is not entirely Ford's fault. The entire compact segment has been taking a beating for several years. But the automaker's lack of attention to its small truck has clearly caught up to it.

Click here for more..  

Wait, isnt the new king "Tacoma" having frame issues.  Somthing about Toyota buying back trucks.  This mag is the best First the Ridgeline as Truck of the year, then the Tundra and now the KING.  Have Toyota buy back your King and buy a quailty truck.  A RANGER!!