crackedblock

Let's see, Ford cannot justify being in this small truck segment but Toyota and Nissan can and they have no intentions of dropping out and they have updated their trucks already how many times since 1993. You could go as far back to the 80's. for what it is worth lets think about some different senerios: Baseline 2010 sales: Toyota Tacoma - 106,198 Ford Ranger - 55,364 Nissan Frontier/Suzuki Equator - 41,874 Chevy Colorado/GMC Canyon - 32,634 Honda Ridgeline - 16,142 Dodge Dakota - 13,047 What I believe the numbers will look like w/o Ford Ranger: (With aprox. 12,000 dropping out of the segment) Toyota Tacoma - 117,270 Nissan Frontier/Suzuki Equator - 54,804 Chevy Colorado/GMC Canyon- 40,716 Honda Ridgeline - 16,142 Dodge Dakota - 24,888 What I believe the segment sales would look like if Ford built a new ranger that bested Tacoma in price, tourque, and mpg (2.0 Ecoboost w/22-23 city & 28-29hwy mpg): (Numbers include about 40,000 new buyers brought to segment.) Toyota Tacoma - 81,198 Ford Ranger - 153,364 Nissan Frontier/Suzuki Equator - 31,874 Chevy Colorado/GMC Canyon - 20,642 Honda Ridgeline - 10,142 Dodge Dakota - 8,047 What I believe the segment sales would look like with new Ranger and Colorado: (Numbers include about 65,000 (25,000 additional) new buyers brought to segment.) Toyota Tacoma - 68,198 Ford Ranger - 143,364 Nissan Frontier/Suzuki Equator - 26,874 Chevy Colorado/GMC Canyon - 84,642 Honda Ridgeline - 8,142 Dodge Dakota - 6,047 Now Imagine what would the numbers look like after sustained high gas prices averaging about $3.50-$4.00 in winter & $4.50-$5.00 in summer? Maybe we are already there! Im guessing an easy additional 100,000 sales brought to segment. I like Statistics. Don't get me started with the charts.

Auto execs answer our questions... and yours Q: Any chance mid-sized trucks will stage a comeback to cope with higher fuel economy needs? A: Not much. Certainly not body-on-frame mid-sized trucks. The Ford Ranger is going away. The Dodge Dakota is going away, according to Chrysler's Marchionne. To compensate, Jeep will have a Wrangler with a flat-bed. And here is an idea we heard kicked around – a new Explorer Sport Trac built off the new Explorer. If it comes to pass, look for the bed design to be a bit more utilitarian than the old one. And Ford's Farley says the company is looking at derivatives of the Transit Connect. Maybe even one that has an open bed. Transit Truck

Auto execs answer our questions... and yours Q: Any chance mid-sized trucks will stage a comeback to cope with higher fuel economy needs? A: Not much. Certainly not body-on-frame mid-sized trucks. The Ford Ranger is going away. The Dodge Dakota is going away, according to Chrysler's Marchionne. To compensate, Jeep will have a Wrangler with a flat-bed. And here is an idea we heard kicked around – a new Explorer Sport Trac built off the new Explorer. If it comes to pass, look for the bed design to be a bit more utilitarian than the old one. And Ford's Farley says the company is looking at derivatives of the Transit Connect. Maybe even one that has an open bed. Transit Truck

"And Ford's Farley says the company is looking at derivatives of the Transit Connect. Maybe even one that has an open bed." I guess I am not the only one thinking in this direction. :happy feet:

I respect everybodys opinons, just let me add this: It's my ugly baby so I got to like it, but the truth is, when I look at it I'm not sure this is exactly I would want. My intent is to just provide an example of the possiblities of utilizing a unibody design for a small truck. I would actually prefer an Escape/Kuga based vehicle. But like I said just trying to put the "concept" out there to see if I can spark some interest. I know its not a new concept but just trying to "keep the dream alive".

My link Link Above Despite my new member status, I used to spend many hours on this forum. I stopped reading this forum about 5 years ago and only recently have I checked back in. Figured it was time for a new post. I forgot my login, password and don't use my old email anymore so I just started over. When I first started reading these forums in 1996 or 97 I was driving a 92 Ranger 4 cyl, manual, XLT. While it was not anything to brag about it was a very good machine, I drove it for 15 years. It saved me a lot of money considering I paid about 8K for it paid it off in three years and then had many what I call "bonus years". Years ago I was very interested in replaceing my Ranger with an "all new model" but it never came. I needed more room but was not feeling like I could justfy buying a full size truck. Especially when the Ranger was saving me so much money. avg about 26mpg, no note, basic insurance, cranked everytime! I did put three clutches in it but so what, all three clutches combined cost less than what most of my buddies were paying each month on their latest and greatest trucks. So, time goes by I'm still waiting on my real ranger replacement. It never happened so, eventhough it was against my normal anti-foreign car mind set, in 2006 I purchased a Tacoma, TRD, Double cab, V-6. (I know - I Know) Initially I was blown away by this truck but the honeymoon didn't last long. I paid a premium price expecting a premium product but that was not the case. The engine soon sounded like it was going to come apart, the tranny was awful with the cruise set driving over hilly roads. it would downshift and rev to about 5000 rpms on a louisiana hill! Slamming everybody back in their seats and if you had someone in front of you with their cruise set you would have to apply the brakes or you would rear end them. The Truck also lunged forward at stoplights at random. Dangerous if you didn't have the brake firmly applied. I also had a 19ft center console boat that when I towed it, the Tacoma felt like I was killing it. In 2007 I had enough of the Tacoma and got a 2008 Nissan Titan, king cab, SE. I must say I really liked the Titan despite bringing it in for warranty work three times and two recalls, It was IMO as good a truck as any at that time. I had a cousin that worked at the dealer so I never had any problems with warranty work. That may not work so well for others! It was powerful, comfortable & pulled my boat like it wasnt even there. I thought it did resonably well on fuel if you considered that you had to compare it to the larger engines in most other trucks (ford 5.4 - chevy 5.3) I got about 17-18 mpg avg. I had a Ford 5.4 and Chey 5.3 for company trucks and, I'm sorry but they were BAD-BAD-BAD on gas. People asked how much gas the Titan used, I said" as much as my foot tells it to". The key to decent MPG in the Titan was to NOT get the factory tow package. and install the factory hitch yourself. $135 dollars from the dealer (with the cousin deal). The Titan had plenty of torque without the tow gear ratio to pull just about everything you want. Now the new Fords are better I am sure, since Nissan has decided to let the Titan go the way of the Ranger. I paid 30k for the Tacoma(rip off) the Titan was 22K out the door (Awesome) BUT I was rasied to buy Ford only so, eventhough I was happy with the Titan I had this internal conflict thing going on. I have since sold everything I own and took an overseas assignment in Asia. So in a couple of years I will return to the US and I have already decided that I am going back to Ford but I do not need a full size truck. I also do not want to need a full size truck. No more big boats and pulling trailers and tractors around for me. Furthermore I dont want to spend 2011 prices on an essentially 20 year old platform(Ranger). I just want a little run about that has a few more inches in every direction of interior space as my Ranger did, gets good gas mileage and has about the same cargo/tow capacity as my 92 Ranger did. I own a nice little Honda CRV, 1997, AWD only 30K miles on it, god only knows how many hours it has on it because it is always in traffic. it is very functionable and does everything that I need a vehicle to do in a unibody chasis. So, that got me thinking and eventually wishing that someone would bring something like this unibody small truck to market (again). Some will hate it and some may like it, but a market does exist. I'm not saying that the Ranger should be replaced by this but maybe it could be placed below the ranger if it ever does get a replacement. The 4x4 Ranger crowd will not like this and I understand why, but I think many americans are looking to go back to "simpler times" by cutting their overhead expenses and I think something like this would serve them well.

Other than obviously chopping off the top rear of the Transit I also did the following: On the Transit with the rack- I chopped about 8" off the roof (removed the raised roof part), squared off the lower intake, moved the Ford Oval from the center of the grill to an upper grill chrome trim which I made about 4" taller, place a chrome border around the uper grill, made the turn signals orange (normally clear), made the side-rear glass even in height with the top of the bed. added about 4-6" onto the over all length of the vehicle (all aft of the rear wheels). Only things different on the one without the rack is- I left the original trapezoid lower air intake, the side-rear window comes dow lower to the crease in the body work. Thank You

I would like to see something offered like this from Ford. It was difficult to do, but because I don't have any other software right now, I did it all with Microsoft Paint. :wacko: