Texasota

Anyone notice the squircle wheel wells? They are not round which is very unusual for Ford. Maybe a first?

This. Unless Ford replaces the Escape HEV/PHEV with something just as good, then Ford no longer sells an efficient and practical vehicle for me. I don't give a rip about the Escape being boring, it meets my needs perfectly.

I gotta say, I think it looks cool!

Which is what Trump is trying to achieve with the Tariffs. Honda and Hyundai are already making similar moves.

This article suggest we might: https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/ford/2025/03/27/ford-ranger-pickup-sales-toyota-tacoma/82521315007/ According to that article we may see a conventional Ranger hybrid (maybe similar to F-150 Powerboost) or a Ranger EREV. I think that is likely given that Farley has said all Ford Blue vehicles will have a hybrid version by 2030. I'm guessing we will more likely see a Ranger Powerboost since all the required tech is sitting on the shelf and would be easy to add to the Ranger. A Ranger EREV, IMO, would have to much overlap with the new CE1 BEV pickup. But I could be biased and wrong because of my skepticism towards EREVs.

I had posted a similar thread (my thread). Maybe merge or delete one.

I'll believe 25% across the board tariffs when I see it. Maybe for a short period of time but I'm skeptical of it being a permanent thing.

https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/ford/2025/03/27/ford-ranger-pickup-sales-toyota-tacoma/82521315007/ According to the article we will likely see a conventional Ranger hybrid (maybe similar to F-150 Powerboost) or a Ranger EREV. I'm guessing we will more likely see a Ranger Powerboost since all the required tech is sitting on the shelf and would be easy to add to the Ranger. A Ranger EREV, IMO, would have to much overlap with the new midsize EV pickup coming out of the skunk works project. But I could be wrong because of my skepticism towards EREVs.

This is interesting. A new thread (Ranger gets new 2.3 Ecoboost) suggests Ford is consolidating on the new 2.3. Do you suppose that version of the 2.3 is a prerequisite for the 2.3 based PHEVs? I'm looking for any reason that gives me hope for a Ranger PHEV in North America.

Makes sense to have a single version of the 2.3 Ecoboost. The Port and direct fuel injection is a big plus. Nice improvement.

I sure hope you are right about that. And hopefully it won’t be knobbled (thanks for the new vocabulary word, @jpd80). It ought to be 360 HP and 501 lb-ft of torque.

Adequate, maybe. Exciting, no.

Yes, I have been following the news on the Ranger PHEV for a long time and the early automotive press was saying 360 HP for the Ranger PHEV. I'm still hoping for a non-knobbled Ranger in North America.

It would be interesting to see what percentage of the recalls are due to software. Having worked as a software engineer for 31 years at IBM, I can tell you that bugs get through no matter how much testing you do. Very often it is a timing issue where the stars line up perfectly to cause a problem that even excellent engineers would not have anticipated. It is challenging work.

Yes, no doubt it would have enough torque to get the heavy rig moving, but will be very limited in speed just like the BYD Shark is. Completely agree. I think a PHEV is going to be the far better choice for the average guy that pulls an RV or boat more than 100 miles. It also performs well in city driving for trips under 40 miles. If Ram continues to promote this as a good towing truck for longer hauls it is not going to end well.