Another brain fart from Ford?

[iveofione]

Back in 2011, Ford, in their infinite wisdom, dropped the Ranger truck. Their logic being that everyone really wanted a monster truck anyway so why bother. They had refused to keep the Ranger up to date and the result was sagging sales which should have been anticipated. Meanwhile, Rangers in other parts of the world continued to be improved and held their own vis-a-vis other vehicles in their class. It took 8 years for Ford to get it's head out of it's ass and bring back the Ranger in the US. But by then the star had dimmed and sales never took off again. Today it is nearly as big and as expensive as low range F-150 and begs the question-"What's the point?"

Now fast forward to 2025 and they have just announced they are discontinuing their popular Escape model which has been moving well with increased sales. I can see discontinuing slow selling models but the Escape sales are actually up about 11% year over year. The highly popular Maverick truck is built on the Escape platform and Ford can't build them fast enough. The Maverick appears to be what people were looking for in a Ranger but didn't get. The day of the monster truck is finally coming to an end and with gas prices at the $5.00 level and above they make damned little sense as a daily driver.

Ford plans to replace the Escape with an all electric vehicle that will supposedly be cheaper to build, cheaper to buy with a smaller battery but will have less range. Will it work? I dunno but don't expect any bargains. When the Maverick was introduced as a 2022 model it was advertised as a $20,000 vehicle. With it's huge success the price rose sharply and now 3 model years later I have seen models for over $40,000. Electric is still in a state of flux and it's future is unclear at this point as range and charging facilities are still a big challenge. A boom or bust situation awaits.

 

[Jim in Anacortes]

I sold my 1995 Tacoma and bought a 2019 Ranger. I was told that the Ranger was not available in the USA (since 2012) for EPA reasons... until 2019, but had kept a good reputation in other countries. For me, being used to a small pickup, like the Tacoma, the F150 just seemed unnecessarily big. I like the Ranger. Four cylinder turbo, ten speed transmission etc.. Over the last few years I have been surprised by how rare these pickups are on the street. I named my truck the "Snow Leopard".

 

[wanderingrichard]

You're right, Ive. The current Ranger is the same size as my 2000 F150 XL. Which has an 8 foot bed. There's theories out in the ether about why exactly pickups are so damn big, but that's a different discussion.

I kind of suspect they are going to move the Maverick to a different platform from the current Escape.(good riddance to bad trash, btw. Far too many inerior, transmission and electrical issues. And yes I'm a Ford guy)

Those older Rangers, in good condition are highly sought after.

There's also a recent rumor that the Ranchero name is going back.

We can't sustain the prices automakers demand anymore. They've become absurd. Most of it seems to be price gouging.

 

[509]

.................The day of the monster truck is finally coming to an end and with gas prices at the $5.00 level and above they make damned little sense as a daily driver............

To this day I miss my 1600 Datsun pickup. Never should have gotten rid of it.

However, gas price at $5.00 are only in Hawaii, California and Washington state.

From AI....The average gas price in the US, excluding Hawaii, California, and Washington, is approximately $3.40 per gallon. This is based on the latest data available, which shows national average gas prices dropping and states like Mississippi having the lowest prices at around $2.93

I pay more in Washington state gas taxes than Federal income tax.

Are you going to fish Rattlesnake Lake this fall?? I got my trolling motor fixed for my pontoon boat. I think I can go faster then they can swim!!!

 

[fatbillybob]

I think EV is the future because it makes the unit more like a computer on a wifi system. Ford will be able to sell a base unit with nothing as an entry level. Then you can aftermarket by from Ford the safety package and get self drive etc. etc all uploaded to the car's computer. Then maybe you want a diagnostic package so you fix it you pay another fee. You will be annoyed by the car beeping at you to change the oil just like Norton anti-virus keeps popping up on your computer to do things it wants but you don't want. this will be a new profit center forcing you to go to a ford dealer just like oil is low tech but the car won't run unless it gets the Ford message just like your printer can't just be refilled with ink you need the factory ink cartridge chip to rest the page count or the printer won't work. That's our future. We can only slow this future down by not buying this stuff to make their agenda economically unfeasible.