End of the road for the Ranger: Ford ends production of pickup first ... - MLive.com
It's the end of the road for Ford's smallest pickup in the U. S. The company on Friday plans to stop production of the Ranger, which it introduced in 1982 to fight small pickups from Japan. But after peaking in the mid-1990s, sales of the Ranger have fallen over the last decade, hurt by neglect as Ford focused on more profitable large pickups. The Ranger's styling grew stale, it lost its fuel economy edge and the price wasn't much lower than beefier siblings like the F-150. Other companies aren't so sure it's time to ditch small pickups. , General Motors Co. and Nissan Motor Co. all plan to continuing selling small pickups in the U. S. , citing high gas prices and loyal buyers. But Jim Oaks, a retired state trooper from Salem, Ohio, who runs a website for Ranger enthusiasts, says current models have almost exactly the same interior as one he bought in 1996. Pricing has also been a problem. The Ranger started out as a cheaper alternative to bigger pickups, but as Ford gradually added features, like upgraded transmissions or satellite radio, prices crept up. A top-of-the-line, two-door Ranger with a V6 engine starts at $22,340, or... As automakers have improved the fuel economy of their bigger trucks, small pickups are also losing their fuel economy edge. Source: www.mlive.com
