I recently read that the Ford Ranger will be discontinued in 08. A new "mid-size" truck, like the Dodge Dakota, will be replacing the compact truck. Has anyone else heard of this... ?

 

There are talks that Ford might discontinue Ranger, but Ford never confirmed that.

 

argh. i like rangers, its nice that there is still a compact truck. instead of a freakin full size that was in a cold pool for too long.

give me a 4 cyl ranger

 

:bang:

I always liked the smallness of the Ranger. I hope it doesn't go anywheres

 

thats rediculous if they do.......i dont know for sure but doesnt the ranger have a HUGE fan base? what ive heard from anyone who owns one is that they love it. if ford chooses to discontinue it they would be making a big mistake.......and upsetting a lot of loyal ford customers

 

yeah, i think they could make their truck stand out by having the only true compact truck out there. If they put out a modern good looking truck at the same size as the current ranger, i bet they'd catch a lot of sales.

 

one things for sure, it's a very very tired design.

 

would be dumb to discontinue unless sales really evaporated. They've long since covered their R&D and retooling costs for the Ranger line, so its a nice little source of income.

 

Yeah, It is... I personally would not mind seeing a "mid-size" truck between the Ranger and F-150. Something with a little bigger wheel base and equiped with a V8 . Since the Ranger shares the same platform as the Explorer, I wonder if it'll be doomed as well .

 

The Ranger does not share the current Explorer chassis. Why it does not, I have no idea.

 

If that's the case... then it would be easy to just dump the Ranger.

 

The ranger chassis is older and cheap to build. They had to redo the Explorer to lower the CG. Keeping the Ranger as an entry level makes good sense, 4 cyl. puts out over 140HP and gets 27+MPG.

 

bingo, i am buying one (2002-2003) as soon as i have the money

 

I've owned 3 Rangers an 89 and 90.. both 4 cylinders and a 93 with the small V6 3.6, all three where great trucks... wish I still had the 93!

 

The plant in MN is suppose to close in 2008, so it may well in fact get 'dumped'.

 

I beleive there was chatter about importing a compact pickup from Thailand months back

I don't believe the exporer and ranger are on the same chassis, first off the explorer has an IRS. The sport trac however, does use that chassis.

 

Steve, the new Sport Trac is on the same chassis as the Explorer. It's IRS too.

http://www.edmunds.com/apps/vdpconta...1/pageNumber=1

 

yeah, i think it was the old sport track that was on the ranger platform.

here's that new international ranger that came out a couple months ago.

http://www.ford.co.th/servlet/Conten...Page&c=DFYPage

 

I believe the Sport Trac has always been on the Explorer platform.

 

I heard they were going to do a mustang pick up in place of the ranger