Greg In The Desert

Ford has announced the 2010 Ford Ranger and it looks almost like the Ford Ranger I bought in 1997. Ford’s press release promotes safety including AdvanceTrac® with RSC® (Roll Stability Control) and side air bags. They also promotes the 21 to 26 MPG that the tiny 2.3 liter 4 cylinder engine gets.

I guess there’s some money to be saved by keeping with the same basic design of a vehicle for over a decade. The base price for a low end 2009 Ford Ranger is about $17,000. Compare that to a more innovative truck in about the same size range. The 2009 Honda Ridgeline runs about $28,000 on the low end. I’m not sure a low end Ranger and low end Ridgeline compare exactly however.

You might think that the Ranger might make a good platform for some innovation. Body styling aside, how about an electric or hybrid for Ranger? Oh wait, Ford did Make an electric Ford Ranger and killed them in 2002.

The only option is LionEV, which will offer an electric Ranger for $38,950. That’s almost the price of a hover conversion. LionEV also offers conversion kits for Rangers (electric, not hover) for about $10,000.

Autoblog discusses the Ford Ranger from this Forbes article.

Ford sold 75,673 Rangers to Nissan’s 42,229 Frontiers in the first seven months of the year. Forbes brings up the dismal crash test scores and owner satisfaction. What is the explanation for this sales volume? American loyalty for domestic trucks, deep discounts, and the Ranger name are all cited. There are some serious discounts on this truck, even before the Ford Family Plan you could get $3000 in rebates. The Ranger nameplate still has some solid value, and Ford would be wise to heavily revise this vehicle before they totally destroy its goodwill.

I have a 1996 Ford Ranger, so I read these things with interest. The Ranger is a good truck but it’s hardly changed. It would be cool if they came out with a hybrid version.