The Ford Ranger, discontinued for the North American market back in 2011, is finally making a comeback to North America for 2019.
This has been news for a while and has been overshadowed, only slightly, by the anticipation of the newly redesigned Toyota Supra.
Similar to car sales, which are currently in decline, and SUV and truck sales, currently booming as a whole, the increasing gas prices in the mid-2000s caused people to rethink what type of vehicles they were buying.
The small truck market slowed to a crawl, and the Ranger was laid to rest, even though it lived on in other markets throughout the rest of the world.
Because of that, people have been asking when it will be back for us.
The Ranger has always been a fantastic truck, but something that always hurt it was that fact that it didn’t come with four doors.
Its main competitor, the Chevy Colorado, offered four doors along with the Toyota Tacoma and Nissan Frontier. These all offered better practicality overall, which has contributed all three’s success.
The Ranger has never been a bad truck. It just didn’t check every single box for what most people needed and wanted at the time.
This time, it won’t make the same mistake again.
You can get it with four doors or an extended cab if you don’t need the extra entryways.
The engine will be Ford’s 2.3 liter Ecoboost and will crank out 270 horsepower. It will be coupled to a 10-speed automatic transmission. Sorry manual transmission lovers… we aren’t getting one.
One of the most important aspects of any truck is its hauling and towing capabilities. The Ranger is rated at a little over 1800 and 7500 pounds respectively. Importantly, the Chevy Colorado can tow up to 7700 pounds, but only if you opt to get the diesel option.
The 4 cylinder version of the Colorado can only tow up to 3500 pounds while the V6 can tow up to 7000 pounds.
We would like to see a V6 offered in the Ranger, but we are more excited about the Ranger coming back at all. We also aren’t surprised that there isn’t an available V6 – at least right now – as even the Mustang isn’t offered with one anymore.
Something else we would like to see – along with everyone else – is a Ranger Raptor. With the Chevy Colorado offering the Z71 package, it seems that Ford would not want to miss another opportunity to compete with the closest product on the market.
With the F150 Raptor doing as well as it does, Ford just seems to be a little behind the ball.
It seems then, as though Ford has set everything up for success with the Ranger’s introduction – except, of course, with not offering a Raptor version of the truck.
The old Ranger gathered a strong following by being simple, rugged, and reliable. The new Ranger will have to follow in some big footsteps to regain the ground that it lost for not existing.
We don’t think that will be a hard thing to do. With all the safety features you’d expect to be present in a modern car or truck, the Ranger will be a little more livable than it was before.
Despite that, the old one had a charm about it, something the new Ranger will have to prove it possesses as it lives on.
It starts at a little over $25,000 and will climb to as high as around $50,000 when fully decked out. That’s about what you’d expect, considering today’s market.
All in all, the Ranger will undoubtedly shine in its new role in North America again. It should fit in well with the other big boys, including its older sibling, the F150 and its competitors, and it will bring a touch of nostalgia to those who loved the Ranger in its previous life. Of course, we can’t predict with 100% accuracy just what will happen or how all of this will play out for the new kid on the block. But, what we can say for certainty is that we’re glad it’s back, and we aren’t the only ones.
