The Last Ford Ranger

William Maley

Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com

December 16, 2011

This morning, the final Ford Ranger rolled off the Twin Cities assembly line, ending the twenty-nine year life of Ford’s compact truck.

The Ranger was introduced back in 1982 as 1983 model and came into the growing market of compact trucks, becoming one the best selling trucks. In 1993, Ford revised the Ranger and got a Mazda counterpart, the B-Series a year later. With both four-cylinder and V6 engines, manual or automatic transmissions, and two or four-wheel drive, the Ranger and B-Series became a formidable force in the sales charts throughout the 90’s.

But during the 2000s, the demand for small pickups began to fall from 6% to 2% in 2010. The Ranger still stood strong despite using technology from the stone age and limited marketing, selling 60,000 last year.

Ford has said there will no direct replacement for the Ranger and will push people towards the F-150. Dealers and and customers say that is a poor idea, especially with GM, Ram, and other readying their next small trucks.

The ending of Ranger production also signals the end of the Twin Cities assembly line which has been building vehicles for 86 years, ranging from the Model T to the Ranger.

Source: Auto Guide