Inattentive Soccer Moms in hummers, yeah I’ve seen plenty of those! I saw a 40ish woman driving one of those, while talking on a cellphone, and constantly looking up in the mirror of the visor tailgating another person in a Toyota Yaris. It looked like a tank chasing after a toy car. The local Sheriff’s Department uses the Expeditions. Now everytime I see a white expedition even if its not a law enforcement vehicle, I check my speedometer…
Katidid79
I believe if anything the Excursion was eliminated due to sales, probably because it was built for a market that didn’t really exist. My understanding is that it was a full size SUV built on a 3/4 ton chassis with either a V10 or a diesel. This would be beneficial for towing, but in my limited towing experience and anecdotal observations (made while loading bags of horse feed up to 2,000 pounds in one load), anyone tow what the Excursion was rated for (10,000 lbs) had a 3/4 ton or larger pickup with a fifth wheel. One customer had a custom F450 or F550 crew cab that resembled a semi-tractor. I see Chevy still offers a 3/4 ton Suburban, but how often do you see them?
In its first full year of production, the Excursion had almost 51,000 sales. In its final year six years later,
Ford sold a shade of 16,000 of them. Sales dropped continuously every year in between. Last year, Ford sold about 20,000 Rangers in the US. In both cases, sales were too low to justify continued manufacture, let alone redesign.
I see Suburbans a lot. There’s two families down the street that own them. And they are no more than a couple years old.
Here in Northern Nevada we see a lot of the 3/4 ton Suburbans and a few of the excursions…I live in a farming community where there’s lot’s of livestock so we get people that need to tow the animals and the kids…
The Ranger was made at the Twin City Assembly Plant in St. Paul. The plant was one of Ford’s first and used the river to generate electricity for the plant, and in the 50’s still used the sand deposits to make glass. It was quite a historical plant and a shame to shut it down and for the 800 or so who still worked there.
I’ve never owned a truck but I thought it was a far more practical size for what most people need a truck for than those monstrous full sized trucks now on the road. Not to stereotype the boys and their trucks with the loud pipes and empty beds, but for what they are hauling, no reason a small truck wouldn’t work better. I just wish they could have updated the Ranger for the US market. It sure fits in the garage better and a lot easier to see around.
I saw a Courier on the street in Guaymas (Mex) today…Why do Americans feel that if it’s not sold in the States it’s not worth having?? The American market is deprived of some pretty cool vehicles…
I think it’d be retty cool to see Ford bring the Astrailian Falcon to the states
" Australian Falcon"
There you go with that big engine, rear drive thing a gain. I bet it would be fun to drive, especially the Boss 335. But don’t hold your breath. I doubt that Ford would replace the FWD Taurus with the RWD Falcon. Maybe they might bring it in as a limited edition item in Boss 315 or Boss 335 trim. GM brought a hot Holden into the US as a Pontiac. Why not Ford, too?
2, actually, the GTO and G8 were both Holden by design; Monaro and Commodore respectively, IIRC.
Can’t remember what Holden’s version is called, but Ford could use the Ranchero name if they brought it up, just as GM could call theirs the El Camino.
Just not sure how people would take a ute up here, though. Could be a tough sell. As long as they offered a performance version(SVT or SS) people might consider it. The turbo 6 or Shelby V8 for the Ford and the LS9 and/or CTS-V engine for the Chevy
So, does everyone know where Ford Rangers go when they die?
Mexico and perhaps El Salvador.
For many years, Mexico allowed importation of small pickups over 10 years old.
A Ranger over 10 years old has a low and rapidly decreasing market value. But, unless you get north of OKC, when I checked for my BIL, they actually sold higher than newer ones which could not be imported into Mexico.
Rangers are all over the place. The parts supply chain has adapted, and you can take one all beat to crud and they have the parts to make it like new. Motor parts; body parts; electrical parts.
Ditto for S-10, and Nissan small ones. Some Mazdas.
Major body repairs here are not horribly expensive.
A cousin has an old 1976 Chevrolet pickup. The box floor rusted through, so a carpenter made him a wooden floor for a few hundred dollars. Like new.
“A cousin has an old 1976 Chevrolet pickup. The box floor rusted through, so a carpenter made him a wooden floor for a few hundred dollars. Like new”.
Some years back, the floor of the bed was made out of wood on many pickup trucks. My 1950 Chevrolet pickup truck had a wood floor in the bed. These bed floors would last as long as the truck if treated with wood preservative every so often. The wood certainly wouldn’t rust.
I like my '99. I only haul the occasional large thing from Home Depot, and a lot of logs to split. I bought it as a 4X4 to get me up the hill from the train station when there was snow on the ground, and it has been good to me. I only have 50k miles on it. Big feature is its small enough so the wife doesn’t mind driving it. Downside is 21 mpg on the highway. Mine is a barebones XLT, E85 ready as it came, 5 speed stick with crank windows. I guess I’ll keep it until I can sell it as a classic. I only paid about 15 for it, anyway.
The highways heading south in Texas are full of Rangers and S-10s. They are tied together, stacked on flat beds and driven in convoys. But none were labelled Jalapa in my travels.
I am curious as to how the automobile industry lobbied the CAFE standards to their advantage. For the vast majority of Americans who prefer a truck for a daily driver the Ranger size was better suited than the larger models.