Ford Working on Making Compact F-100 Truck Viable

[ausrutherford]

Jason Siu
Feb 14
AutoGuide

In December 2011, Ford ended production of its Ranger, arguably America’s lost truly compact pickup truck offering.

Over the last year and change however, the American automaker has been working on figuring out a viable compact truck for the market, essentially a new Ranger or F-100 that could be approved for production. But it’s not so simple as just taking its F-150 pickup and downsizing it and making it more affordable.

As each new generation of pickup trucks enters the market, they’re more powerful, capable of carrying more payload, and have a higher tow rating – essentially, the trucks continue to expand and get bigger. Ford however, believes that there’s certainly a market still for compact pickup owners that look for size, price, and fuel economy at the sacrifice of payload capacity and tow rating.

So what does Ford believes it has to do? Essentially consumers are looking for a 1,000 pound payload capacity and a 3,000 tow rating. Combine those attributes with lowered fuel consumption, and they may even look past the fact that it’s a car-based pickup, so long as its durable.

[Logans Run]

The only way I could see this happening, is by using the Transit Connect and building it in the same plant.

Though I would love to see one based on the Explorer, I imagine this would be hard to bring out at a low enough price.

[SP1966]

Ranchero!!

To bad the Aussie Falcon is going the way of the Dodo as the ute variant would be welcome in my garage!!

[nruggiero]

Great news! Hmm... What platform should it be on? Should it be RWD or FWD?

I still wish they can shrink the F-150 platform to make a midsize F-100. But for the compact Ranger, unibody will do just fine.

[2b2]

hmm
a unibody trucklet now IF the truck budget becomes available, think my CD4+r.w.d. idea just got a new lease on life

tho for unibody I'd want a name change: F-99

[nruggiero]

hmm
a unibody trucklet now IF the truck budget becomes available, think my CD4+r.w.d. idea just got a new lease on life

tho for unibody I'd want a name change: F-99

Hmm... That could work.

I don't think it should be part of the F-Series at all. Calling it the Ranger should guarantee success.

[2b2]

I expect whatever this turns out to be, it will have an "F" in its name
just so its sales can be counted in as "F-series"

[nruggiero]

I expect whatever this turns out to be, it will have an "F" in its name
just so its sales can be counted in as "F-series"

True. It better look like it belongs in the F-Series family.

[2b2]

well...
(not meaning to be contradictory)
imho just the F-name
what it looks like is completely another matter
- Taurus-face (like the n.g.Edge)
- Explorer
- Flex or n.g.Flex
- Fusion
- scale-model SuperDuty
- some Transit-whatever
or

Mark Stehrenberger chop @ FordTruckClub.com

[nruggiero]

well...
(not meaning to be contradictory)
imho just the F-name
what it looks like is completely another matter
- Taurus-face (like the n.g.Edge)
- Explorer
- Flex or n.g.Flex
- Fusion
- scale-model SuperDuty
- some Transit-whatever
or

Mark Stehrenberger chop @ FordTruckClub.com

Yes! I loved that chop! That's exactly what I was hoping the Atlas Concept would like. Please go with this design, Ford!