Last of their Breed
Well the last car/ trucks or Utes finished when local production at Ford closed.,They were still selling till the very end. No the current Ranger did not satisfy people who wanted the car/ truck Utes...
Forum Discussion
RobertRyan wrote:
Absolutely Nothing American about them, if the US Pickups were like the Hilux they would be selling in vastly greater numbers
Here is a Ute that meets that definition. It is AWD as well
Whether you like to admit it or not, America was the first to make a pickup off the assembly line in the 1920's. In fact , the Model T Roadster with Pickup Body is actually where the term "pickup" comes from. Every "pickup" after that have been based on that very first American pickup just like the Hilux and global Ranger which are just smaller version of American based pickup.
An Illustrated History of the Pickup Truck
These smaller versioned American trucks sell well globally due to many reasons that I have numerously pointed out like the old Displacement Tax forcing automakers to sell smaller engine/smaller sized vehicles, smaller road infrastructure of most global markets, and higher fuel costs versus the US among other things. Our big American trucks just aren't made for those markets, but luckily for us the North American truck market is big enough to sustain itself without the need of any other market. In contrast, the smaller version of American trucks need to be sold globally because not one market is big enough to sustain them being built so they need the global market as a whole to justify the costs of building them and making a profit.
Although, that does not mean these small versions of American trucks cannot be sold here without adapting them to our market. Take the Colorado for instance which GM had to design a new frame and rework the 2.8L Duramax to meet the North American vehicle requirements. It probably will do well here. Not as well as the full size trucks, but our market is big enough to sustain it.
