New Ford Courier pickup

RobertRyan wrote:

Early 1960's Ford Ute, with small 6 cylinder engine. Granddaddy of the Ford Ute and Ranchero was built in 1934. Coupe Utilities were mainstay of Ford " trucks" in Australia. Early Pickups were not that popular
Much larger 2016 version with a turbocharged 420hp, 470lbs ft at 1800rpm of torque straight six.
The Falcon Ute also came as a " truck" version. This is the Sports version. Had thought it's like the 351 Cleveland locally made, 5 litre Coyote
Tuners managed to get 1000hp for street versions, car/ truck was as big as the Chevrolet SS

Great Grandaddy of the Ranchero was the 1934 Australian Coupe Utilty, as you can see is not a Pickup

If you want to get technical(wich was not my intention) then the original mass produces car that had a pickup bed slapped to it was the 1923 Model T car with a factory pickup bed conversion. In the US, these morphed into bigger pick up trucks due to the infrastructure and regulations being designed around larger vehicles. Elsewhere, these turned into smaller coupe utilities due to the more narrow roadways and regulations like the engine displacement tax which kept smaller vehicles with smaller engines more profitable to drive.

Nice trip down memory lane......0 to do with a new compact pickup.

stsmark wrote:
Forgot all about the D50, thanks. Wasn’t the Mazda Ranger called a B2200?

The Mazda B-series pickups used whatever number the engine size was. The B2000 was probably the most popular, with the old boxy body style (like the Courier) up until 1984. The newer body style came out in 1985 as a 1986 model. It was by far the nicest driving small pickup on the market at the time (I bought one new) but was lacking in power a little. Later years were either a B2200 or B2600, and then Mazda discontinued importing pickups. After than they were rebadged Ford Rangers.

colliehauler wrote:

ShinerBock wrote:
Modern day 1960's Ranchero?

I think you nailed it, a modern day uni-body small Ranchero. Sharing the drive train with the focus should cost Ford very little to develop.

Early 1960's Ford Ute, with small 6 cylinder engine. Granddaddy of the Ford Ute and Ranchero was built in 1934. Coupe Utilities were mainstay of Ford " trucks" in Australia. Early Pickups were not that popular
Much larger 2016 version with a turbocharged 420hp, 470lbs ft at 1800rpm of torque straight six.
The Falcon Ute also came as a " truck" version. This is the Sports version. Had thought it's like the 351 Cleveland locally made, 5 litre Coyote
Tuners managed to get 1000hp for street versions, car/ truck was as big as the Chevrolet SS


Great Grandaddy of the Ranchero was the 1934 Australian Coupe Utilty, as you can see is not a Pickup

blt2ski wrote:
Midget trucks like the courier/ranger, s10/colarado have gone form small trucks, to midsize in size. Their is room for this style of small truck in market. I like my 76 Toyota with a whopping 125 HP 20R motor. Pulled 2000-3000 lbs. Not much more....it was a good truck for its size etc.

Marty

Your engine only had about 96hp...

I've owned a 1978 Courier, bought a new 1979 Courier (my 1st new vehicle) and later a 2007 Mazda B2300. Enjoyed ever one of them and would buy another if available. They were great little trucks.

Mazda used the Ranger platform for 15 years: '94-'97 and '01-'09 B2300, '98-'01 B2500, '94-'07 B3000 and '94-'09 B4000 models. '93 and older models were Mazda platforms.

Mazda used a Mitsubishi 2600 '85-'88 until it built its own for use in the pickup and van. Mazda supplied manual transmissions for the full sized Bronco and F150 at one time too...

stsmark wrote:
Forgot all about the D50, thanks. Wasn’t the Mazda Ranger called a B2200?

So did the public, did not see very many around. I believe your correct on the B2200.

I also remember test driving a Dodge full size PU that had a Mitsubishi Diesel before the Cummins in the 70's at Don Schmidt Dodge.

Forgot all about the D50, thanks. Wasn’t the Mazda Ranger called a B2200?

Groover wrote:

colliehauler wrote:

stsmark wrote:
I was going to point that out also. I had a buddy with one, great little truck. It became the Ranger when Ford took it in house. I to use a Chevy LUV (Isuzu) at work on the ramp OAK airport in the 80’s.
The one that I was always curious about was the diesel VW Rabbit Pu. There was a finish Carpenter working in my neighborhood recently who was using one still. Northern CA all its life so rust free.

Dodge also had a D-50 PU that was made by Mitsubishi.

The funny thing about the Ranger was they rebadged some of those as Mazda PU.

Ford owned a big chunk of Mazda at the time and sharing between the two made sense. When small trucks started selling in the U.S. it was faster and cheaper to bring in existing Japanese trucks than developing an American made truck. As sales picked up Ford and Dodge developed their own trucks and Ford shared theirs with Mazda, along with the early Explorer. It seems like Chevy and Isuzu did some sharing too.

Platform prostitution as I like to call it, or badge engineering. One or two doesn't bother me, but I think GM took the cake on this one. Wonder what the record was? 4 nameplates, 5?? Buick, Pontiac, olds, Chevy, Cadillac... And later on: Buick Rainier, Chevrolet Trailblazer, GMC Envoy, Saab 9-7X, Oldsmobile Bravada, and Isuzu Ascender.

Ford did the Mercury Mountaineer, Mazda Navajo, Ford Explorer, and Lincoln Aviator, but across different model years so not sure that counts.