Monday, December 19, 2011
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Ford Ranger riding into the sunset Ford will produce different midsize Ranger for sale in foreign markets By Susan Feyder McClatchy News Service
MINNEAPOLIS — Roger Johnson talks about his 1998 Ford Ranger with such affection that it’s hard to believe he plans to part with it. He bought the compact truck from his mother 10 years ago, when he was 16, and until a few months ago it was the only vehicle he ever owned. He figures he’s put about 100,000 of the nearly 170,000 miles on it, on hunting and fishing trips and on summer jobs hauling tree branches and sod. He used it to get back and forth between his family’s home on the Iron Range and Minnesota State University-Mankato, where he earned an engineering degree. “It’s a pretty good-looking truck for a 16-year-old, and over the years it’s been very functional for me,” Johnson said. But tastes have changed, and Johnson is selling his Ranger. He recently bought a roomier and more powerful 2006 Ford F-150, the kind of decision many Ranger owners have made in recent years, sticking with Ford but trading up to full-size trucks. That trend led Ford to shut down production of the Ranger, and with it the Twin Cities assembly plant in St. Paul, Minn., the last place the model is made. Since 1992, the Ranger has been the only vehicle pro-
duced at the sprawling facility, which has been part of the landscape in St. Paul’s Highland Park neighborhood for more than eight decades. The last truck comes off the line sometime around Dec. 16. Auto industry analysts and area dealers say the F-150 has been the Ranger’s biggest competition. As Ford and other automakers worked on fuel economy and other improvements to more profitable fullsize trucks, compact pickups like the Ranger lost some of their luster. In 1987, five years after it was introduced, the Ranger compact accounted for more that 20 percent of Ford’s total U.S. truck sales and began an 18-year run as America’s best-selling compact pickup. Ranger sales peaked at 348,358 units in 1999 and have fallen since then, with only 55,364 sold last year, just 5 percent of Ford’s U.S. truck sales. Art Spinella, president of CNW Marketing Research, said that in many respects the Rangers of today aren’t that much different from the 1993 model, the last to undergo a major redesign. “This is not the case of Toyota stealing Ranger’s sales,” said Spinella, whose firm specializes in the auto industry. “This is really a case of Ford not keeping Ranger up-todate enough to maintain sales levels.” Besides improved fuel efficiency, the F-150 added fea-
In 1987, five years after it was introduced, the Ranger compact accounted for more that 20 percent of Ford’s total U.S. truck sales and began an 18-year run as America’s bestselling compact pickup. Ranger sales peaked at 348,358 units in 1999 and have fallen since then, with only 55,364 sold last year. tures like the crew cab, which could accommodate up to six people, said Tom Kulick, sales manager at Midway Ford in Roseville, Minn. “People started buying them as their family vehicle, using them for driving around town but also hauling and towing,” Kulick said. “The Ranger just kind of got set to the wayside.” Ranger sales have risen slightly in 2011 and could finish the year at their highest level since 2008. Dealers
Jeff Wheeler/Minneapolis star tribune/MCt
After decades of rumors and three years of reprieves, the last Ford Ranger pickup will roll off the line at the Twin Cities Assembly Plant around December 16, 2011, ending an 86-year run of high-wage jobs cranking out everything from the Model T to armored World War II vehicles to Country Squire station wagons in St. Paul, Minnesota’s Highland Park. attribute some of the uptick to an attractive rebate program. Ford has said there’s been a last-minute rush from buyers who know that after this year the vehicle won’t be made in the United States. Ford will produce a new and different midsize Ranger in Thailand, South Africa and Argentina for sale in foreign markets. Ford first used the Ranger name on a styling package for heavier F-Series pickup trucks in 1965 but dropped the name a couple of years later. It revived the Ranger
name for the all-new compact pickup it began making in 1982. Ford had acquired a minority stake in Mazda, and the Ranger was basically a Mazda pickup designed to compete with Japanese automakers’ compact, fuelefficient trucks. Michael Saxon, owner of two Ford dealerships in Minnesota, said the Ranger appealed to two types of buyers. Small businesses found it useful for short delivery trips. Individual buyers used it to get around during the week and then for recreation on weekends. “If they had a lit-
tle fishing boat, a snowmobile trailer or wanted to go biking, it was ideal,” he said. Saxon believes it would have been difficult for Ford to invest in improvements without substantially increasing the Ranger’s price. “It would have put it too close to the price of a fullsize, and people would say, ‘For that little difference I’ll just get the full-size truck,’ “ he said. “I think Ford hung in there (with the Ranger) longer than it had to.” Kulick recalls the exciteSee RANGER, Page 2