It has long been speculated that Ford will abandon the compact truck segment in the near future. It's no big surprise, really - the Ranger has fallen far behind its competitors, all of which have had recent, sweeping updates. While the new segment leader, Toyota's Tacoma, has had significant upgrades in power, size, and refinement, today's Ranger is still virtually the same truck that came out for the 1998 model year. Sales are down by two-thirds since 2000, a time when the Ranger was still #1 in its class.

It's hard to figure out Ford's justification for killing off a former segment leader. Perhaps they feel there's no market for compact trucks anymore. But the Tacoma, Nissan Frontier, and Chevy and GMC Colorado/Canyon twins all have enjoyed sales success this year, with the Tacoma posting a 10% gain over last year's sales. (Since we're focused on the numbers, the Ranger is down nearly 30% over last year, and it's Mazda twin is down over 40%.) Or maybe they feel they can't be competitive anymore. Except they lead in every other truck segment - so the engineering and development talent for trucks exists; why aren't they tapping into it? The F-Series just had a redesign, and another is already in the works, yet the Ranger remains untouched for nearly a decade.

A Tacoma killer would be a breeze to build, and much of it could be done out of the existing parts bin. The Ranger and Explorer shared hundreds of components up until 2002, and even now still share an engine and transmission.) The current Explorer's design, made somewhat more aggressive with a different front-end, flared fenders, and a few other touches to separate it from its corporate twin, along with a warmed-over 4.0L V6 or even the 4.6L (it's in the Sport Trac, so why not?), and decent offroading options and a trick street model (i.e. Tacoma S-Runner), would be a fantastic truck. The 3.0L V6 from the Escape and the current 2.3L 4-banger could be kept on for fleet sales and to help CAFE numbers.

But apparently it's not going to happen. Instead, Ford has decided to tuck tail and run in the face of Japanese competition. The market is there; they've just handed it over to everyone else.

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