Ford Weighing Return to Small Pickup Truck Market

The small pickup truck market may be getting another new competitor from Detroit. 

Ford is considering bringing a small pickup truck back to the market according to Doug Scott, Ford ‘s truck marketing manager. “We’re looking at it,” Scott told USA Today. “We think we could sell a compact truck that’s more like the size of the old Ranger, that gets six or eight more miles per gallon (than a full-size truck), is $5,000 or $6,000 less, and that we could build in the U.S. to avoid the tariff on imported trucks,” he said.

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This new Ford pickup wouldn’t be a direct competitor to the Toyota Tacoma or the newly introduced Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon. Instead, it would be a true compact pickup truck which would use a unibody frame and be smaller than the current Ranger which is on sale in global markets.

For a small truck to work, it must be considerably smaller than a half-ton in Scott’s view, which is why the current Ford Ranger sold in other markets would not work in the U.S.

Update: We asked Ford Truck Communications Manager Mike Levine in an E-mail if Ford was considering a return to the small pickup truck market. He answered, “No. We are continuing to invest in and expand our F-Series lineup for the North American market and are confident that our new F-Series addresses the needs of the U.S. pickup buyer. Additionally, our Transit Connect lineup addresses the needs of buyers looking for utility in a compact size.”

[Source: USA Today]

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