Is this left-hand drive Ford Ranger pickup pictured on a highway near Melbourne, Australia worth a second look? It is a bit odd for a left-hand drive pickup to just be tooling around Australia in right-hand drive traffic. This appears to be a testing prototype, a regular cab long bed with the 2.2-liter turbo-diesel engine.
It’s noteworthy because of the pent up demand for a midsize Ford pickup truck on American shores. The midsize pickup segment is proving to be popular and growing. The Toyota Tacoma, Chevy Colorado, GMC Canyon, and Nissan Frontier are all successful in the market place. Ford left the segment when it pulled the 2011 Ranger. Now, all information that has to do with Ford’s manufacturing capacity and the UAW agreement points to a Ford Ranger return for the 2019 model year.
It’s unclear whether the U.S.-spec Ranger will be offered in a regular cab / long bed configuration, but a crew cab with a short bed is likely. Potential powertrain option for the U.S. include a 3.2-liter turbo-diesel, EcoBoost four-cylinder, and a normally aspirated gas V6.
The next U.S. Ranger may have styling that is different from the truck you see here, but the overall dimensions will be about the same. It should fall inline with the size of the current Tacoma or Colorado. It’s unlikely that Ford will shrink it to a smaller size.
The new midsize truck will surely have all the latest technology and driver-aid features, including: lane keep assist, adaptive cruise control, trailer sway control, blind spot monitoring, and others.
Here is our take on the Top 8 most anticipated truck for 2017 and beyond. We did not include the Ford Ranger in this video because it is further out (expected as a 2019 model) and we do not have any new information about it.
Here is another forbidden fruit for us in the United States – the updated Toyota Hilux.