Following several stories about a heavily disguised Ford Fusion (or perhaps Ford Focus based) car-based pickup truck bouncing around the Internet, TFLtruck began investigating too. It’s true. There seems to be a truck-ish Ford Fusion running around Michigan.
While it looks kind of intriguing, it’s not a new idea.
For decades, Ford has built Utes (for Australia) and converted cars that have a pickup truck bed (for South American countries) with some measure of success. For the most part, these vehicles would slot beneath a mid-size truck in our market in terms of capacity. They are built for moving goods economically in challenging situations.
The question is: will Ford deliver a Ford Fusion Sedan-based pickup truck to our market? Being that Ford recently announced a discontinuation for most of its cars in the United States’ fleets, there could be something to ponder. Ford’s own Ranger midsize truck is pretty big – why not convert a platform like Honda did with the Ridgeline?
Maybe a front-drive truck-let like the Ford Courier in South America? Some of these little guys can hold around 1,500 lbs! True, they don’t tow much, but that’s not always needed. A car-like vehicle that’s rugged and capable may be just the thing for folks in urban areas.
While Honda Ridgeline sales are not exactly on fire, there are competitors coming. Hyundai is supposed to bring a similar (yet smaller) vehicle to market in the near future. Is it possible that Ford is gearing up too?
We will be keeping an eye on this story. What do you guys think? Would you buy something like this over a midsize truck?
