Could this Ford Ranger Super Duty actually come to America? Probably not, but it is out in the wild in Colorado!
Right off the bat, let’s get an important disclaimer out of the way: Automakers test global market vehicles in the US all the time, and that doesn’t necessarily mean the vehicle is actually intended for the American market. That said, Roman caught the new Ford Ranger Super Duty hanging around in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. So, you know how it goes…we can’t help but wonder.
“Ranger Super Duty?”, some of you might be saying. In case you need a primer, Ford officially debuted a heavier-duty Ranger for the Australian market back in April, where midsize utes like this fit right in. Against your standard Ranger, this Super Duty — and yes, it is actually branded down under as a Super Duty — touts a 9,900-pound towing capacity and GVWR (so this also has some serious payload potential).
Despite its midsize stature, it also packs eight-lug wheels, chunky all-terrain tires, steel bumpers and a snorkel. Australian customers can fit their truck with either your typical pickup bed or a galvanized steel utility bed, and the latter is what we’re looking at here in Colorado. In a parking lot near the location where we film the Ike Gauntlet, it also appears Ford brought a standard pickup version of the Ranger as well.
Unlike the trucks we can buy over here, Ford sells the Ranger Super Duty with a 3.0-liter turbo-diesel V6, along with a long-range 34-gallon fuel tank. Essentially, this gives you nearly F-150 levels of capability in a more compact package. Useful, considering Aussies cannot officially buy the F-250-and-up Super Duty in their home market (though they can buy the F-150). Beyond an availability issue, those trucks are prohibitively expensive, should Ford make the decision to ship Super Duty trucks over from the Louisville truck plant in Kentucky.
As ever, we’ll have to wait and see — but what do you think?
So, could Ford actually bring the Ranger Super Duty to the United States market? I noted my skepticism back in our earlier coverage, and for the moment I’ll stand by that. In part, the other Ranger alongside the Super Duty might back that up. Although it is a left-hand drive unit, it’s marked as an “Engineering Evaluation Vehicle”. Again, automakers bring new vehicles all over the world for development and validation purposes, so that could (and, to my mind, likely is) what we’re seeing here.
Keep in mind, while our normal Ford Ranger is built in Wayne, Michigan, the Super Duty is not. Instead, Ford Thailand Manufacturing builds the Ranger Super Duty for the Australian market. It’s not so much a question of logistical convenience, then, as the Colorado Rockies do present certain testing conditions (like extreme elevation and colder temperatures) that you wouldn’t necessarily deal with in Australia or adjacent markets.
“But,” you could argue, “what if Ford is preparing a Ranger Super Duty for our market?” Again, you would need to validate the truck and its powertrain — or even the powertrain options already on offer here — for a “Super Duty” application before launching it in the States as well. It’s the million-dollar question, and one to which we of course don’t have an answer. Unfortunately, Ford will absolutely not comment on future product, and this is certainly no exception.
Nevertheless, whatever it’s doing here, the Ford Ranger Super Duty is out in the wild in Colorado. It’s always fun to have the “will they, won’t they” discussion, but ultimately only time will tell whether we soon see a smaller Super Duty in our neck of the woods. I’m still convinced that the potential for the Ranger to cannibalize larger (and more profitable) truck sales would stay Ford’s hand in actually green-lighting the Ranger Super Duty for North America.
I could be 100% dead wrong, though, and if I am you’ll know about it here first. Check out the video below for Andre and Roman’s take on the situation, and let us know what you think:
