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Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,570 posts, read 81,167,557 times
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They are not American cars, made by Ford Australia which at one time at least, was not the same company, they were simply licensed to use the Ford name. That cool Ranger was designed and built in Australia, and would most likely be too expensive to import and
modify to meet our safety and emissions standards. Ford (American) would prefer to sell their own vehicles here, rather than buy from Ford Australia and resell them.
I have a friend that worked airport security in Brisbane and he was given a new Oz Ranger diesel to drive. Said it was a flimsy and poorly built truck that probably wouldn't last in the States. He was glad to get out of it. If they were well built and a diesel option, I'd be a player for one. But, the Colorado is coming with a diesel option and maybe, just maybe, GM got this one right. They've certainly been playing with the new one a long time in development.
While not a US made car or company, if BMW brought their diesel 300 series cars over here, they'd hit a home run. The engine is a 4 banger and not a power house but hiway fuel mileage is about double that of a Prius, like 80 mpgs. I know they now have that engine marinized for the USA and maybe it's too dirty for the US roads, emissions wise, but it sure knows how to sip fuel.
They are not American cars, made by Ford Australia which at one time at least, was not the same company, they were simply licensed to use the Ford name. That cool Ranger was designed and built in Australia, and would most likely be too expensive to import and
modify to meet our safety and emissions standards. Ford (American) would prefer to sell their own vehicles here, rather than buy from Ford Australia and resell them.
Actually Ford will not sell that over here because it is very close in size to the F150 and Ford feels that it would steal away sales from the F150 and that it could possibly lose its #1 status. This was reported in many different articles from numerous magazines.
Actually Ford will not sell that over here because it is very close in size to the F150 and Ford feels that it would steal away sales from the F150 and that it could possibly lose its #1 status. This was reported in many different articles from numerous magazines.
I don't know if that's really the case as much as it is that they couldn't sell enough of them to justify the cost of bringing it here. The US has a massive truck market and entry level fullsize trucks are very close in pricing to smaller trucks and on the used market a year old full size is usually similarly priced to even base model smaller trucks. No smaller truck has sold well (outside of fleet sales) in the US for decades with the exception of the Toyota Tacoma. However, that truck is a bit unique given its cult following and the fact that Toyota's fullsized entry is priced well above the Tacoma.
The dodge dakota was always a bit bigger than the ford ranger and chevrolet s10 was it not, and sold OK alongside the Ram.
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