Remember that leaked photo posing as the next-gen Ford Ranger? Well, now we have something real to compare it to, as new spy photos of the next-gen Ranger in pre-production duds just dropped. Today marks the first time the next Ranger was caught out testing in pre-production form, so there’s plenty to take in.
We’ll start with the resemblance to the leaked photo. The relationship between these two trucks is most obvious in the C-shaped headlight housings. We can see the “C” curve of the running lights popping through the heavy shrouding. Though, the projector beams themselves do look a bit different in that they’re wider than they appear in the leaked image. Similar style headlights have also been seen on the smaller Ford Maverick pickup. The heavy camouflage does a decent job of covering up the grille, but similar to the leak, a number of crossbars seem to be stretching across the front of the truck. Its hood is mostly flat and abruptly ends at the grille, likely to give this truck a mean, flat face.
In general, it’s a large departure from the current Ranger’s rounded face and relatively small grille with small, simple headlight fixtures. The new truck is likely going to look much squarer and more aggressive, following the trend of pickups everywhere.
Toyota’s Tacoma pickup truck continues to dominate the industry. The ones to watch are the Ford Ranger and Jeep Gladiator.
For 2020, Toyota delivered 238,806 Tacoma pickup trucks. That number is more than the combined total of the Ford Ranger, Chevrolet Colorado, and GMC Canyon’s deliveries. 2020 marks the 16th consecutive year the Toyota Tacoma is America’s best-selling midsize pickup truck.
Like most of the industry, Toyota’s mid-year sales were down. However, the Tacoma rebounded tremendously in Q4 with sales up 39% over Q4 of 2019.
The one to watch in this segment is the Jeep Gladiator. This model is still ramping up from its introduction. With 77,542 unit sales, Jeep is third overall. The Ford Ranger is also impressive and has overtaken Chevrolet’s Colorado for the number two overall position with strong growth in 2020. Sadly, Nissan is having troubles. We are a fan of the brand and don’t need to beat up Nissan in this story, but suffice it to say, the Nissan Frontier’s sales are down by half over the past year and the vehicle is no longer part of the conversation the way it once was.
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