Ford Ranger

The Ford Ranger is my favorite small pickup truck on the market today. It has rugged looks, modern driving dynamics, and great power for its size. Now, Ranger owners can now get an added performance boost that’s officially sanctioned by Ford Performance.

We still have no idea if or when the Ranger Raptor will make its way to North America, so for now, we’ll have to live vicariously through other parts of the world who already have Ford’s badass mid-size pickup.

While those in some parts of the globe are getting an official Ford Ranger Raptor, here in the States, Ford has yet to announce plans for one. Seizing on a clear market opportunity, Hennessey Performance wasted no time turning its hand to the 2019 Ford Ranger truck.

At this point, anyone who cares about trucks knows that the Ford Ranger is making a comeback. The 2019 Ranger is one of the best trucks on paper in the mid-range segment with its 2.3-liter EcoBoost engine producing impressive power and torque.

The mid-size pickup market is growing quickly; over 80% in the last four years with Toyota’s Tacoma, GM’s Colorado and Canyon, and Nissan’s Frontier leading the way. Ford, once a dominant player here, decided in 2011 to exit the segment when they killed the last generation Ranger in the United States after seeing sales slide from a high of 348,000 trucks in 1999 to 70,000 in 2011.

It’s not common for a truck that tops its class in payload, torque and towing to also be the most fuel efficient among gas-powered entries. However, that’s precisely what the new 2019 Ranger will offer buyers when it lands.

Ford is getting ready to toss the new 2019 Ranger onto the market here in the states, and while competitors from Chevy, GMC, and Toyota are all using V6 engines, Ford’s mid-size pickup truck will come only with four-cylinder turbocharged engine here in the states.

Ford is doing that thing again, where only Europe gets the cool sporty rides. Apparently the new 2019 Ranger models will come to the US, but it still sounds like the Ranger Raptor won’t come here – at least not right away.

Ford has brought forth a lot of neat machines over the years, and has discarded quite a few as well. From the questionably named “Probe” to the bucking “Bronco,” Americans have bought, owned, and mourned the loss of a multitude of Blue Oval automobiles over the years, with the Ranger being one of the most sorely missed here in the US.

The upcoming Ford Ranger Raptor has fans of performance trucks around the world excited. So far, the little beast hasn’t been confirmed outside of Asia Pacific markets, but Ford Performance chief engineer Jamal Hameedi thinks that the Ranger Raptor would do well here in the US as well.

Remember the step-side Splash edition of the Ford Ranger, with its bright yellow paint scheme and vibrant 90s era “splashed” decal accents? Yeah, forget that noise. None of that crap will be getting brought back on the reborn 2019 version of the pickup, and in their place buyers are sure to find a far more focused machine.

For fans of small trucks, the Ford Ranger has been a go-to for decades, starting with the F-Series truck in 1985 and then finally earning the title Ranger in 1982. It stayed on the market until 2012 here in the US.

The U.S.-bound revival of the Ranger pickup truck is one of the most hotly anticipated Ford vehicles in recent history. Now it seems as if maybe we’ll be getting something even better – a Raptor version of the Ranger.

These days, there are lots of people clamoring for the return of Ford’s Ranger compact pickup truck. But there’s another Ford that pre-dates the Ranger that I’d love to see make a comeback too. And that, my friends, is the Ford Ranchero.