APB to Ford....LEARN TO BUILD SOMETHING BESIDES A TRUCK!

I hope they don't call it F-100, just a poor name that Ford used to use for their previous F-100 that sorta became the Ranger. And when Toyota came out with the T-100 it just drove the name further into the mud.

i am with Gilly.
Close down Detroit, get the cars from Europe/Japan.
Move a few truck guys to Alabama and
learn how to build proper cars with decent renewal speed.

Now that they have dumped their distractions, RangeRover/Jaguar gone and Volvo soon gone,
Ford cant resist to go back to their bad habits: trucks.
But with a new excuse: these are sophisticated trucks, you see we use Alu.

What a stupid company.

They are on death row, 5 years behind Chrysler.

Ford should spend a lot of money, time, and effort in developing a truck smaller than the F150. Use a turbo-charged 2.0 liter motor that gets good gas mileage. Release a DIESEL version with the latest technology so it's super clean burning. Then, go crazy insane and call it..... The Ford Ranger.

I love WHINING !

Toyota (followed by Nissan) own the small truck market.

There will always be a need for trucks in some shape way or form in the U.S. The higher the gas prices go the less big trucks are going to be sold. So Ford is adjusting to the times, by making trucks like these. I think it's a great idea, for the people or companies that still need to use trucks, but don't want to pay for it at the pump.

Drop trucks? You guys really are dumb. One of the only if not the only thing Ford is making money off of is trucks. Ford is selling almost 130K F150's a year and peaked at over 200K. GM also sells in the 100K range as well. Ford needs something to compete with the Tacoma and a lighter, less "heavy duty", more efficient F150 would do the trick.

Gary, how dare you inject some reality into this discussion.
Does anyone actually make a small pickup anymore?
The Ranger is the only one. The rest are all midsize.

@Gary

read 'who moved my cheese'

waldorf and statler said:

"i am with Gilly. Close down Detroit, get the cars from Europe/Japan."

------------------------------------------------------

You can't possibly believe that erasing Detroit is a good solution. The trickle down effect would be staggering. Maybe you aren't from North America?

I'll admit Detroit has massive problems and it isn't reacting fast enough. Unfortunately sometimes things have to get really bad before people learn anything. In this case "really bad" might be the death of Chrysler. We shall see.

And I don't see what the surprise is about this so called "downsized F150". There's been an ongoing debate about a replacement Ranger for ages, and it's loooooong past due.

If you want to make fun of Ford for something, make fun of them for upsizing the Ranger at a time when it makes the least sense. If Ford actually focused on making a solid Ranger-sized truck, they'd have the market to themselves. Admittedly it's a small market, but in my opinion one that was made artificially smaller by poor product offerings and cheap gas. There are millions of people happily cruising around in their old S10's & Rangers... with no real replacement option at the moment. Tacoma's & Frontier's are quite a bit bigger, and Colorado's... well, there's not much threat there.

Finally, I'm tired of people clamoring for diesels over and over again. I'm convinced everybody that "wants" these diesels must only sit on their PC's and post on forums, because they don't (and won't) sell.

1) Erasing Detroit = Bad. Todd is right the last thing we need is more jobs removed from the US. You people wonder why the economy sucks. No jobs = no money. Its that simple.

2) F-100's were a great truck back in the 60's and early 70's my father had a 69 f-100 untill about 6 years ago. Straight 6 220 that thing was a work horse and got 17mpg on 60's tech.

3) ckvckv: your 2.0 turbo idea is a godo one. My grandpa had a 4 cylinder hemi ford courier. That little truck pulled a full size camper all over the country as 20mpg. It amazes me that car companies say these things can't be done when they already have been.

great opportunity for ford to invest in some diesel tech, rather than erase detroit, let's just european-ize them, except then you might have people from detroit forming vicious scooter firms....

@LowestIQ:

nahhh, I don't read books. It's bad for the environment.

nissan frontier sized im sure

Here's an idea.

Make a 'half ton' truck, the (f-150) that hauls a half ton in it's bed.
The f250 hauls 3/4 of a ton. The f350 hauls 1 ton. etc.. etc.. etc..
Return to a manming convention that makes sense.

Right now the 'half ton' base model f150 with a v6 hauls 1930 pounds. Almost a full ton.

Trucks are much larger than what is needed. Ford should just shrink the f-150 to compete with the Tacoma. Leave the 250 to handle the gigantic Tundra.

Bring back small pickups. Not everyone needs a 'mid-size' and expecially a full size pickup.

Hum, smaller then F150, but larger than the Ranger.....I think that's called a Dodge Dakota!!!

Thats a sweet looking ride. Ford certainly knows how to build a nice looking truck.

I hope they won't jump on the diesel hoopla. It doesn't work in the US and it costs more than gas which is already at nose bleed prices. Ship that diesel crap over to europe so they can continue to obfuscate their fuel economy and spend nearly double in fuel prices while still having the idiocy to ask why gas is cheaper in the US.

"the F-100 would be about 9/10th the size of the F-150 and would use extensive amounts of aluminum to keep the weight down. The F-100 would also be built on the same assembly line as the larger F-150."

Right idea, wrong truck. It needs to be smaller. How about a Ranger-class chassis called the F-80? Hell, call it "Ranger". With a 2.0 liter 4-banger with direct injection? 750lb payload.

Please! Don't feed the trolls...

Ford moves as slow as cold molasses going uphill. By the time Ford gets around to doing this, we will have drilled in ANWR, off the coast of California and Florida, and developed superior and cost effective methods of extruding crude from oil shale.

By then, the cost of gas won't be an issue. If we have to wait 2 years for Ford to bring cars already on the road in Europe and meet our crash standards, and might even meet CAFE standards, how long will this take?

GM isn't even trying in the compact truck arena. I mean, come on. Have you LOOKED at the Colorado? It is not only pig faced, but a piece of crap as well. It is low rent, and a non competitor. The only time I see them on the road anymore is when they have a "Comcast" decal on the side door.

Well you are welcome to buy a Toyota, but it will rust out from underneath of you before you pay it off.

Ford doesn't need to move fast in this market. Its had the truck market from top (F150) to bottom (Ranger) for over 10 years.

This truck will probably take over the Sport Trac market. Seems like the smarter move than taking over the Ranger's position.

Ford is planning on building an F150, and F100 and a replacement for the Ranger.

The F100 is planned to be built on a flexible manufacturing line that will let Ford redistribute numbers between F150's and F100's without opening or closing down a production line.

The Ranger replacement is assumed to be created on the T6 chassis with a 2011 ish release. The Ranger replacement has been said to be the same size as the current Ranger.

Ford knows what they are doing, they are just taking a long time to do it.

If Ford plans on selling a truck that's 9/10's the size of an F-150, GOOD LUCK XD!!!! It's more like 6/10's or 7/10's to sell. I think they should replace it with the slow selling bland Sports Trac and make it compete with the Ridgeline and Tacoma. It will receive a lot more hype.