Ford’s Lead Narrows, but It Still Sets Pace
Compact pickup trucks are as ubiquitous as faded denim in the youth market and, like bluejeans, it seems, are all about brand identity and style these days.
Ford is the undisputed leader, its Ranger brand accounting for about a third of all compact pickup sales in the U.S. last year.
But just as Tommy Hilfiger and Old Navy are fraying Levi Strauss’ hold on the jeans market, Dodge’s Dakota, Toyota’s Tacoma and Nissan’s Frontier are picking away at the Ranger (as Chevrolet’s long-in-the-tooth S-10, while still in second place, sees monthly sales slipping).
Granted, each has a long way to go. As of the end of September, Ranger sales were down by 15,000 units from the first nine months of 1999, but Ford still was loping along, a couple laps ahead of the pack, with 275,858 sold (see chart).
The Dakota is selling well on the strength of its four-door Quad Cab model but is essentially unchanged for 2001. The Tacoma, with sales slowing as potential buyers wait for a complete redesign due next year, has received a mild face lift across the line and adds a “double cab” four-door model. The S-10 and its GMC Sonoma twin aren’t scheduled for an update until 2002, and aside from adding four-door crew cab models at the upper end of the line, General Motors hasn’t tweaked them much for 2001.
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All of which brings us back to Ford’s Ranger and its competitor from Nissan, both of which appear with noteworthy revisions for 2001.
Ford, aware that its lead has narrowed, has moderately restyled the entire Ranger line, added a bigger and more powerful V-6 option and slipped in two new trim levels. Bigger changes are afoot for 2002, when an all-new Ranger will arrive.
Nissan, for its part, has heard critics’ complaints that it built a great truck hampered by uninspired styling and lackluster engine performance. It sent the Frontier back to the studio for a rethink.
The result is a new supercharged V-6 at the top of the line and that beefy, rivet-studded “industrial-aggressive” face lift you can see these days in any number of Frontier ads on television and in magazines ranging from the traditional automotive buff books to edgy youth-culture publications such as Maxim.
It is doubtful that Nissan will steal many Ranger fans from Ford, or that Ford will take sales from Nissan, although the new Frontier fascia is tough enough that it could be a turnoff that sends potential customers to other brands.
What the revitalized trucks from Ford and Nissan might do, though, is help breathe a little life back into the compact segment, which has been fairly stable (a sterner critic might call it stagnant) for years.
Nissan Frontier
Nissan, clearly, is going after a young, male audience with the 2001 Frontier. The truck was designed with “a nice coolness factor” and a look that says “this is not your father’s pickup truck,” said Frontier marketing manager Fred Suckow (who shows no signs of an incipient split personality despite having a job that also requires him to market the decidedly unyouthful, unaggressive Quest minivan).
The target customer for the 2001 Frontier, Suckow said, is a guy in the 25-to-34 age bracket, at least 10 years younger than the “old” Frontier customer, median age 44.
Nissan created the compact pickup segment in the U.S. in 1959 and last year brought out the first four-door compact truck with independently operating rear doors (competitors’ back doors couldn’t be opened until the front doors were). With the new Frontier, the Japanese auto maker scores two more firsts: a lockable tailgate and an optional supercharged V-6.
The supercharger doesn’t turn the Frontier into a race truck, but it does boost mid-range torque and acceleration and should appeal to buyers with boats and trailers to tow--or with egos that need stroking. The supercharged 3.3-liter V-6 churns out 210 horsepower versus 170 for the normally aspirated version. Base price for a supercharged model when it goes on sale next month is $19,999.
In reconfiguring the Frontier, Nissan also lowered the ride height of most versions, figuring that the younger buyers it is gunning for would rather have a racy-looking truck than one that looked as though it wanted to tiptoe across a mountain stream without wetting its drive shaft.
Handling across the lineup is crisp, with tight and nimble steering. The ride is decent for a pickup--but remember, it is a pickup. Suspension on the 4x4 models is stiff enough to make one marvel aloud at the efficiency of the optional in-dash CD player’s anti-skip mountings, something that doesn’t usually come up in a test drive.
As with most compact pickups, the Frontier comes in a wide variety of trim levels--there are 14 body, engine and transmission combinations. Nissan markets three distinct body styles: regular cab (two doors and no room behind the seat), two-door king cab (rear jump seats in an expanded cabin) and crew cab (a true four-door cab with two rows of seats, though rear legroom is constrained).
Bed size varies according to cab size, with a 6.5-foot bed available for the regular cab, 6.2-foot for the king and 4.6-foot for the crew.
Available engines are a 2.4-liter inline-4 that is the most powerful in the class, with 143 horsepower and 154 pound-feet of torque, or pulling power; a 3.3-liter V-6 rated at 170 horsepower; and the supercharged version of same, rated at 210 horses.
Fuel economy--”consumption” might be more descriptive in this class--ranges from 22 miles per gallon in city use and 26 mpg highway for the inline-4 with manual transmission to 15-18 for the supercharged V-6.
The Frontier’s interior has been freshened with new metallic-looking seat fabrics, nicer control knobs on the instrument panel and a new steering wheel. Upscale versions also offer optional leather seats.
You can spend anywhere from $12,219 (for the base four-cylinder, manual transmission, regular cab model) to more than twice that ($26,119 for the top-of-the-line four-wheel-drive crew cab with V-6, automatic transmission and leather upholstery).
Final word: The new Frontier is a well-equipped, nicely packaged truck with macho styling that will make it stand out in the competitive compact pickup market. Nissan, in one season, has taken it from bland to edgy (“It doesn’t roll off the assembly line, it struts!” proclaims one series of ads).
Ford Ranger
Speaking of edgy, Ford likes the image the word evokes so much that it named a new version of its Ranger the Edge and lettered it big and bold on the side of the truck.
It is a stylish sports version aimed at the street-custom crowd, featuring monochromatic color treatment (the bumpers and fender flares are the same color as the body), oversize wheels and tires, a new mesh grille and a hood with a raised center section. The two-wheel-drive models are built on the heftier four-wheel-drive frame so they share the same muscular stance and ride height.
The other new Ranger, due out after Christmas, is an off-road four-wheel-drive version sporting mud-eating, 31-inch knobby tires, a Torsen limited-slip differential and a strengthened rear axle, retuned suspension and steering systems and a load of interior trim upgrades. All that for a premium expected to cost $1,250 to $1,750, a lot less than it would cost to make the modifications at home or in an independent off-road supplier’s shop.
The basic Rangers--and there are a whopping 38 engine, transmission, cab, wheelbase and cargo box combinations--retain all the elements that have helped make the brand the nation’s best-selling compact pickup. That means good on- and off-road handling characteristics, a relatively smooth ride, easy-on-the-eyes Ford truck design, plenty of power (except in the base four-banger) and a spacious cabin for front-seat passengers.
Unlike Nissan and Dodge, with their full-cabin, four-door crew cab versions of their compact pickups, Ford has opted to brand its short-bedded crew cab an Explorer, the Sport Trac, leaving the Ranger with just the regular and king cab (Ford calls it Supercab) models.
Fully 60% of the Rangers sold these days are Supercabs--with rear jump seats and narrow rear access doors available in a $695 option package. But as with any stretched-cab model, rear seating room is tight and the extra area behind the front seats is best suited for storage.
One neat option is a “butterfly” hinged hard tonneau cover for the bed: It folds in the middle to provide equally easy access to the front and rear of the cargo box.
The Ranger comes with three engine choices: a base inline-4 that puts out an anemic 119 horsepower and 146 foot-pounds of torque (a more powerful four-banger is expected in the spring); the venerable 3.0-liter, 140-horsepower V-6; and a smooth new single-overhead-cam 4.0-liter V-6 rated at 207 horsepower--40 more than its predecessor--and 238 foot-pounds of torque.
Fuel numbers range from 25 mpg city and 35 highway for the four-cylinder manual transmission model to 17 city, 25 highway for the 4.0-liter V-6 with automatic transmission.
Ford has revamped the Ranger’s suspension, smoothing out the pickup truck bounce that can leave you feeling a bit out of control on rough roads and tight corners. The company’s engineers say they also worked overtime to improve noise dampening, and on our test rides, taken in the desert around Reno this summer, in-cabin noise was never an issue.
Prices for the 2001 Ranger start at $12,400 for the base four-cylinder model (which includes a $560 delivery charge) and top out at $24,500 for a loaded 4.0-liter Supercab four-wheel-drive model with automatic and the Flareside cargo box with sculpted rear fenders (the slab-sided Styleside versiongoes for about $495 less).
Final word: Still the one to beat, but the competition just keeps getting better. Ranger’s lack of a V-8 engine could start hurting--unless gas prices keep climbing--as competitors turn to power to level the playing field. Dodge already is doing very well with its V-8 Dakotas; Nissan says 2003 will bring significant increases in power from its supercharged V-6; and Chevrolet is launching a hot-rod V-8 version of its S-10, to be called the SSR.
Times staff writer John O’Dell covers the auto industry for Highway 1 and the Business section. He can be reached at john.odell@latimes.com.
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Lone Ranger
The competition is coming on strong, but in terms of U.S. sales, Ford’s venerable Ranger remains in a class by itself. Here are unit sales from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30:
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Model 2000 % Share 1999 % Share Ford Ranger 275,858 32.5 290,853 33.8 Chevrolet S-10 171,481 20.2 183,975 21.4 Dodge Dakota 138,563 16.3 109,922 12.8 Toyota Tacoma 110,114 13.0 122,759 14.3 Nissan Frontier 83,736 9.9 68,793 8.0 GMC Sonoma 40,349 4.7 46,158 5.4 Mazda B-Series 25,024 2.9 30,930 3.6 Isuzu Hombre 4,452 0.5 6,893 0.8 *TOTAL 849,577 860,283
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Source: Autodata Corp.
