First look: Ford teases next Ranger

THE all-new Australian-designed 2011 Ranger will make its world debut at the Sydney motor show on October 15.

Ford Australia confirmed the widely anticipated news this week with a single image of the vital new global utility vehicle that reveals the next-generation one-tonner will continue with the Ranger nameplate.

It also shows the next Ranger will wear a bold, bluff face dominated by a vertical three-bar chromed grille featuring the Ranger name and Ford’s Blue Oval badge.

Ford’s all-new compact pick-up will be joined in Sydney by the world debut of Mazda’s closely related BT-50 redesign.

Both vehicles are based on an all-new global compact truck platform engineered in Campbellfield and developed in Geelong.

Left:Ford Focus RS. Below: Ford Fiesta.

Ford said the Ranger will offer a new level of ownership experience when it goes on sale in a total of 180 markets globally from next year, with new levels of driving quality, more capability than ever with “exceptional” towing and payload capacity, and more power and “excellent” fuel economy from a new engine family.

“Australia has played a leading role in the development of this latest global Ford product,” said the president of Ford Asia Pacific and Africa, Joe Hinrichs.

“Ranger is symbolic of how our great product development capability is being leveraged by the One Ford plan like never before.”

Apart from its “dazzlingly contemporary new look”, Ford says the new Ranger will not only build on its predecessor’s workhorse credentials, “but it also gives owners a spacious, comfortable, feature-filled interior and sophisticated driving experience that they would expect only from a car”.

The new Ranger, which will be built alongside the next-generation BT-50 in Thailand following a $394 million investment to continue joint-venture production of both models, is said to be the product of more than one million kilometres of testing in some of the world’s toughest conditions – from the Australian Outback to the Middle East and European Alps.

Alongside the 2011 Ranger’s world debut, Ford Australia will also use the first Australian International Motor Show in Sydney for two years to stage local debuts of the limited-edition Focus RS hot-hatch, which will be launched later this month, FPV’s first supercharged GS and GT models, and the new petrol and diesel-powered Fiesta sedan.

“Fiesta has been extremely successful in Australia,” said Ford Australia president Marin Burela. “Since its launch in early 2009, Ford’s share of the light car segment has grown from 4.7 percent to 8.3 percent.

“We fully expect that the new sedan and diesel variants will attract even more new customers to the Fiesta range, along with the availability of the new 1.6-litre PowerShift automatic transmission.”