Anyone have a Ford Courier back in the day? Still relevant in today's market?



https://www.autoblog.com/2019/01/22...ncid=edlinkusauto00000021&yptr=yahoo

Ford confirmed a compact pickup, smaller than the Ranger, is currently in the works. Automotive News reports from an auto industry conference in Detroit today that Jim Farley, Ford president of global markets, broke the news.

Farley said Ford is "investing in more affordable versions of our truck business," and "you can expect new nameplates below where we compete today."

Below today means something smaller and cheaper than the new Ranger. This statement lends credence to a previous report we published last year about Ford considering a small, unibody pickup. That report said we should expect Ford to launch a compact pickup by 2022 for the U.S. market. Until 2013, Ford sold the Courier pickup to international markets, but that truck was Fiesta-based.

We also published spy shots of what could be a Ford Focus-based pickup truck late last year. Now, we obviously aren't getting the new Focus, but the platform it's built on is a scalable and modular one, similar to others like Volkswagen's MQB. This flexibility means the pickup might just be riding on a modified version of the new Focus platform.

This news comes shortly after Ford confirmed to us that a battery electric F-Series is also on the docket. Both aspects of the news are exciting, but a compact pickup could really shake the game up for the Big Three. Nobody currently sells a pickup in the U.S. as small as this one could potentially be, leaving us all to wonder what the market for this kind of a truck is. We dropped Ford a note to see if it would tell us any more on this front, and they told us that, "we'll have more details to share about new nameplates in the future."

But why?

What?

Ford and exciting don't get used in the same sentence. This is why.

Subdivision grocery getters. City suitcase haulers.

Gas mileage.

How'd the VW pickup do?

Everybody get on board the new Dodge Omni pickup!

Actually, if I could get a new VW pickup truck with a Jetta "smog cheater" diesel engine, I would seriously consider...

Why?

Perhaps their marketing surveys show a segment of the market that is still interested in a "small" pickup. Especially those who don't tow anything larger than a couple of kayaks on top of a tent trailer. Part of that market would likely prefer a frame based platform as opposed to the unibody one mentioned, but a good portion of that segment won't even know the difference. If I wasn't into keeping our Matrix, which I use like a small truck at times, I'd be a member of that market segment. I'll take it to town for feed bags, some construction stuff, etc at 37 MPG versus firing up the Tacoma at 20-21 MPG.

The newer "small" trucks are huge compared to my old '86 Toyota, an old Ford Currier, Mazda, Datsun, or Chebby LUV. Everything associated with them costs more. 16"-17" inch tires as opposed to our older truck's 14". Camper shells are larger and heavier, etc.

I can imagine some businesses/farms/ranches getting use from a truly small truck to bring back certain items from town that a car is not suitable for and there's no need to use the 15MPG F-350 with the 5 wheel hitch in the bed.

Now, the real question will be....................can they sell enough of them to satisfy the investors/board of directors?

I was really happy with old (70's-80's) Subaru wagons, with crank windows, carb engines, 13" wheels, square backs for volume, and manual transmissions. Now everything is power this and that, turbo, injected, sloped backs for aerodynamic performance (sucks to try to get a dog crate or a third of a cord of wood in there) because the demand is for them, not a true utility station wagon. The same likely will hold true for Ford's new idea.

Geno

Or how about a modern version of the 80's Toyota diesel pickups? I think Mazda had one also perhaps?

Or just import a diesel Tacoma, like they have overseas.

Geno

I remember the ford couriers, pretty decent little trucks!

I looked at a Ford Mazda...er, Courier back in the early 70's. I might have bought one until I looked at the oil filter. It was under the engine above the axle. It appeared to need a special tool to get it out. I had plenty to do without screwing with something that stupid.

Because gas is not going to stay <$3 forever.

To compete with the red hot selling Honda Ridgeline 🙄

My 74 Courier caught fire. Lots of good memories there. Can still smell the melting wires and sulfur smell.

A big city, heavy traffic pickup. Would probably fail.

If a real transfer case 4 wheel drive is in the options I'd like to hear more.

Chevy had the El Camino. Jeep had a Truckster (IIRC). Must be Fords turn. Now that I think about it didn’t Ford have an Explorer with a small truck bed?

It’d be nice to see an actual compact truck back on the market. Hasn’t been one for years. They all seem to have abandoned the market.

Something for a 70 year quail hunting homo to haul his wife's cat to the vet with on opening day.

Chevy's compact truck was called the Chevy Luv. The El Camino was basically a Chevelle station wagon with a pickup bed. Ford had the Ranchero.
A buddy of mine had one of those little Luvs. Good running little truck for hauling coon dogs and such. I know it was a straight 4 popper w/ a 5 speed, but don't remember much else about it.
Don't know too much about the Ford Courier, but another buddy had a little Dodge, D50 IIRC.
That thing would scream.
I can see the market for a compact truck. Not that I want one, but there's lots of times it'd be handy.
7mm

The S10 was a compact. The older Tacoma was a compact. The Ranger......

Anymore they are all midsize plus.


Nobody is filling the market that was built by the Toy, S10, Ranger etc.........

love to see one of these again !

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/2f/df/c3/2fdfc39f8143f1d0dca550f72dda417a.jpg

This sounds smaller than all those. I can picture a couple lesbians hauling their signs to the protest while their eco-boost Ford does 38 in a 55. Hopefully Ford designs it so an F350 front bumper hits right at windshield level.

My favorite small pickup from years past was the Isuzu Pup. 4 cylinder diesel, 35 to 40 mpg. Every jippo tree feller seemed to have one! Five gallons from the skidder got you to work for a week!!

Bring back the Subaru brat. Sixteen year old me, and a buddy took one antelope hunting. Two bucks and four does in the bed of that thing. Was a two hour drive from home. Filled up when we left and again upon return home. That was back before I knew anything about anything. We had those hot antelope carcasses stacked in the bed of that thing. A gruesome sight to be sure.

Selling price?

You never know, maybe manufacturers are now looking at gradually replacing full size model lines of trucks with smaller size models as they have the formerly full size models of passenger cars and SUVs and keeping their profit margin relatively the same.

The Chevy Luv was just a re-badged Isuzu, the Ford Courier was a Mazda, and the Dodge D-50 and Plymouth Arrow were a Mitsubishi.

Chrysler also marketed a front wheel drive mini El Camino/Ranchero type vehicle. The Dodge version was called "Rampage" and Plymouth's was, "Scamp".

At one time the compact Ford Falcon was available in a single cab mini-truck as was Chevrolet's Corvair.

The old VW bus was also available in both single and double cab pickup truck versions, too.

Me too!

My Grandfather had one of the VW's and used it to commute from Suwanee FL the 75 miles one way to Gainesville FL his last couple years of flying for Eastern. He loved that thing and kept the 68 F150 Camper Special for a work truck. There is certainly still a market for a small truck.

That's funny as hell right there. My first laugh out loud of the morning.

My little truck was a '73 Datsun. It was a pretty good pickup, too, except for the back breaking seats. They didn't have a 4x4 version at that time but they came out with one later. There was a 4x4 kit available to convert it but it cost about $1500 plus labor if you couldn't DIY. That was a lot of money then.

As stated multiple times in other threads, I would LOVE to be able to purchase a diesel Toyota Hi Lux (Tacoma) that is offered with a 4cylinder diesel engine everywhere that Toyota does business, around the globe, EXCEPT in the U.S. market. For some reason, Toyota has an aversion to selling diesel passenger vehicles in the U.S. They already have diesel engines that are EU emissions compliant. Outside of California, cannot imagine that the balance of the U.S. emissions standards would be so difficult to meet...

Holy kshizzle! A 25% “chicken tax” on imported light trucks

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Transit_Connect

Prob’ly explains a lot.

Otherwise if Honda or Toyota would bring out the equivalent of a Ford Transit connect with rubber floor mats instead of carpet and with a minimum of electronic crap I’d be interested.

Buddy of mine had one of those when he was stationed in West Texas. Has been almost 40 years. However, IIRC, he claimed close to 50 mpg on the highway coming home from Texas.

Checkout the Subaru Baja.

Funny thing about growing up and working in a salvage yard. I can identify any American car, make, model, and year (within 3 years) made from 1960 to 1990 right off the top of my head. But since the "Old Man"'only dealt in domestics, I knew nothing about imports until long after I got out of the service. I used to look down my nose at imports, till I got hooked up with Wifey and her '09 Forrester.
I've seen quite a few of those Falcon based Rancheros and a few Corvair pickups. We had one of the Corvairs in the yard in the '70s. With the engine over the rear axle and cab over type front end, you could lift the front wheels off the ground 4" or so if you revved it up and dumped the clutch! Ask me how I know .
I know I've seen quite a few Mazda pickups that bear an uncanny resemblance to the Rangers, but never connected the dots on the Courier or Chevy Luv. If I had, I'd have drove Kenny crazy calling him Joe Isuzu.
7mm

Orion,

coming soon?

https://2019besttrucks.com/toyota/2019-toyota-tacoma-diesel/

https://2020pickuptrucks.com/2019-toyota-tacoma-diesel-usa/

Only drawback I can see, I hate the looks of most all new pickup grills and front ends, too boxy. AND, I'm retired and don't have $$$ for a new truck

Geno

I have an F350 and I had the same reaction !

My dad bought a Mazda B2000 pickup in 1980 and it got a legitimate 33-35 mpg on the highway. It had a 5 speed manual transmission and probably wouldn't get above 75 on the highway but it sipped gas and with a camper shell on the back he could haul boxes of forms for his income tax business plus an occasional bag of protein pellets for the cows. We lived in the sticks like I do now and gas mileage was a big deal, you can go through some bucks in gas when you have to drive 35 miles to the nearest store. At one time almost every farmer was driving small pickups around here, the big trucks stayed in the shed until you needed to pull something. Those that don't care about fuel mileage in pickups are usually the concrete cowboys living in a suburb driving their jacked up 4x4 to their kids ball game two miles away. Guys that put 40K a year on a truck do care about fuel mileage unless their boss is paying for it.

Now I have a couple of full sized trucks that stay parked most of the time. 95% of the time I'm driving my 37 mpg Toyota Camry. I'd rather drive one of the trucks but can't justify the cost of gas at 15 mpg. If 15 mpg out of a truck doesn't bother you then you're not driving it very much.