I woke up this morning to about 50 replies, but thanks to Kinja I can’t even see them in full, let alone reply to them.
TLDR: Ford is considering launching a new entry-level compact pickup to slot below the Ranger. As cool as this sounds, my business theory was that this is a bad idea (on a large scale) because small pickups are so redundant to crossovers now. There will be lawn care, pool services, etc, but for average homeowners it’s not a good proposition because of that redundancy.
Almost all of the people who said I was crazy went on to mention....EXACTLY the things I already do with our wagon and van. It was like some Jedi mind trick.
Bottom line: Small pickups are cool for their own sake, not because they make a lot of sense.
Corollary: If Ford makes this more of a genuine 4-door with a small, exposed bed (ie, not like the original Ranger) then you could capture quite a bit of potential crossover buyers. Like an Escape with a bed. It would look odd, but would make some practical sense.