Sunset Ford Dealer Blog

Recently, the Ford’s best-selling brand of truck lost its spot at the top of the sales charts. That prompted the Ford Motor Company to start working on something that’s more efficient without losing the appeal of a pickup truck. The most recent plans include two smaller pickup truck models including a smaller replacement for the popular Ford Ranger.

The new version of the pickup truck is probably going to be called the F100. The automaker is working on the project under the codename of P525 and the new models are likely going to resemble the Ford trucks from the 1950s with curvy fenders and other classic features.

Until now, the Ranger has been produced in Australia. Ford didn’t have plans to bring it back to the United States, but recent developments in demand and gas prices have forced the company to reconsider.

The F100 and the smaller version of the Ranger are likely going to hit dealer lots in 2010, just in time to meet the federal government’s new standards. Ford is going to produce them together instead of making them compete against each other. Neither truck is going to have a V8 engine, but they will have either a V4 or an EcoBoost V6 with turbocharging or direct injection for better fuel efficiency.

In the last few months, Ford has made some modifications to keep up with a changing demand. The automaker delayed the release of its popular F150 for a few months in hopes that gas prices may go down. But the latest announcement is that Ford is bringing the European Ford Focus to the United States in 2010.

In addition to simply coming to North America from “across the pond,” the new Focus is going to be produced on this continent as well. This is just one of many plans the company has to meet the growing demand of compact and subcompact vehicles.

The announcement has excited many enthusiasts and fans of Ford cars. Some have pleaded for the Dearborn-based automaker to bring the European Focus to North America for many years. But right now, it just makes financial sense for the Ford Motor Company. In addition to keeping up with the demand, the company can also cut costs by working on only one model and design instead of investing in two different ones for different markets. Ford also wins out by protecting against our weakening dollar by building the cars domestically.

With the even smaller Ford Fiesta and other compact cars on lots across the country, the automaker is in a great position to compete against the Japanese manufacturers that are making more efficient vehicles now, too.