The Ford Ranger is currently selling at a record pace in New Zealand and is due to beat the Toyota Hilux into second place for 2014. This is after a 32-year reign by the Hilux as the top-selling commercial and something even more incredible is that the grand champion of New Zealand’s vehicle sales the Toyota Corolla is now also under immediate treat by the Ranger.
 
Both the new look Ford Ranger and Everest are coming from the same manufacturing plant in Thailand. The Ranger is also expected to continue with the 3.2L five-cylinder 147kW turbo diesel engine. These two vehicles are built on the same platform, which is part of Ford’s global plan, which is to continue reducing the total number of vehicle platforms overall.

The Everest has passenger-friendly coils and a self-leveling system and the Ranger has leaf springs but both have strong links to the worlds biggest selling American truck the F-150. 

Ford is not saying too much about the new 2015 Ranger styling, we are reading about some updates or changes coming to the inside, upgrades to the SYNC communications and vehicle connectivity. One thing for sure, Ford will not want to slow down the selling success for the vehicle that is set to be number one in New Zealand. Toyota NZ has already conceded that the Ranger will beat the Hilux for the calendar year 2014.
 
There were a lot of smiling faces at Ford NZ when the sales at the start of November 2014 were running more than 30% ahead of the same time last year. This impetus had moved Ranger within striking distance of the Corolla, New Zealand’s favourite car. (The November 2014 sales figures were showing the Ranger 25 units adrift). Ford NZ claims the Ranger has also surpassed its key competition for leasing related residual values. Leasing companies are telling Ford that the Ranger has a stronger residual value than the Toyota Hilux; maybe we’ll leave that question to the accountants to figure out, we think the Ranger will be a key vehicle on our roads for the next few years.

February 2015