MOTORING NEWS - According to automobilemag.com, the planned pick-up will utilise a unibody construction instead of the traditional body-on-frame setup like the Ranger and F-series, meaning it could possibly be based on the new Focus or Fiesta, and made in Brazil or Mexico.
For the former market, the newcomer will in effect replace the Fiesta-based Courier that went out of production in 2013, and provide Ford with a much need rival in one of the most hotly contested segments, currently being dominated by the Fiat Strada and to a lesser extent, the Volkswagen Saveiro and Chevrolet Montana.
In South Africa, the pick-up would not only, finally, serve as a replacement for the long-since discontinued Bantam, but also provide much needed competition for the first generation Dacia Logan derived Nissan NP200, which has made the half-ton segment its own following the withdrawal of the Chevrolet Utility last year.
Based on the report by the online platform, the newcomer, if destined for the United States, could very well eschew the Courier name, as this stemmed from Ford’s rebadging of the Mazda B-series in markets also including Australia and South Africa, and instead revive the iconic Ranchero moniker last used for an open-deck version of the LTD in 1979.
Image source: Personal Trainer Pioneer
