Ford Ranger 2014 News

THE Holden Commodore has made a surprising recovery in the March sales race with a staggering 85 per cent sales increase compared with the same month the prior year -- narrowly missing a place on the podium as the nation’s fourth most popular car.Official figures released today show it was the Commodore’s third-best monthly sales tally since the new VF model went on sale 10 months ago, as the Holden brand overall posted a 19 per cent sales surge -- the strongest growth of any Top 10 brand and the seventh month in a row it has outpaced the market.However, the sharp percentage increases are largely due to the Commodore posting its second-lowest monthly result ever in March last year (1606 sales). The Commodore’s tally for March this year of 2967 sales is still down compared with the 2012 figure of about 3200 deliveries.But the Commodore’s old arch rival, the Ford Falcon, continued to rank well outside the Top 10, with just 641 deliveries. The Cruze small car that is built alongside the Commodore had a tough run, with sales down 30 per cent on the same month last year -- about half the sales rate as the same month just two years ago.March is the typically the second-biggest month for new-car sales as the Japanese brands have a surge in the lead-up to the end of the Japanese financial year, which closed on March 31. The sharp discounting prompts also the non-Japanese brands to compete.Last year’s top-selling car, the Toyota Corolla, led the March sales race -- but the Mazda3 small car, which was the market leader in January and February, still leads the year-to-date tally. The third-placed Toyota HiLux ute again squeezed the Commodore off the podium in March. But the Commodore still managed to outsell the popular Hyundai i30, Ford Ranger ute and Toyota Camry sedan.The Commodore also proved more popular than the updated Mazda CX-5 and Toyota RAV4 SUVs, which ranked just inside the Top 10 sellers list for March. The official figures show the new-car market is beginning to make a recovery after a downturn in January and February. Sales in March were down by just 0.1 per cent, to 97,267 deliveries, while sales in the first three months combined are down by 2.4 per cent.But the downturn has been exaggerated by Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi, which have all posted massive sales slowdowns for the first three months of this year, likely because their dealer networks are still clearing cars that were declared as sold in 2013.This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling

Ford says their capped price service offer, MyFord, has been successful in bringing thousands of owners back to the brand -- 13,000 in 2013 alone. So they're taking the offer further, raising it to seven years and 135,000km from the six years/105,000km that rolled out in 2011.The revised program -- available on vehicles built from 2007 -- has been extended to cover brake pad replacements and rotor machining across the range except the sporty FPV, ST and XR5 variants and the light commercial Transit van. All eligible models will have front pads capped at $259 and rear ones at $219, except the rear-wheel drive Falcon and Territory rear pads, which will be capped at $259. Machining is capped at $88.Ford has also announced a year's free membership and roadside assistance with state motoring organisations -- NRMA, RACV, RACT, RACQ, AANT, RAA and RAC -- at participating dealers with the sale of any new car, except FPV and Transit.“The addition of the Auto Club Program is another customer-focused offering that Ford owners will enjoy,” Ford Australia general manager, customer service division, Stephen Kruk, says. “Customers expect this level of certainty from their dealers and we’re happy to say that since it was introduced in July 2011, the program has been very well received by our customers.”Owners can check the maximum price for a service, and all terms and conditions at www.ford.com.au/myfordcps.  MyFord Capped Price Servicing is available on the following vehicles.Ford Fiesta – WQ, WS, WTFord Focus – LS, LT, LV, LVIIFord Mondeo – MA, MB, MCFord Falcon – BF, BF FPV, BF MkII, BF MkII FPV, BF MkIII, FG, FG FPV, FG MkII, FG MkII FPVFord Escape – ZD, ZCFord Econovan - JHFord EcoSport - BKFord Kuga - TE, TFFord Territory – SY, SY F6X, SY MkII, SZFord Ranger – PJ, PK, PXFord Transit – VM, VNThis reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincott 

As the Australian car manufacturing industry grinds to a halt, Ford has given a ray of hope to the struggling parts supply industry and university graduates who want to get into the car business.Ford has assisted nine key suppliers win lucrative contracts with foreign-made Ford cars, and will next week host a supplier fair in Geelong that will be attended by senior executives from Ford's global purchasing and product development divisions.Although Ford announced last month that 300 blue collar jobs would be cut early from its Geelong and Broadmeadows plants, the company has managed to move 20 factory workers across to its engineering division -- which with a headcount of 1100 staff will become the industry's biggest group of design and engineering employees in Australia by 2017.Ford will also hire 20 sales and marketing executives this year followed by a planned intake of up to 20 university graduates for supporting roles next year. One of the parts suppliers that has won an overseas Ford contract, MHG Asia-Pacific, with factories in Geelong and Melbourne, makes glass as well as interior and exterior plastics for cars.Later this year it will begin shipping those parts to Thailand for a top-secret Ford passenger car that is yet to be announced. It is the first time since MHG opened its doors in 1970 that it has exported parts to the Ford factory in Thailand.Ford currently imports the Fiesta and Focus small cars and the Ranger pick-up from Thailand, but other models are due to be built there, including an Australian-designed and engineered seven-seater SUV based on the Ranger.MHG cannot say how many parts it will ship to Thailand and what the contract is worth because of confidentiality agreements with Ford.However, MHG is understood to have not necessarily been the cheapest supplier pitching for the business."It's a very competitive, global bidding process but we won out in the end," said MHG chairman and founder, Steve Haritos. "You've got to provide a product and a service that's better than those in other parts of Asia."Mr Haritos said he is fighting to keep his company alive -- and protect the jobs of his 180 workers at two sites, in Geelong and Melbourne -- once Toyota, Holden and Ford shut their factories by the end of 2017.MHG currently supplies parts to all three car local makers. "There's a challenge ahead (but) our aim is to save as many jobs as possible, hopefully we won't lose one job," said Mr Haritos. "We can only give it our best shot."Meanwhile Ford said its plans to introduce updated versions of the locally-made Falcon sedan and Territory SUV are well on track, even though 80 per cent of the cars sold so far this year were imported.Despite continuing their sales slide, the new versions of the Falcon and Territory will be introduced in the second half of the year, the company says.This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling 

Ford’s global HQ in Detroit will this year salute an Australian design that turned into a smash sales success for the brand – the first ute, which has developed into the vehicles that see the Blue Oval leading the segment around the world with nameplates such as Ranger and F-Series.The body style was developed after a Victorian farmer’s wife wrote in 1933 to the then boss of Ford in Australia, Hubert French, famously asking for “a car and a truck but we need a car to go to church on Sunday and a truck to take the pigs to market on Monday”.French put the challenge to Ford’s young design engineer, Lew Bandt, who devised a two-door cabin with a load-carrying tray at the rear, blending the tray sides into the coupe body – rather than the separated cabin and trayback truck commonly used until then. The rest, as they say, is history – 80 years of it.Bandt’s first full-size sketches – on a 10-metre blackboard -- quickly became blueprints and then prototypes, and the ‘coupe utility’ went into production in 1934, with examples heading off to the US and Canada.It became a popular vehicle style in Australia, with 22,000 sold between 1940 and 1954, and spawned generations of Falcon utes, which have sold more than 455,000 since the first XK rolled out in 1961. And the Australian influence continues. The Aussie designed and developed Ford Ranger is a strong seller in more than 180 markets around the world.Lew Bandt’s original drawings are archived here in Australia, and one of the original coupe-utes is still on display in a Victorian museum. Its descendants have gone on to resounding global success, with Ford selling more than a million Ranger-based vehicles around the world in 2013, while the F-Series marked its 37th year running as the top-selling truck in the US. Ironically, Bandt died after an accident while he was at the wheel of a restored version of his coupe-utility in 1987.This reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincott

Nissan unveiled the concept version of the Frontier – known as the Navara in Australia -- at the motor show with a new Cummins 2.8-litre turbodiesel engine and a ZF eight-speed automatic. The Cummins is being used to gauge reaction to a diesel mill in the US, where the big ute is sold only with a 4.0-litre V6 petrol engine.However, of more interest to us is the appearance of the ZF automatic, with an eight-speed currently the province largely of premium vehicles – with the upmarket Volkswagen Amarok the only ute to sport it in Australia.The addition of the transmission to the Navara would give it an extra selling point over rivals in the field, where the Nissan is second only to the Toyota Hilux in the 4x4 category, but trails not only Hilux but also Ford Ranger, Mitsubishi Triton, Mazda BT-50 and Holden Colorado in the 4x2 category.There would also be some advantage in the Frontier concept’s all-round disc brakes, which could give it an edge over even the Amarok, which like the Colorado, Ranger, BT-50 and other rivals have stuck with rear drum brakes – although without threatening their 5-star safety ratings.However it’s unlikely the concept’s four-cylinder Cummins will ever appear in our Navara. While the new diesel’s 149kW and 475Nm has a slight output superiority over the Renault-sourced 2.5-litre 140kW and 450Nm in our current Navaras, it’s no match for our flagship ST 550, which will deliver 170Nm and 550Nm from the 3-litre V6 with a seven-speed automatic – although at a hefty cost of A$62,990.But if Nissan's alliance with Cummins did bear Navara fruit, it could give our ute the grunt to outgun rivals like the Ranger / BT50 and Colorado, without recurring to the thirst - and price tag - of the V6 diesel. This could also be an opportunity for the Navara to match rivals' 3500kg towing capacity, where even the V6 diesel Navara is only rated at 3000kg despite having the most power and torque in its segment.

There are many ways to measure up the showroom choices for your next car. Is it efficient, is it affordable, is it comfortable, is it safe ... and now: is it attractive to the opposite sex? A new survey has explored that last factor and come up with some surprising results, especially for those men who think a sports car will make them more attractive to women.In good news for tradies everywhere, the research undertaken in the US by Insure.com found that more women consider utes the most attractive for potential dates to drive. The poll of 2000 drivers found that of the women,  32 per cent said they saw men who drove utes as the most attractive, with sports cars behind at 27 per cent. SUVs scored just 16 per cent with women, sedans 11 per cent and hybrids and electrics a measly 5 per cent.Women judged Ford the most attractive brand at 16 per cent, and black the hottest colour at 53 per cent. So, gentlemen: a Ford Ranger in the Black Mica finish? Oh, that does suit sir.When it came to men's opinions of what cars made women most attractive, the results were more expected. The leader was sports cars with 39 per cent, with sedans trailing behind at 22 per cent, SUVs at 20 per cent and people-movers at the bottom with 4 per cent.BMW earned the top brand choice for men with 16 per cent, and red the favourite colour with 40 per cent. So ladeeez: a red BMW Z4, perhaps.The survey added a few very questionable explanations as to why these body types were the top picks, suggesting women were looking for a mate who could "help me move, bring me large gifts ... and do repairs" while they would "think twice about dating a guy driving a VW Beetle, or anything labeled a chick car".And the research focused only on opposite-gender attraction, so if you're lesbian or gay the results possibly mean even less to you than they should to everybody else when choosing your next car.This reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincott 

Ford has announced a slew of new and updated models for 2014, headlined by the return of the much-loved XR8 -- and its V8 Miami engine -- as part of a styling and features overhaul of the Falcon range.Read Ford Falcon XR8 reviewsThe updates to the Falcon range will happen towards the end of the year and coincide with updates to the Territory SUV, with more details on both ranges to be revealed closer to the launch dates.Read Ford Territory reviewsHowever Ford's changes to other models kick off early in 2014 with the new Transit van range hitting showrooms in January with the front-wheel drive, short-wheelbase Custom model, powered by a 2.2-litre turbodiesel developing 92kW of power and 350Nm of torque -- an increase of 20Nm. It will be followed by the larger rear-wheel drive long-wheelbase Transit in the second quarter.The Transit range's features will include a new integrated and stowable roof rack, twin battery system, Ford’s SYNC in-car connectivity system with digital radio and Bluetooth, front, side and curtain airbags, and optional Trailer Hitch Assist, front and rear parking sensors and an electro chromatic rearview mirror with integrated rear camera display.Read Ford Transit reviewsThe Ford EcoSport compact SUV will be the next in line for changes, with February seeing the arrival of entry-level Ambiente and mid-level Trend spec models. And the Kuga SUV also gets a brushover, offering new paint colours, an optional $1200 pack that gives you a hands-free tailgate and smartkey system on the Trend spec level.Read Ford EcoSport reviewsThe Ranger ute line-up will expand, with the recently-arrived mid-level XLS now adding a 2.2-litre engine and the choice of six-speed manual or six-speed automatic transmissions to join the 3.2-litre manual version. In addition, the 4x2 XL Single Cab Chassis 2.2-litre low-rider Ranger will be getting side airbags as standard, and satellite navigation has been added across the entire XLT line-up due to customer demand.Read Ford Ranger reviewsThis reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincott 

A member of the 2013 Australia's Best Cars judging panel says motorists are spoilt for choice right now. Royal Automobile Club of Tasmania general manager of roadside and technical Darren Moody -- who sits on the panel with judges from motorist clubs around Australia -- says new car buyers have access to record low interest rates and are still getting great value for money, despite a recent dip in the value of the Australian dollar.He and the 11 other judges from around the country had been trying to make life even easier for buyers, testing 50 vehicles in 15 categories for the 2013 best car awards.The awards, run by the Australian Automobile Association, involved all the state auto clubs. In October Mr Moody and the other judges spent six days at the Australian Automobile Research Centre at Anglesea in Victoria testing all the vehicles.The judges' choice this year was the Mazda6 Touring, winner of the category for best medium car under $50,000. "It brings premium features to the category," Mr Moody said. There was no winner in the people mover category this year. AAA chief executive Andrew McKellar said it was the first time in the 13 years of the program that an award has been withheld."It's unfortunate that not one vehicle in that class meets the expectations of an Australia's Best Car," he said.Australia's Best Cars 2013Judges' choice: Mazda6 TouringBest light car: Renault Clio Expression TCe 120Best small car under $35,000: Hyundai i30 ActiveBest small car over $35,000: Audi A3 Sportback TFSI CoDBest medium car under $50,000: Mazda6 TouringBest medium car over $50,000: BMW 320iBest large car under $60,000: Holden Commodore VF SV6Best large car over $60,000: Lexus GS350 F SportBest people mover: Award withheldBest sports car under $50,000: Volkswagen Golf GTIBest sports car $50,000-$100,000: BMW M135iBest SUV under $45,000: Subaru Forester 2.5iBest SUV $45,000-$65,000: Hyundai Santa Fe Highlander CRDiBest Luxury SUV over $65,000: Volkswagen Touareg V6 TDIBest all-terrain 4WD under $100,000: Land Rover Discovery 4 TDV6Best 4x4 Dual Cab Ute: Ford Ranger XLRead the full story here.