January 25: What will small look like?

Did you hear the announcement this past week that Ford is planning a new small pick-up to slot below the upcoming midsized Ranger? This strikes me as funny, since only a short while ago, most of the manufacturers backed away from the compact(?) pick-ups and only recently have they jumped back on board with new introductions. Is the market so strong for these trucks, that they will go the way of the suv, with a size for every wallet and use? As always time will tell.

How small? Like this?

Or more like this?

Or maybe somewhere in between or different all together. Ford plans to introduce their new junior trucklette within two or three years, so let the forecasting begin. May I go first?

In South America Ford has the small car based Courier........

Can't see this working up north, but a car based pup could be what Ford is considering. So, if they updated it to the current Focus and made it sort of like the original Honda Ridgeline, it might look like this......

Does anyone remember the Subaru Baja? I'm sure Ford does, so they might want to tread lightly on this design direction.

If the idea of a really junior pick-up takes hold, who else might join the party? Again, let's look at South America and see what Chevy sells in Brazil as the Montana (you can't keep a good name down).....

I've seen these in Mexico, so if needed and with a little help, they might make it over President Chump's ludicrous wall.

Haven't heard that Ram plans a midsized version, but the way things are going, how can they avoid it? If the even smaller pups take hold, they'll have to follow suit. Fiat has a pick-up in Italy called the Toro, that Ram is renaming the Ram 1000 with plans to sell it in Columbia.......

Why just Columbia? Who knows, but this Ridgeline type could easily be made to fit into Ram's North American product line.

And that perennial favour of North Americans, VW, has a pick-up in Europe, the Amarok, that I bet our dealers are just begging for, but so far to no avail. That model is a compact, but VW also has a junior model, the Saveiro, that could be sold here.......

Note that all of these little guys are or seem to be car based, with some sort of tough looking black mouldings around the bed. I guess they add a touch of macho flare to these offering. They must, since I can't see what other function they might serve.

Who can see into the future? Not I, but by looking at other offerings in other markets, maybe I might have hit on something that is headed our way. After all the new Ford Ranger was sold everywhere else in the world for a couple of years before it made its appearance in our marketplace for 2019. Mark this date on your calendar, as what Barry saw. Let's touch base again in 2022.

Until next time........