Alas, No Beautiful Regular Cab Ford Rangers For Us

Back in March, as Matthew Guy waxed poetic over a base, Thailand-spec Ford Ranger, this author felt the tell-tale signs of desire flooding his body. “Look at all that basic utility!” my salivary glands cried. Yours did too, no doubt.

Well, give up all hope of seeing a cute little one-row Ranger midsize pickup in your near future, unless you’re jetting off to start a new life in Southeast Asia. It ain’t coming. But at least we now know what is.

According to a 2019 model year VIN document submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration by Ford Motor Company (and discovered by the intrepid Bozi Tatarevic), the U.S.-market 2019 Ranger will offer four doors of varying sizes on all models. A regular cab was always a longshot hope.

This doesn’t mean, however, that you need to follow all of life’s rules and keep the pickup bed

The doc shows four configurations, with an asterisk. Extended cab (SuperCab) models will be available in rear- or four-wheel drive, as will SuperCrew variants with full-sized rear doors. Just as Ford stated in Detroit in January, there’s only one engine initially on offer — a turbocharged 2.3-liter four-cylinder, mated to a 10-speed automatic.

No power figures are listed in the document.

For small business types and fleet managers, buyers of the 4X2 SuperCab model can select a pickup box delete option, paving the way for a little flatbed or utility warehouse on the back of the Blue Oval’s smallest truck offering. Towing probably won’t be on the top of this work truck’s to-do list.

As for the hotly rumored Raptor variant — a model already greenlit for Southeast Asia — there’s nary a hint of its existence in this document, but there is in the real, non-digital world. A Raptor prototype with what sounded like a gasoline engine under the hood appeared on the roads of Michigan recently. Overseas Raptors contain only a diesel engine. No one expected a side-by-side launch of the conventional model and its brawnier, wider sibling in the U.S., so keep your fingers crossed in the coming months for an announcement.

[Image: Ford Motor Company]