Ford Truck Continue To Offer Industry Leadership

For more than three decades now, the Ford F-Series is the best selling truck line in North America. These full sized trucks, available in F-150, F-250, F-350, and Super Duty configuration are often considered to be the industry benchmark, the types of trucks every manufacturer wants to build year in and year out.

Along with the F Series and Super Duty, Ford trucks currently consists of three other vehicles: the Ford Ranger, a compact pickup truck; the Ford E Series, the brand's full size vans; and the Ford Transit Connect, a compact van built by Ford Europe. All five truck lines have helped provide a wide variety of vehicles for enthusiasts to contractors to fleet buyers, a winning assortment of trucks for Ford.

The F-Series is by far the best selling vehicle for Ford, particularly the standard F-150 version of the truck. Tracing its history back to 1948, the F-150 was most recently updated for the 2009 model year, the twelfth generation of this venerable line. Before 1948, Ford trucks rode on a car chassis, but from 1948 on the F-Series has been underpinned exclusively by a track platform.

For the record, the first model was called the F-1, with the current F-150 moniker introduced in 1975. Over the years, various half, three-quarter, and full ton pickup trucks were built, but each one was part of the F-Series, with heavier commercial duty trucks rechristened Super Duty in more recent years.

The Ford Ranger was released in 1983 and represents today as it did nearly three decades ago, Ford's compact pickup truck. This model replaced the Ford Courier which was built for Ford by Mazda beginning in the early 1970s. Perhaps a touch of irony, but more likely underscoring their close business relationship, Ford soon provided the Ranger of Mazda, renamed the B Series.

As a compact truck, the Ranger provides very light to light duty service for owners. Powered by I4 or V6 engines, the Ranger has managed to survive in a market where demand for small trucks remain weak. Indeed, most of the Ranger's competition is now much larger in size than it, with the Toyota Tacoma and Dodge Dakota now bonafide medium sized trucks. Ford will either discontinue the Ranger in 2011 or replace the truck with one built overseas.

The Ford E-Series also enjoys a long history, first put into service in 1961. Popularly known as the Econoline during its heyday, the E-Series has been powered by a variety of engines over the years including V6, I6, V8, V10 and power stroke diesels. Loved by contractors and campers alike, in more recent years the E-Series has been used as minibuses, ambulances, news trucks, and livery vehicles.

The most recent addition to the Ford truck line is the Transit Connect, a compact van made in Turkey for Ford Europe. Introduced in 2009 to the US market, the Transit Connect is smaller than a minivan, but offers more storage than two competitors: Chrysler PT Cruiser and Chevrolet HHR. Passenger versions of the Transit Connect are currently being tested in a bid to help Ford market the truck to families.

All five Ford trucks continue to serve a special role in Ford's fleet with the F-150 outselling all other models combined.