You bea-UTE-y! New Ford Ranger is pictured for the first time ahead of release of new model of Australia's top-selling car - and there's a VERY good reason for its unique paint job
- Ford has released teaser images of the first all-new Ranger ute in a decade
- Ranger was Australia's top-selling car in September for fifth time since 2017
- It outsold the usual market leader the Toyota HiLux - a shape around since 2015
Teaser images of the first all-new Ford Ranger in a decade have been revealed ahead of a 2022 launch.
The ute was Australia's top-selling car in September, outselling the Toyota HiLux in the monthly sales race for only the fifth time since 2017.
Ford sold 4,192 Rangers last month, putting it well ahead of Toyota's HiLux tally of 3,635 leaving the showroom, with its sales rising by 12.5 compared with September 2020, Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries data showed.
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Teaser images of the first all-new Ford Ranger in a decade have been revealed ahead of a 2022 launch.
The Ranger is usually Australia's second-best seller, with buyers particularly keen on the dual cab models, despite the current shape first going on sale in 2011 with a facelift in 2015.
New images of the next Ford Ranger show an evolution of the current shape, with the upcoming model to also form the basis of the next-generation Volkswagen Amarok, due in Australia in 2023.
The all-new Ranger is being revealed later in 2021 before next year being launched and going on sale, as Covid restrictions and computer chip shortages delay global car production.
Ford Australia's design manager Leigh Cosentino said the camouflage spots on the panel were designed to tease the public without revealing the key features ahead of the launch.
'We were asked to develop a camouflage that allowed you to clearly see that this is the next-generation Ranger but not see it at the same time,' he said.
Mr Cosentino said the motorsport-themed disguise was designed to avoid 'looking like a derivative of military camouflage'.
The next Ranger will be the second generation of Ford's global ute.
Utes in Australia last month took out three spots in the top ten with the Isuzu D-Max taking seventh place with 1,833 sales, an increase of 64 per cent compared with a year earlier.
New images of the next Ford Ranger show an evolution of the current shape, with the next model to also form the basis of the next-generation Volkswagen Amarok.
The all-new Ranger is being revealed later in 2021 before next year being launched and going on sale, with Covid restrictions and computer chip shortages delaying global car production
The outgoing Ranger formed the basis of the old Mazda BT-50, with the new model now based on the Isuzu.
For the first time since the 1970s, Ford and Mazda won't be sharing a platform for their volume-selling ute.
The current HiLux shape has been around since 2015 and was facelifted in 2020.
The Ranger has managed to stay fresh, despite being a decade-old shape, with the addition of the more upmarket FX4 and Raptor models.
The next Ranger is arriving in dealerships next year with the more common XL, XLS and XLT variants of the new model expected to be sold first in the new shape.
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At $77,690, the Ford Ranger Raptor costs $20,000 more than the volume-selling dual cab XLT ute and is expected to continue in the current shape throughout 2022.
The Raptor models have FOX Racing Shocks to soak up the bumps, even in two-wheel drive mode, making it a much better all-terrain vehicle than the other Rangers with a leaf spring suspension.
They come standard with a 157kW four-cylinder bi-turbo that is optional on the other Ranger models, which have a five cylinder single-turbo diesel putting out 147 kilowatts of power.
While the Ranger is made in Thailand, it is developed in Australia, despite local manufacturing finishing in 2016 when the last Falcon was made.
Ford in Geelong invented the ute in 1934.
Ford sold 4,192 Rangers last month, putting it well ahead of Toyota's HiLux tally of 3,635 leaving the showroom, with it sales rising by 12.5 compared with September 2020, Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries data showed (pictured is the more upmarket Raptor model selling for $77,690)
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