What gives Ford??

I was buzzing through my Google Reader the other day, trying to shorten the load of close to 433 new posts from an assortment of blogs and other news sites that I like to follow. Autoblog had an article on the new Ford Ranger being offered in the European market. I instantly was interested in the article because we have been cursed with the same Ranger in this country for what seems like a century. Each year the little truck is given a minor face-lift as its competition continues to innovate and improve upon their venerable platforms. Surely we must be getting this beautiful new truck in our soils, since this is a Ford where talking about….apple pie, baseball, trucks….America....Right? To my surprise the completely redesigned truck is not on the slate to be offered in our country for at least another year. Why? Why would Ford in these economic times not want to bring a new version of what is considered an economical choice in a sea of gas guzzling full size trucks. Obviously they have their reasons and I am certainly not one to judge how a multi-billion dollar business is being navigated. As I started to read the article I stumbled onto the details of the new trucks engine. See in foreign markets the choice of utility engine is a diesel. The Europeans have been advancing the diesel engine for years, it happens to be a little passion of mine. I had a Land Rover and one of my biggest irritations was that I couldn’t have the diesel engines available in the UK. They offer killer reliability, off-road torque, never over-heat, and better fuel economy. Anyways the diesel topic for me is another blog post all together. The new Ranger was being offered with two engines, and they both where diesels. The details indicated a range of 100km on 8.63 liters of fuel. After using Google for a little conversion I calculated roughly 31mpg. Now switch over to the US website for the Ford Ranger, and check the engines offered. Nothing gets over 26mpg and it gets worse from there if you want something that can pull a load bigger than a sack of dog food. See gas engines take more horsepower to get more torque. They aren’t the torque monsters that their distant cousins are the diesel engine. So why is it Ford that we are bringing a new version of a great truck with some fantastic engine choices to an area on Earth other than our states? Doesn’t this economy and current petrol situation warrant such a vehicle? Couldn’t these new innovative choices entice people to buy your vehicles? You need the money, right? I know I would love to have the choice of a strong, reliable and economic engine. Couldn’t a car stand to have such an engine, something that could get even better fuel economy? Audi recently drove a group of new Q7 diesels from Long Beach to the Detroit Motor Show, a truck the size of a Tahoe that gets about 25mpg. Not bad for the first run in the states, plus it has 406 lbs of torque. (That’s a big deal for a truck) The current lineup on the GMC website for a Yukon is 21mpg and nowhere near the power. Hmmm how much money do you need General Motors? -Play smart