Ford

Ford

Ford

Ford

Ford

Ford



Ford

Jonathan Gitlin

Jonathan Gitlin

Jonathan Gitlin

Ford

Ford

DETROIT—On Sunday, Ford kicked off the start of the North American International Auto Show with a trio of new models. The event was in contrast to the company's appearance at CES; that was a forward-looking affair with a vision of the future; Detroit, rather, was all about real vehicles available soon. There was a new midsize truck with the return of the Ranger. The Edge SUV gets a performance variant. And to celebrate the 50th anniversary of one of the best car chases of all time, there's a special Mustang.

But those hoping for hybridization or an all-electric Ford will have to be patient. Although the company announced it would increase its investment in battery electric vehicles to $11 billion, it is lagging behind rivals; neither the hybrid F-150 truck nor the Mach-1—a performance battery electric vehicle, possibly derived from the Mustang—will be ready until 2020.

Ranger

Perhaps most significant of the new vehicles is the 2019 Ford Ranger. Trucks still dominate the new vehicle market in the US, and Ford is used to topping that sales chart with its F-150. Over the years, that truck has grown and grown and grown; yet until now Ford had resisted bringing the Ranger back to its home market on the grounds of cost. That has changed, and now Europe and New Zealand's best-selling midsize pickup truck is coming to America.

All Rangers will get the same 2.3L, four-cylinder EcoBoost engine and 10-speed automatic transmission, and there are SuperCab and SuperCrew configurations, plus two- and four-wheel-drive options. And take note—this is a real ladder frame design, not some gussied up monocoque chassis related to a crossover. Or, as Ford President of North America Raj Nair put it during the press conference when highlighting the fact that the front bumper is mounted to the frame, "real trucks don’t have fascias."

Although pricing for the Ranger hasn't been announced yet, we expect prices to start under $25,000.

Edge ST

News of a sporty Edge SUV actually broke a couple of days before NAIAS got underway. It's the latest vehicle from Ford Performance, previously responsible for cars we really loved including the Focus RS and Shelby GT350. The Edge ST isn't quite as focused as either of those cars, but Hau Thai-Tang, executive vice president of product development and purchasing, described it as "a performance SUV with a track mentality."

Under the hood is a 335hp (250kW), 380ft-lb (525Nm), 2.7L V6 EcoBoost engine, coupled to an eight-speed automatic transmission that now shifts faster than before. The suspension has also been beefed up to cope with the odd spot of hooning.

Ford says this is the smartest SUV it has made, with a host of advanced driver assists. These include adaptive cruise control with stop-and-go and lane keeping—which should make road trips a little less work—as well as Evasive Steering Assist, which helps you get around obstacles if the Edge ST's sensors think a collision is imminent, and Post-Collision Braking which the company says can reduce the impact of a potential secondary collision by applying moderate brake pressure after an initial collision event.

Mustang Bullitt

Judging by the crowds at the end of the press conference, the star of Ford's NAIAS event was probably the new Mustang Bullitt. Built to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the film—which starred a green Mustang alongside Steve McQueen—it's a limited-run model based on the 5.0L V8 Mustang GT.

"It has to have the right attitude, it has to be unique in some way from a Mustang GT, and more than anything, it has to be bad ass," explained Carl Widmann, Mustang chief engineer. In addition to the styling tweaks, which include some lovely five-spoke alloy wheels and a "cue ball" gear knob that had to be specially commissioned, the Bullitt Mustang gets a few performance improvements over the normal V8 Mustang.

"We took the GT350 intake manifold and throttle body, and made our own open air inlet. We also made the active exhaust standard and retuned that whole system for this engine. It's the 2018 engine, but with better air losses, pumping performance, better revving performance out of the intake manifold," Widmann explained.

Even the new Mustang was in danger of being upstaged, however. During its reveal, it was joined on stage by one of the two 1968 Mustang Fastback GTs used to film Bullitt. The 1968 car—which was driven by McQueen in the film—was thought lost, having been bought by a collector in 1974 and since had remained out of sight.

Listing image by Ford