Good morning! Today we’re taking a trip to a couple of exotic locales to look at a pair of Ford trucks that will seem familiar, yet different. Ever wondered what a Ford Ranger looks like in South America, or eastern Europe? You’re about to find out.
Yesterday we looked at a couple of GM coupes that were similar to cars my mom once drove. Both of them had their fans, and clearly I’m not the only one with memories of these two cars, but in our truncated voting timeframe due to the lateness of yesterday’s post (not my fault, by the way), the Opel Manta emerged as a clear winner.
Several of you expressed a fondness for the Beretta’s styling, which I agree with. It’s a sharp-looking car, and it has aged surprisingly well. Or maybe it’s just that you don’t see two-door cars much at all anymore, and certainly none as clean and simple as that. For me, though, between these two, it has to be the Opel. If I’m going to get a Beretta, it’s going to be an early V6 GT, or a Z26 with the Quad 4, and a manual either way.
Today’s challenge came to me by way of Opposite Lock, where member “dogisbadob” was lamenting the fact that we never got a crew-cab Ford Ranger in the US before the 2019 reboot. They posted two examples of Rangers from other markets – one for sale in Brazil, and one in Bulgaria – and noted that both are now past the 25-year minimum age for importation. So let’s take a look and see which one is a better choice to bring Stateside.
1999 Ford Ranger – 24,999 Brazilian Real (about $4,500 US)
Engine/drivetrain: 2.5-liter overhead cam inline 4 converted to run on natural gas, five-speed manual, RWD
Location: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Odometer reading: I don’t see it listed
Operational status: Runs and drives well
Ford sold the Ranger from 1983 to 2011, in a bunch of different configurations: standard cab, extended cab, long bed, short bed, with four- and six-cylinder engines, even briefly a diesel. One thing Ford never did offer, at least here in the US anyway, is a four-door crew cab. But owing to the popularity of crew-cab trucks in South America, Ford Argentina shortened the bed and squeezed in an extra pair of doors.
This Ranger is similar in spec to the US Ranger at the time, meaning double-wishbone front suspension, rack-and-pinion steering, and an enlarged 2.5-liter version of the old 2.3-liter “Pinto” engine. It’s backed by a five-speed manual transmission; Americans’ love of automatics doesn’t extend to all corners of the globe. I have to rely on translation software to get the skinny on these two trucks, but as far as I can tell, this one runs and drives well and has had a bunch of recent work done. It has also been converted to compressed natural gas; I assume the tank is in the bed under the tonneau cover.
The photos in this ad are terrible, and yes, that’s all the bigger they are. It looks like it’s in pretty good shape, but this is the only glimpse we get at the inside. It looks just like the dashboard and steering wheel of our Rangers, and why wouldn’t it, I suppose? Ford isn’t going to tool up a whole new interior for a different market.
The outside looks familiar as well. From the front doors forward, I think this is exactly the same as our Ranger. That’s a good thing, I suppose; if you get in a fender-bender, the parts are available at Pick-N-Pull, not South America.
1999 Ford Ranger – 8,600 Bulgarian Lev (about $4,800)
Engine/drivetrain: Diesel 2.5 liter overhead cam inline 4, five-speed manual, part-time 4WD
Location: Zverino, Bulgaria
Odometer reading: 260,000 kilometers
Operational status: Runs and drives well
Ford and Mazda trucks had a symbiotic relationship for many years. Early on, Ford sold Mazda’s B-series truck here in America as the Courier, before the Ranger was introduced. The two bloodlines parted ways at that point, but rejoined in 1994 when the US-market Mazda B-series became a Ranger in slightly different clothes. But Mazda kept making the B-series for other markets, and in Europe, the roles were reversed, and what was called a Ranger was actually a Mazda from 1998 until 2011.
This truck is also a crew cab, though like a lot of small trucks with four doors, it seems to share its wheelbase with the extended-cab and long-bed models. This makes for a small bed, and a very tiny sliver of bed-side behind the rear doors. It’s a little awkward-looking, but I like it – possibly because this style of truck is very popular in the Caribbean, so it makes me think of nice warm tropical places.
This truck also has an option not available in American Rangers since 1986: a diesel engine. It’s Mazda’s own design, turbocharged, and putting out 109 horsepower. This isn’t going to be a fast truck, but it should be efficient, and it should chug along effortlessly for a long time. It has a five-speed manual, of course, and part-time four-wheel-drive. The ad also mentions a locking rear differential, which is a nice touch.
It’s in nice shape, both inside and out, though it doesn’t look like it has been babied. It has 260,000 kilometers on it, about 162,000 miles. It’s not a ton, but it’s not nothing either. Still, it looks ready to earn its keep. And can I just say how much I miss rope cleats and tie-down rails on the outside edge of truck beds?
Honestly, if I were going to import a car to the US, I’m not sure I’d bother with something as subtle as a Ford Ranger. I’d go for a Fiat Coupe or a Renault Twingo, or something. But I do love pickup trucks, and it’s interesting to see the different interpretations of the same idea around the world. If you were to bring one of these into the US, which one would it be?
(Image credits: sellers)
Yep, voted for the “euro” Ranger. We have/had those in the UK, my Uncle had one on their hill farm and it took some fair abuse! Also they were built in Thailand, as is the current Ranger that we get both sides of the pond… The new Mazda B series is now an Isuzu
The Bulgarian, for uncanny reasons
Yay thank you for using my suggestion 😀
Yeah, I agree with everybody that the blue Mazda is the better choice in this case. Sorry I didn’t notice the Brazilian example I pointed to was a CNG conversion 🙁
But even if the gray one wasn’t CNG, I’d still pick the Mazda.
The South American Ranger was also available with a 4-cylinder diesel designed by Navistar.
I like how both Rangers look so similar yet share no parts!
Blue Bulgarlian brings badassery.
I thought the goofy Explorer Sport-Trac was a crew cab Ranger underneath?
Also those bedside cargo hooks on the blue truck are cool looking.
Yeah, it’s stupid that Ford spent so much resources developing the Sport Trac instead of just giving us the Ranger Crew Cab.
Especially when the ranger looks great and the sport trac hurts me every time I see it
Explorer underneath. Available v8 gives it away.
Fun fact: Both the Argentinian made and American made Rangers shared the sales floor in Mexican dealers for a brief time. This CC body style arrived for MY 2002 and quickly started outselling the Reg Cab and Super Cabs offered in XL, XLT and Edge trims, so a year later the SuperCabs were gone and the Reg Cabs started to arrive from Argentina as well. It was a bit of a blasphemy because the body style was unchanged from the 98-2000 North American Ranger so it already looked aged compared to the truck it was replacing, but new truck buyers didn’t care as it was cheaper and the 4 doors were a novelty only offered in Nissan’s D21.
My uncle was one of those Ranger 4dr buyers back in 2003. From what I recall it wasn’t a joyride. Those Rangers have a reinforced rear suspension to increase payload into the 2000 lbs territory, which doesn’t sound like a good recipe for a mid size truck with a sub 150hp engine, no airbags and no 4 wheel ABS nor traction control but that’s the way most Latin American market trucks were built until not long ago and most people use them for work so you won’t find any fancy stuff. His truck didn’t even come with A/C, just power steering, rear ABS and AM/FM. Pretty much what my dad’s 89 Ranger came with. I owned a Twin Cities built 99 SuperCab and it was much more comfortable and better optioned despite looking the same.
Having said so, if I were to import a CC truck it better be the most interesting option. I’m digging the Diesel, 4×4 and locking diff. So Bulgarian
MazdaRanger it isCan I just say, the pre-facelift 3rd generation Ranger was the biggest let down when it came out. They gave it basically the same front fascia as the outgoing F-150 from two years (one model year) earlier.
Blue diesel all day long. So sad American market vehicles suck.
Mazda-based diesel one for me. The Brazillian CNG converted one would be useless to me given the lack of CNG fueling stations.
I am going with the Blue Power Ranger!
The Bulgarian looks like a little Super Duty from the front! I kinda like the carlike dashboard too.
Honestly, I think both of them are awesome…this was a tough one.
I’ll take the Blue Diesel 4×4.
I’d be a lot more interested in the Rio Ranger if A. the CNG station near me hadn’t just been torn down for an apartment building, and B. somebody had solved the Darien Gap situation.
Actually, my wife used to work for the city, and they had CNG-powered Cavaliers as motor pool cars, and those things made regular Cavs feel like Camaros, so maybe no on any CNG vehicle unless I owned my own well.
Sorry I didn’t notice that particular example was CNG 🙁
But there are plenty of non-CNG gas engine examples available, and of course they had a diesel option. Would a different example that’s not CNG seal the deal? 😉
Going Bulgarian Maz. Fueling will be easier, It’s got part time 4WD and most of all there isn’t a gas tank using up the limited bed space to begin with.
I’m down for either. Whenever I travel internationally and see these kinds of trucks I’m always bummed we didn’t get them in the USA.
The Bulgarian one wins since I can easily fuel it up. Actually I like it better in pretty much every respect…
I had a NG F-150 once upon a time, and it could run on gas too. There was a switch on the dash and you could run off of either tank as needed. I never touched the NG stuff and it ran just fine, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is similar, but the tank will eat up like half of the already short-ish bed so it’s not a very functional truck.
Ah interesting – I didn’t realize the ability to use gas was retained. Agreed still sticking with my vote though.
Yeah I can’t promise that’s always the case, but it would make sense. Mazda is still definitely the way to go regardless though.
We had 70s & 80s Ford trucks with CNG tanks right up against the cab at a company I worked for in the late 80s. You could definitely feel the difference in power between gasoline & CNG: you needed a lot more throttle to maintain highway speeds when you switched from the liquid stuff. The upside was how incredibly clean the motors were that primarily ran on CNG: I saw one being torn down just under 300k miles, and it was cleaner than many I’d seen with a quarter of the mileage.
NG conversions were common in Brazil until around 2010. It was a way to save some gas money because NG was cheaper and diesel versions carried a huge premium because they were always seem as more durable, diesel was cheaper and you would pay less taxes/fees because they were considered commercial trucks.
With time, people realized that these conversions would only pay themselves for commercial cars/trucks, like cabs or delivery trucks, due the initial amount to install the cylinder and everything required. Also, if not done properly, they had the tendency to explode, which contributed a lot to decline the popularity.
I always enjoyed this design, which I believe was used until 2006/7, when it was facelifted. A new generation would arrive only at 2014/5. The european one is strange, in my opinion.
But would not buy this one. Like the color, but the NG conversion and odometer reading omission really tells me that this cars was used and abused. You may find a diesel at a similar price, like this one.
Yeah, sorry about the oversight on my part. I didn’t notice the example I posted was CNG 🙁
So, would you pick a non-CNG South American Ranger over the Euro Mazda?
Totally! That euro Ranger is quite strange to my eyes.
Tried to buy one a while ago but could not find one decent at a decent price.
Are you insinuating the Brazilian has some junk in the trunk?
Bulgarian all the way for me. I love me some small Euro/Japanese trucks. My first vehicle was an OG Mazda and the quirk of things we don’t get in the USA makes me happy.
I’m flying to Brazil and driving that Ranger back home. It would be the road trip of a life time, made even more exciting by having to find places where I can refill on CNG.
You can’t drive between North and South America. You have to ship your vehicle between Columbia and Panama, as there are no roads connecting the two countries.
I’ll wait by the canal until a really wide ship comes through so I can drive across it.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Well, maybe an Evergreen will get stuck in the canal, then maybe you can drive it over the ersatz bridge 😛
Are you a sorcerer? You deal in wages of fear
I’d go for the Brazilian one, just due to better availability of spare parts (the first one being an engine swap to deconvert it from natural gas) and the bigger bed.
At one point you could get a Chevy S10 in four door form here in the US, but they were crazy expensive. I always wondered why Ford settled on the Super Cab with just optional “suicide” rear doors. I think there would have been a market for the full quad cab – just not at the prices GM was charging.
No need to swap engines. Converted CNG cars work also with regular gas, you just switch between both sources. If you don’t want the CNG bits, you can just remove them and remain with a regular 2.5.
Awesome. Good to know. Thanks!
4wd for the win! Bulgaria baby!
I like the Brazilian but liquid gas is no bueno. I can get diesel anywhere and the Bulgarian is a nice bright blue for the win.
sorry I didn’t notice that example was CNG 🙁
It was available with regular gas and diesel engines tho. Would you pick one of those over the Mazda?
The Brazilian looks a little bit better compared to the awkward bed and rear wheel arches of the Mazda, but I have no idea where to find LNG to fill the thing up. Diesel for me, today.
oops yeah, I didn’t notice that one was a CNG conversion, sorry 🙁
Would you pick a gas or diesel Brazilian Ranger over the Mazda?
I’d buy the Brazilian but tell everyone I made it myself.
You’re getting a brazilian? I’ve heard those are painful. Good luck to you.
Wait! No! That’s not what I meant!!
Dangit….