Could It Be? A Truly Small Pickup for America?

Let’s not get our hopes up too high over a rumor. Still, it’s hard not to sit up and take notice of a report claiming Ford might build a small, unibody pickup that could make its way to the North American market.According to Automobile, sources with knowledge of Ford’s production plans say the automaker wants a new, Focus-based pickup to replace its ancient Fiesta-based Courier in foreign markets. The model might find a home on domestic soil, too.The Courier, built in Brazil using the platform of the subcompact Fiesta of 1998, is a dead pickup… er, walking. A replacement would be larger and more useful. And certainly more modern — the model would source its underpinnings from the next-generation 2019 Focus, of which the U.S. only sees the crossoverized Active variant.So say the sources, anyway. Should the project get the go-ahead, the unnamed model would arrive stateside in 2022, slotting below the midsize, body-on-frame Ranger.With the planned elimination of the Fiesta, Focus sedan and hatch, Fusion, and Taurus, Ford’s future domestic lineup doesn’t exactly look well-stocked with small, affordable offerings. Even the EcoBoost subcompact crossover seems pricey as an entry point.While details are scarce, it’s hard to imagine the future small Ford pickup having anything other than four doors — at least in the United States, where utility vehicles are family vehicles first, utility and commercial products second. One wonders how long of a bed such a vehicle could accommodate. Certainly, no one in Dearborn should use the Subaru Baja as a muse.As for the model’s source, any light truck arriving from beyond North America’s borders would face the dreaded Chicken Tax, which has squashed the hopes of many a wee truck lover for decades. Mexico seems like the only place such a U.S.-bound vehicle could be built. As it happens, the elimination of the North American Fiesta means there’ll soon be unused capacity at Ford’s Cuautitlan assembly plant.If Ford needs naming suggestions, there’s an obvious one just begging to be used.[Image: Wikimedia ( CC BY 2.0)]