Who cares? With the Tacomas POS drivetrain they'd better be adding stuff to entice buyers! I mean the things that Ford took away are basically cosmetic and can be replaced if YOU want them. They didn't change the motor or transmission or any major functioning parts. I don't think a couple of tie downs, rear tilting headrests and an engine cover are going to ruin you life?
Ruin my life? No. Make me more skeptical of Ford as a brand? Yup. The basic question of why Toyota has so much market share comes down to customer loyalty being worth more than objective facts. Is the savings on a couple of tie downs, rear tilting headrests, and an engine cover worth lower customer loyalty and less market share? Will Ford's spending on marketing to regain customer loyalty be more or less than the nickles and dimes that they saved on stupid little things? I dunno. Is it likely that the Ranger will take the Tacoma's top spot if Ford's customers feel like Ford will do anything to save a nickle, customer utility be damned? Unlikely.
Outside this forum I'd bet no one knows these things are missing. Skeptical of Ford for cutting some costs...lol Ok, I see you've never run any type of business and have had to make adjustments without cutting your labor? These are MINUTE things which can easily be replaced but you make it sound like they redesigned the engine and gave you less hp. If you think other manufacturers are better because they don't cut out little items just buy their product instead, it's a free world.
Redesigning the engine would cost more. Again, how much does ford spend on marketing? Bloated management structure? Fielding calls about missing tie downs? It's not like the only thing in the world Ford could do to save the company was cut a couple of bucks worth of tie downs out of rangers built after mid 2019. They decided what things were a priority and which weren't, and saved a relatively tiny amount of money by cutting the tie downs instead of, say, free hats for reviewers. They still spend a ton of money on all sorts of things, arguably wasting a good bit or spending it on things that don't improve the customer experience at all. I mean sure, you can just brush it off as unimportant, but people make decisions based on small indicators all the time, and it just seems stupid for a business that depends on repeat customers to give off little indicators that they don't give a shit about their customers. It's not like the ranger started off as a product brimming with unnecessary features and then they just knocked off little bits that wasn't used much--they quite obviously started from a position of "what's the least we can spend on this release" and managed to cut from there (while still raising the price).
That was my initial thought. Then they kept cutting more and more, including stuff that literally required a redesign and some degree of retooling. What are the odds they can get suppliers to change the way they make headrests, but couldn't find anyone who could deliver a piece of metal bent a couple of times?
I owned a Taco for 10 years.. I totally loved that rig.. I had it set up with Biltstein 5100 adjustable shocks in the front and back. Also had a firestone airbag system. The only thing lacking in the old Taco was power. I had a 4 cyl version which didn't have a lot of power and a manual transmission. This was okay for the most part, but travelling in the mountains pulling a 17' trailer on highways was just not okay, and going through intersections with a steep uphill left the clutch starting to smoke.. The only way to tackle steep starts was in 4 low, this was inconvenient entering a highway as I had to pull on, pull over and switch to 2 high before I could go on the main road.
Good thing you got this generation--it looks like the next ranger is going to have the same issues with a high front for looks and to get the 2.7 engine into it.
