Few compact or mid-size pickups carry as much history as the Ford Ranger. Ford launched it for the 1983 model year as a purpose-built replacement for the Courier — a truck that wore the blue oval badge but was, in reality, a rebadged Mazda B-Series. The Ranger went on to become one of the best-selling compact trucks in America before Ford controversially pulled the plug in 2012, only to revive it for 2019 as a larger, more capable mid-sizer. That gives the nameplate a lineage stretching back more than four decades — minus a seven-year hiatus that left a lot of loyal fans waiting.
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