Compact sized pickup trucks are popular these days, so it’s not any wonder at all why the number of this kind models increasingly grows. Still, at the moment, most of them are backed up by body-on-frame chassis. Most, yet not all; there’s one model that stands out from the crowd and comes from Japan. It is the Honda Ridgeline of course. This one uses a unibody architecture that provides some car-like features like a higher level of comfort and better efficiency. It also achieves pretty high selling figures, so the pickup truck won’t stay alone too long. No, because the Hyundai should introduce the Santa Cruz by the end of this year and Ford just started testing its all-new small pickup truck which will see the light of day sometime in 2020.
Although the spy shots say otherwise, Blue Oval’s small pickup started testing. The camouflaged model maybe looking like some sort of minivan, but it’s actually a unibody compact truck that’s going to be called the 2021 Ford Courier.
Not much is known about it at the moment. However, there are several giveaways like dual exhaust tips and independent rear suspensions. The suspension is actually the biggest sign that the pickup rides on a unibody platform. According to the latest reports, the bones are actually Focus-based, which makes sense.
This way, the 2021 Ford Courier could also use a hatchback’s engine. The exhausts hint there’s a turbo-four beneath the hood, which further means that the compact pickup should use a252-hp, 270 lb-ft 2.0-liter turbo-four mated to a six-speed manual or eight-speed auto ‘box. The entry-level model will most definitely use a front-wheel-drive system, while the more upscale trims should employ all four wheels.
Truth to be told, the prototype doesn’t really reveal much at the moment. So far, we are sure that there’s a horizontal-bar grille in the front and the aforementioned dual exhaust layout around back. Also, it’s fair to say that the body isn’t lifted too much from the ground, which ties down the model’s off-road abilities. Though, this one is not planned to go too far away from the path. No, the original idea is to provide a high level of comfort.
