Ford Ranchero

The Ford Ranchero is a coupe utility that was produced by Ford between 1957 and 1979. Unlike a

pickup truck, the Ranchero was adapted from a two-door station wagon platform that integrated the cab and cargo bed into the body. A total of 508,355 units were produced during the model's production run.[1] It was adapted from full-sized, compact, and intermediate automobiles sold by Ford for the North American market. During the 1970s, the Ranchero name was used in the South African market on a rebadged Australian Ford Falcon utility. These vehicles were sent to South Africa in complete knock down (CKD) form, and assembled at the Port Elizabeth plant.[2] In Argentina, a utility version of the locally produced Ford Falcon was also called Ranchero. The Ford Ranchero sold well enough to spawn a competitor from General Motors in 1959, the Chevrolet El Camino. The first Ford Model T and Model A pickup trucks were created from sedans by placing a truck box behind the body of a car truncated behind the driver's seat. In 1934, Ford Australia's designer Lew Bandt modified a coupe with a smoothly integrated loadbed that could be used like a car to drive to church or to deliver pigs to market. This created the coupe utility which remains a popular body style known as the "ute" in Australia.[5] In North America, pickup trucks evolved into a heavier duty form with cabs and beds that were quite distinct from passenger automobiles. The Ranchero was the first postwar American vehicle of its type adapted from a popular sedan from the factory. It combined the sleek looks of a sedan with the utility of a light-duty pickup truck.