Plenty of the spy shots floating around out there are worthy of heavy skepticism due to the manufacturer's deception techniques. These in particular should be taken with several hefty pinches of salt. Our spy photographers are convinced this vehicle we're looking at here is a Ford Focus-based pickup. That's right, Focus underpinnings with a truck bed out back. If Ford were to bring back the name of its old compact pickup for such a vehicle, that could mean we're looking at a Ford Courier.
Like we stressed before, this is speculation. The owners of this particular test vehicle really don't want you to see it for what it is. A casual onlooker might take it for a van with the fake sliding door and set of barn doors out back. There's a distinct bodyline running down the side of the camouflage, tracing what could easily be interpreted as the top of a truck's bed sides.
The close-up frontal shot is telling as well. If you zoom in and look closely, there doesn't appear to be any kind of van interior one might expect behind the two sitting up front. It's difficult to actually make out what's back there, but the absence of stuff could indicate a pickup. We can't say with any degree of certainty what kind of suspension the vehicle is hiding underneath in the rear shots. The photo quality and camo does us no favors here.
Even if it is a Focus-based pickup, there's no guarantee we'd get it in the United States. Similar vehicles are sold by other brands in other markets, so this could just be something for the good folks of Argentina. But that's not to say we wouldn't want one. Cheap gas prices have Americans saying yes to everything regardless of fuel efficiency, and this could be an easy way for Ford to introduce people to the pickup market at a cheaper price — the ultimate goal being to get people into a profit-rich F-150.
Engine-wise, we'd suspect Ford would throw an EcoBoost four-cylinder engine in this thing. The 2.0-liter four-banger would be more than sufficient in a small truck.
We've seen reports of Ford working on a vehicle like this called the Courier or maybe even using the Ranchero name. A Focus pickup sounds far-fetched to us now, but how unlikely is it, truly?
