They are lighter but not by much. The new Explorer is also unibody meaning it no longer has a full frame. It is based on the Taurus chassis which means the 2WD version is also FWD. If they decided to build another Sport Trac based on the new chassis it would be more like a Ridgeline than ours.
Ford has abandoned both the small and midsized pickup buyers.
Ranger should have been redesigned ten years ago.
What happened to Ford? Why do they have so many crossovers that are essentially the same size and use the same engine (Escape, Explorer, Flex, Edge, Mariner, MKT, MKX, Aviator, etc.), but they abandoned both market segments of small and mid-size pickups?
they would rather have 1 truck that is number one in sales than 2 or 3 that are not. if they had a midsize or small truck it would take away sales. they may still be number one in truck sales but gm has closed the gap. plus they make a lot of money on them compared to the st or even the ranger