Americans are discovering what the rest of us have known for years - the Ford Ranger is a desirable ute.
The 2019 Ford Ranger has only been on the US market for about a month, but already sales are reportedly way beyond what Ford expected.
The Ranger has been New Zealand's best-selling ute for several years, and at times has been the country's best-selling vehicle overall.
Ford's North American president Kumar Galhotra said this week that demand for the Ranger in the USA was so strong that the Michigan assembly plant will be going into overtime next month, in an effort to meet customer demand.
"Based on the orders coming in, and based on the hand-raisers, we think the demand's going to be so strong, that starting in February our assembly plant will be going into massive overtime," he said.
Ford said about 300,000 people had already indicated plans to buy the Ranger, considered a large number for the mid-sized truck or ute market in the United States. Combined sales of competing Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon utes last year was around 170,000.
The most popular model in the mid-sized ute market in the US is the Toyota Tacoma, which sold close to 250,000 units last year.