What Happened To The Last Ford Ranger?

The all-new Ford Ranger will be hitting dealerships for the first time in two years short of a decade. The last time we saw Ford Ranger production was when the last one rolled out of the Twin Cities Assembly Plant in December of 2011. So, what happened to that last Ford Ranger?



According to Ford, the last Ranger was a gift to Orkin, the bug-zapping company that has been using the truck in its company fleet since 1983. The company founder Otto Orkin made the Ford Ranger a staple in the Orkin fleet, and the last one is on display at the Orkin headquarters in Atlanta.

(Photo: Orkin)

Orkin wanted the very last production Ranger and reached out to Ford Motor Company. Apparently, there was a mix-up at the plant, and the last truck to make it down the assembly line was a single-cab truck instead of the extended cab version the company had ordered. To make things right, they gave them the actual last truck as well as the extended cab truck that they were expecting which was likely second-to-last in production. To welcome that very last truck to the company, it was sent out on a couple of bug-zapping calls but was then put on display as the very last Orkin Ranger. However, the extended cab truck that was given to Orkin was working in the Gainesville, Georgia area but was totaled in 2014 in a car accident.

Now that the Ford Ranger is making its big comeback, maybe Orkin will switch from the Toyota Tacoma that it mainly uses now and back to the Ford Ranger. Only time will tell.