Car-based pickups will always cause me to look twice… but one with fake wood trim? Well, that’s enough to slam on the brakes and take some pictures. Which is just what happened when I came across this 1973 Ford Ranchero Squire. This is perhaps the quintessential odd vehicle… straddling the line between car and pickup, though really neither, but then donning the Di-Noc woodgrain trim then popular with large station wagons. Even its name is a mixture of disparate elements. Ranchero – a Spanish (and southwestern US) term for a rancher – combined with Squire – an English country gentleman.
Ford’s Ranchero started life in 1957 – first based on full-size Ford cars, and then the compact Falcon – and in its early years was marketed firmly as a truck. Rancheros presented the front end of a car, and the rear bed of a pickup. The concept didn’t really take off in the US; in Ranchero’s first ten years, sales averaged just under 19,000 annually. But Ford kept shuffling the Ranchero to different platforms anyway, perhaps under the impression that this niche market was about to take off, or perhaps because Ford was unwilling to concede that niche to GM, whose El Camino sold about twice as many examples in the middle and late 1960s.
Eventually Ranchero evolved to be less of a work truck and more of an upscale truck-like vehicle… or something like that. The concept of a luxury pickup was just starting to take off in the early 1970s, but though demand for such vehicles rapidly increased, manufacturers remained a bit puzzled by what such buyers actually wanted, and why. Truck market analyst Ken Kelley, in a bit of an understatement, wrote that luxury pickups such as the Ranchero “are not being sold particularly for their working ability.” Just what they were being sold for was anyone’s guess, so carmakers threw quite a few varieties of trucks customers’ way. The Ranchero Squire was one such example.
Debuting in 1970 and joining the base Ranchero 500 and the sporty-looking GT, the Squire was billed as the “new ultimate in personal pickup luxury.” The “luxury” provided with this package seems modest by today’s standards – upgraded upholstery, deluxe carpet, nicer wheel covers, and some unique trim pieces. And wood. Or, rather “woodtone sides” in Fordspeak, similar to the brand’s Country Squire and Torino Squire station wagons.
The Squire did make somewhat of a splash within the small Ranchero pool when it first arrived. Nearly 4,000 sold in 1970, accounting for 18% of overall Ranchero production. This, combined with a 15% rise in total Ranchero sales that year, likely earned the Squire its keep. However, during the following year, Squire sales fell by one-third, and it accounted for only 10% of production… a proportion that would hold steady for the next four years.
For 1972, Ford introduced its sixth, and ultimately most successful, generation of Ranchero. The intermediate Torino had been Ranchero’s donor platform since 1968, and when Torino was redesigned for ’72, Ranchero followed suit with its voluptuous, coke-bottle styling. And keeping that 10% of Ranchero buyers happy, the Squire came along for the ride.
Our featured car hails from 1973, easily distinguishable among Rancheros because both it and Torino lost their prominent ’72 grilles due to US bumper regulations, yet this egg-crate-style ’73 grille was once again redesigned for ’74. All carspotting should be this easy.
Rancheros came with a dizzying choice of six available engines, ranging from a low-powered 250-cid six to a muscular (for the day) 429-cid V-8. I’d like to think that this Squire has one of the V-8s, as the six certainly made for a slow vehicle.
Those are not original Ranchero wheels, but rather from a 1980s Crown Victoria… although for a cross-decade wheel transplant, this one looks awfully good.
What’s remarkable about this Squire is that the wood trim has survived. It’s faded, as is the “Medium Bright Yellow” paint, but clearly this Ranchero has been well taken care of, and likely covered, through a good part of its life.
This angle shows how Ford blended Torino’s curvy body with Ranchero’s pickup bed. It couldn’t have been easy to carve a pickup out of this design, but the end result looked well blended together, if not terribly space efficient. However, Ford’s marketing folks somewhat outdid themselves in over-metaphorizing Ranchero’s design, like with this excerpt from its 1973 brochure:
“The lines are strictly space-age, aerodynamic and head-turning.”
Aside from being somewhat of an embellishment, the term “space-age” was well past its prime by 1973, though Ford kept the term in Ranchero brochures for another three years.
I happened to drive down the same street a few days after first seeing this car, and the second time, this Ranchero was parked with its tailgate facing out. Unfortunately, the tailgate’s wood applique hasn’t survived 47 years like it has on the sides. The tailgate does look freshly painted, so it appears this Squire is still receiving attention.
In modern parlance, these vehicles would be called car/truck hybrids, but in the 1970s “hybrid” was a term used mostly to describe plants, so Ranchero was called “the pickup car” by Ford’s marketing department… or Ford’s El Camino by a whole lot of other people. El Caminos always outsold Rancheros, but the Ford made its strongest showing with these ’73 models. Over 45,000 Rancheros were produced that year, which amounted to nearly two-thirds of combined El Camino and GMC Sprint production. Ranchero would never see numbers that high again.
I didn’t get a chance to photograph our featured car’s interior, though it likely looks similar to the above ad’s image. However, Squires did get some additional upscale interior appointments, and our featured car also appears to have the optional “flight bench seat,” which looks like a pair of bucket seats joined together.
After 1973, Rancheros (including the Squire) remained little-changed for the next three years, with the exception of minor trim pieces. So little, in fact, that this 1974 brochure image is simply the ’73 brochure with Ranchero’s new grille airbrushed into place. Sales, however, weren’t as easy to airbrush into the picture, and they declined each year – by 1976, Ranchero production fell by 65% from its 1973 high.
Ranchero’s story wasn’t quite finished, though. The model held on through 1979, though by that time only about 25,000 were produced annually. “Sporty” GT’s were the most popular Ranchero variety in those years; interest in the luxury Squire waned noticeably; in the final 1979 model year, a mere 758 Squires found homes. More importantly for the Ranchero’s overall prospects was that it slipped farther behind its GM rivals. GM won the endurance race in the small car-based truck market; it’s El Camino survived another eight model years.
The Ranchero Squire would up as a mere footnote in Ford’s history, but it was quite an outlier… one of North America’s few car-based pickups, and one of the few wood-paneled cars that wasn’t a station wagon. And if there was ever a car… er, truck, worth slamming on the brakes for, this would be a good example.
Photographed in Annandale, Virginia in September 2020.
Related Reading:
Curbside Classic: 1969 Ford Ranchero – The Anti-Paternity Mobile Paul Niedermeyer
Road Trip Outtake: The Elusive Ranchero Squire Ed Stembridge
I had forgotten all about the Squire trim on these – Ford seemed to turn almost everything into a “Squire” in the 70s.
It was always my seat-of-the-pants sense that Ford sold about half as many Rancheros as Chevy sold El Caminos, and you prove that I was not far off.
Yes, those wheels work amazingly well on this ranchero, though I recall that some of the high-end wheelcovers of that era had a similar design.
It continued a bit to the early 1980s as well. Ford added a di-noc on Escort wagon to create an Escort Squire. https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/curbside-outtake-1981-ford-escort-wagon-di-noc-twilight/
http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_252759-Ford-Escort-CE14-1982.html
And National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation gived us “what might have been” scenario had Ford gived us a Taurus Squire. https://www.imcdb.org/v028845.html
A great find Eric! Squire versions of the Pinto, Gran Torino, and LTD, were fairly common of course. This is a genuinely rare, and unique find, even at the time. The Ranchero Squire really does stretch the campiness of the wood-panelled theme.
Though the movie was shot in 1974, and released in 1975, this Ranchero would have been well cast in The Stepford Wives. The most prominent cars in the movie being a ’74 LTD Country Squire, and a ’74 Gran Torino Squire. With one of the more memorable scenes of the film taking place in a grocery store parking lot, a scene that also included a Chev Caprice Estate, and other wagons. As these car well-represented the typical suburban grocery-getting cars of the era, and the movie producers clearly wanted to emphasize this theme/stereotype.
A Ranchero was the ideal compromise vehicle for me. Several times a year I need an open back truck; but don’t want to drive a tall, wide pick up truck for the rest of the year.
I’ve owned 5 Rancheros since 1970, from 1961 to a 1979 model.
This one will be a “keeper”.
What was the load carrying capacity of these things?
For me: A sofa, recliner, hot water heater, a 55 inch flat screen television, 12 bags of cypress mulch, my nephew and niece.
(No, I am not a serious trucker.)
And really, that was the point of these, as with the El Camino. They were NOT for serious truckers, but great for hauling smaller loads when needed and carrying the driver and passengers in relative comfort the rest of the time.
What seems to have happened is that trucks got more luxurious, making the car based Ranchero and El Camino less and less viable as an option. Add in that the Courier and LUV pickups came out about the time that the models really started dropping off in popularity, and it makes sense that those who needed light utility were fine with the compact pickups over the car based ones or the full sized trucks. Everything seems to be rendered obsolete as the niches fill up. And oddly, the new compact trucks that are being teased (like the Santa Cruz or possible new Courier) are really more car based, unibody FWD based platforms with a bed, just as the El Camino and Ranchero were based on cars.
I would venture to guess that the luxury full-size pickup really came into its own with the advent of the extended cab and this went a long way to killing the Ranchero and El Camino. It was a gradual trend, but, with the greater option availability, the extended cab made the pickup more of an everyday vehicle than just for work in the field. On top of that, the advent of the compact pickup and SUV pretty much put the final nails in the car-based pickup coffin, effectively making them irrelevant.
FWIW, the key attraction of the Ranchero and El Camino would have been the car-like ride versus the buckboard of an unladen traditional pickup, and that, alone, probably would have kept sales at about the same level. But Ford and GM just didn’t want to spend the money on continuing the models, and figured that market would just have to live with the harsher ride of a traditional truck.
It’s worth noting that if Pontiac had survived, one of the vehicles under serious consideration for production would have been a very El Camino-like Holden Monaro-based ‘ute’. But when the division was axed, so were any thoughts of bringing back this Pontiac El Camino. A real pity since it would been interesting to see how the market would have reacted.
The ’75 brochure says 1250 lbs. “people-and-payload capacity”. So like JFrank said, it’s no surprise that car-based pickups were pushed out of the market by compact BOF trucks. For a lower price, you could get a truck that had higher payload and about the same size bed in a much shorter, narrower package.
Eric, this is quite a find. This Ranchero has so many mixed messages going on but it’s great nonetheless.
For a brief while I owned a ’74 Ranchero. It was purchased new by the same great-uncle who had purchased two Edsels brand new. James had had his left leg amputated and the Ranchero was ideal for him to put his crutches in (either behind the seat or in the bed; it’s been a long time) before he turned around to get in the driver’s seat. It was identical to the one seen in the ’74 ad pulling the horse trailer, right down to the dog dishes with beauty rings.
His widow gave it to me several years after he died although I never could get it to start as its 351 appeared to be locked up.
While I am generally neither a fan of Torinos nor of trucklets, something about this just works.
Something actually makes sense about the Edsel-to-Ranchero ownership pipeline; somehow I suspect your great uncle wasn’t the only former Edsel owner to warm up to one of these.
My cousin had a black 78 that he used for his autobody shop. They were great for parts runs.
This is the era of peak fake wood. You watched a tv trying to look like a sideboard covered in fake wood. If you were a rich kid you had an atari or pong console covered in fake wood. This was of course in your basement which was paneled with more fake wood. Your house might have that t-111 fake/plywood siding. You went down to the hardware store in your Ranchero covered in fake wood. Just crazy how the trend which had been running strong for 20 years became almost overnight passé and ugly in the early 80’s
My aunt got a new colour TV back in the late seventies. The old black and white one went behind the door in the lounge and became a pot-plant stand. I remember looking at the real wood cabinet of the old faithful STC (that was always polished along with the rest of the furniture), and being disappointed with the new Rank Arena’s stick-on faux wood over chipboard.
Now that you mention it, I remember the centerpiece of my grandmother’s apartment was her (non functional) black & white, woodgrain-sided TV. The newer, but less-attractive color TV was placed in the spare bedroom.
Maybe that’s why I have an affection for fake wood.
We called these things “car trucks” when I was a kid in the ‘70’s. Not exactly modern parlance. And first thing I noticed was the wheels. Agreed they do work.
One thing I always noticed on the 1974 and later Rancheros was the lack of a 5 mph bumper on the rear. I can see a non 5 mph rear bumper in the photo of the 1977 to 1979 edition. I believe this was because pickup trucks (which the rear end was) were not required by FMVSS 215 to have such bumpers as it was thought they would compromise their utility value too much. Ford kept the 5 mph bumper on the front as tooling up a separate non 5 mph bumper for such low production numbers would have been cost prohibitive. It seems to me the 1974 to 1977 colonnade and later El Caminos did have a 5 mph rear bumper but I could be wrong.
Glenn, I think you are correct, the collonade El Camino had the same rear bumper as the collonade Chevelle/Malibu wagon. These had the tail lamps IN the bumper and, as wagons, had to meet the 5-mph standard. GM would have to come up with a different way to package the tail lamps.
The Ranchero rear looks like a Torino/Montego wagon. I think these had Ford’s 2-way liftgate, so it was easy to sway in a conventional tailgate (liftgate minus window) and hang a cheaper, more attractive bumper underneath.
I owned a ’75 El Camino and loved it. However, that rear bumper with the tail lights inside was a major pain. All the muck and salt encountered in winter seemed to collect in the lights. I don’t know how many sockets and sometimes wiring I had to replace each spring.
Before the El Camino I also owned a ’73 Ranchero. Mine was the base model with a 302 and three on the tree ( until I installed a Hurst shifter). I loved that one, too.
Both were perfect for my use such as hauling firewood, pulling a 24 foot camper, business use and just fun as a daily driver. I miss both of them and if I ever decide to own another pickup I would love to have another of either one. This coming from a guy who has owned several pickups, both full sized and compact.
Thank you for your reply. From my observations it looks to me as if the ’78 to ’87 El Camino used the same rear bumper and tailgate as the A and G body wagons sans the rear glass. Am I correct?
I agree.
I took the trim off the tailgates of both my El Camino and my Ranchero to prove to myself that they used station wagon pieces. Sure enough, they both had welded in tracks for rear windows.
What I find interesting is how heavily they were reskinned for 1977, as much so as the LTD II sedans and coupes rather than continuing to use the Torino-era doors and rear fender peak. The one-year-only ’77 LTD II wagon lost the peak by using the same rear fenders the Mercury Montego wagon had since 1972 but kept the ’72-6 Coke-bottle curved doors.
Good point, they could have saved a bit on the reskin if they still have used the Torino-era door and rear fender to keep it probably as a “one-year wonder” had Ford gived the green light for a Fox-body Ranchero based on the Fairmont and the Mustang but instead we got the Fairmont Durango. https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/in-motion-classic/in-motion-outtake-1981-ford-durango-the-foxiest-fairmont-variant/
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/from-the-cc-cohort-1981-ford-durango-shoulda-coulda-did/
Btw, one guy imagined what if they did the 1977-79 Ranchero with the Thunderbird front end? http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3822189/1979-ford-ranchero/
I’ve seen that ‘Rancherobird’ before and suspect Ford really missed an opportunity to move the Ranchero up the luxury rung into a whole new ballgame, maybe even giving it a new lease on life. I could easily have seen Jock Ewing wheeling around in one of those instead of his Mark V.
And on the other extreme, some people imagined what if Ford had created a Pinto Ranchero or “Pintochero”?
https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2019/03/19/hemmings-find-of-the-day-1980-ford-pinto-pickup-conversion
https://barnfinds.com/the-one-the-only-ford-pintochero/
https://www.fordmuscleforums.com/threads/custom-pinto-ranchero.470177/
FWIW, Iacocca gave the mini-Ranchero a shot with the Dodge Rampage/Plymouth Scamp. They were a dismal failure.
A college classmate of mine had a bright green 1973 Ranchero, though not a Squire. He grew up on a farm and if I recall correctly, he got it new as a high school graduation present. It was by far the newest car in the eclectic collection that belonged to my senior engineering study group: my 122S, a ‘69 BMW 2002, a ‘65 Chevy, and a trio of air-cooled rear engined cars which belonged to one guy – a Corvair, a Corvair-powered Beetle, and a T2 van. We mildly made fun of the Ranchero because it was such a non-Berkeley car.
That’s amusing… I can envision a Ranchero as being one of the most un-Berkeley cars imaginable!
I briefly owned a Gran Torino wagon from this era, a ’72. There was a whole lot of car between the front bumper and the engine fan; entirely wasted space. And that’s what bugs me about the Ranchero of this generation – the hood seems as long or longer than the bed! Makes the overall proportions look weird.
Also, I suspect the only reason the El Camino outlasted the Ranchero was the death of the midsize BOF car at Ford. If Ford wanted to continue the truck/car, it would have had to move to the Panther chassis. (Aside from the semi-aftermarket, Fairmont-based Durango pickup). Since GM was still building G-bodies, continuing with the El Camino/Caballero didn’t really cost much.
Hmm, I wonder if a four passenger version of this might have worked. Extend the cab for some 2+2 seating maybe, and shorten the box just a bit. I’m sure thought, it would have been unheard of to have shortened the hood however.
I agree this is a not bad at all looking package.
I see these as the genetic link to today’s very comfortable pickups, for those that don’t really need a pickup mostly, but like the idea of one. When the Ranchero first came out in 1957 pickups were still quite “trucky”. And it’s not a coincidence that the Ranchero and Elky faded out during the time that real pickups started to become very mainstream as personal transportation, and offered all the comfort and amenities that one could desire.
Eric: nice find. The Squire mirrors are nicer than the stock ones I had on my ’72 Ranchero 500. I have also had a GMC Caballero. For my particular load carrying need (one motorcycle or two bicycles) the Ranchero was superior. Not only was the bed longer but it was better designed for use with tie down straps. There was a pocket with a cross bar standard in each corner of the bed – making securing any type of a two wheel cycle easy and safe.
My Ranchero was quite basic and had a 351 Cleveland two barrel with three speed automatic.
Ha, I saw this and my first thought was, I used to drive by one just like that when driving from my home (for a dozen years) in Annandale to Falls Church. It’s been in that area for probably a decade at least.
That’s great! Sure looks like it’s in the hands of a long-term owner. I didn’t venture up the driveway, but I would have loved to see in the interior in this Ranchero.
A friend of mine I worked with at a service station had a thing for Rancheros. His daily driver was a ’59, which was sadly a turd brown color. It was in great shape, and never seemed to give him any trouble. It had the original engine in it, I don’t remember what size it was.
One day in later 1977, a white ’73 with a 429 came into the station with some sort of issue. The owner was “fed up with it” and a deal was made. A couple of hours of work after his day was over had it running great. The only major thing it needed was the exhaust was totally rotted out, so a few days after he got it, he took it to our most used muffler place and had a custom dual exhaust put on it. He had both Rancheros until the late ’90’s when I lost contact with him after a move.
I drove the ’73 once and thought the whole time, “Why does he like this better than an El Camino?”. I would have taken a 1968 to 1972 El Camino any day over any Ranchero.
My Father never owned a Ranchero, but in 1973 went the “other” way and traded our ’69 Country Squire for a ’73 Ranch Wagon.
The ’73 was actually more loaded than our ’69, despite it being a “lower” trim level, in fact was probably the closest thing (besides the subsequent ’78 Caprice Classic Wagon) to a Luxury car he was ever to own). The ’69 had a 351 2bbl, the ’73 a 400 2bbl, trailer towing package (only car he ever owned that had it), AM/FM Stereo (first car with FM and first car with stereo), Air Conditioning (first car to have it, though he did buy 2nd cars without it, every 1st car from then on had it), power locks (ditto). The ’78 Caprice Classic Wagon he bought was just a bit more plush (it also went back to having the woodgrain exterior, though I don’t know if you could get it without as a Caprice), it had the 305 2bbl, and added power widows (first time), was only car my Dad was to buy out of a showroom, and it was a beauty.
Guess he was like a lot of people, as he became more prosperous, wanted the “nice” things to go along with it….his first car had zero options (1956 Plymouth Plaza)….don’t even know if it had a heater, but he did buy it new right when he graduated college. He graduated to Ramblers (a bit more stuff, station wagon, automatic for my mother, and AM radio) but still the 6. I think the Ranchero squire is in this vein, people wanted something a bit different than a pickup, but still to be able to haul some stuff, willing to forego some utility for a bit of luxury. Like wagons themselves, the Ranchero seems to have been relegated to the archives of car history, no one offers them anymore, likely a victim of CAFE. One thing I wonder is if someone might make a “slow” version of these, using current (more efficient than 1973) motors tuned more for economy to keep to the CAFE target. I know their frontal area is large, and required safety equipment has added a lot of weight, but some people might prefer a spacious albeit slow vehicle, especially as they get older and want something with a bit higher seating, without going to an SUV or crossover. But then maybe younger people would stay away, and old people would avoid them just because young people wouldn’t buy them and would be considered an “old persons” car (kiss of death)…too bad, market is about what people want, not necessarily what they need or suits their current needs.