Class Leader: Ford Ranger
2000 sales: 330,125
2009 sales: 51,097
Compact trucks like the Ford Ranger are barely a blip in the car market today but in 2000, the Ranger was the eighth best-selling vehicle in America, just behind the Ford Taurus and Ram truck.
With high gas prices pushing consumers toward generally smaller vehicles, you'd think small trucks would still be hot today. Vicious competition among big trucks, though, did them in. Cash incentives for full-sized pick-ups made them almost as cheap to buy as the little trucks.
"It was a perfect substitution," said Jeff Schuster, a market analyst with J.D. Power and Associates. "There really wasn't a reason to buy a small pick-up."
NEXT: Class Leader: Ford Taurus
