Although the El Camino is the better known of the two, it was actually introduced in the 1959 model year as a response to the Ford Ranchero, which had been on the market since 1957. The Rancher started out as basically a full-size "sedan delivery"-style two-door Ford wagon with an open truck bed where the wagon's enclosed cargo bay would normally be.
From 1960 to 1965 the Ranchero name was moved to an open-bed version of the Ford Falcon, before returning to the midsize Fairlane for 1966. It stayed married to the midsize Ford as that moved from Fairlane to Torino in '68 and finally to the LTD II for the seventh generation of the Ranchero in 1977.
Thanks to its LTD II genetics, it had a formal snout with an upright grille and stacked rectangular quad headlamps.
The two-tone Light Medium Blue over Midnight Blue Metallic paint marks this as a Ranchero 500, which was the base version for 1979. You could also get the Ranchero Squire, with faux wood paneling like a station wagon, and the Ranchero GT with flashy decal stripes. The original buyer also sprung for the dual sport mirrors in their aero housings, rather than the standard single side mirror.
Under the hood would be a two-barrel 302 or 351M V-8, producing 133 and 151 SAE net horsepower, respectively. The only transmission available was Ford's FMX 3-speed automatic.
While its arch rival, the El Camino, would continue on into the 1980s, the end of the road for the Ranchero came at the end of the '79 model year.
This one was photographed in April of 2015 using a Nikon Coolpix P7000. It had 30,000 one-owner miles and was for sale for $4,500. The original base price in 1979 was $5,866, or the equivalent of $25,345 in constant dollars.
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