1978 Ford Ranchero GT: the year with no GT figure at all

This record's own dek states plainly that no sourced 1978 Ranchero GT production figure was found, with only the Squire sibling reported outside forum posts at 908 units. Wikipedia records that Ranchero production ended in 1979, with a commemorative 1979 1/2 model among the choices, but this record's own overview repeats that no sourced GT production or configuration detail for 1978 was found in this research pass at all, leaving this record's own production section for the year resting almost entirely on the single Squire figure described below.^1,2

The single production row this record does carry, the 908-car Ranchero Squire, is itself logged as disputed: this record's own conflicts section shows an unsourced enthusiast site giving 907 instead of 908, a one-unit difference, and states that neither source names its own origin for the figure. This record's own production notes add that no sourced Ranchero GT figure of any kind was found for the year, with the Standard Catalog of American Light-Duty Trucks or an actual Ford production report named as what would be needed to close that gap.¹

This record's own paint section carries a documented methodological change from 1977: the twenty-nine colors listed come from a 1978 Ford, Mercury and Thunderbird color chart that this record's own note describes as a scanned color-chip page rather than a selectable text table, meaning the codes and names were read directly from the chart image itself, an R-M Automotive Products chip reference, rather than transcribed from text as in earlier years. Two colors the chart itself marks Thunderbird-only, Diamond Blue and Ember Iridescent, are excluded from this record's own list since a Ranchero buyer could not have ordered them, and this record states that the choice of chart is not independently confirmed against a Ranchero-specific order form.³

This record's price section carries the same editorial note found elsewhere in this record: a J.D. Power-sourced figure was removed as of September 24, 2026, since those live valuation pages cannot be independently verified, and no replacement source this record can stand behind has yet been found. Beyond the disputed Squire figure and the paint list, this record's engines, transmissions, options, interiors, specifications, performance and identification sections are all empty for 1978, a broad and explicitly documented gap rather than an assumption that the GT shipped without a drivetrain, dimensions or measured performance that year.¹

Two unpublished leads bear on the missing GT figure specifically. A ranchero.us forum post gives 12,469 GT and 9,911 Ranchero 500 for the year, naming no source beyond the usual attribution to the Standard Catalog. A French photo site, trombinoscar.com, repeats the same 12,469 GT and 9,911 Ranchero 500 figures with its own prices attached, $5,400 and $5,179 respectively, alongside a 907-car Squire figure at $5,532 matching the disputed alternative already logged in this record's conflicts section, though this record adopts none of these uncited figures into its own production table, leaving the disputed 908-versus-907 Squire count as the only figure for the year carrying any named secondary source at all.¹