With the Success of the Revived Bronco, Is the Splash Next for Ford?

Is the 1990s auto revival on?

Ford Splash 1995
A 1995 Ford Splash.
RL GNZLZ, CC BY-SA 2.0

From 1994 through 1998, people buying the Ford Ranger had a number of options to choose between — including a trim package known as the Splash. As Rob Emslie wrote earlier this year at Jalopnik, this included a fiberglass cargo bed, “a monochromatic paint scheme, some very ’90s ‘Splash’ graphics on the fenders and doors and a slightly lower ride height.” Still, the brand name is a pretty enticing one, and it sounds like we might be hearing more of it in the near future.

At Autoblog, Ronan Glon notes that Ford recently filed a trademark application for “Splash.” As tends to be the case with trademark applications, the wording on it is fairly wide-ranging, leaving few clues about what the automaker’s plans are, or even if there are plans in the works.

The article also points out one curious aspect of this filing. “What strikes us as odd is that the Splash was cheap, cheerful, and road-focused, and the demand for such a truck simply isn’t there anymore,” Glon writes. “Some speculate Splash will denote another electric model, but no hard evidence backs it up.”

In other words, it’s a mystery. That said, bringing back a name last seen in the ’90s worked well for Ford with the Bronco. Could the Splash have the same effect? We’ll probably know soon enough.

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