Sometimes one wants a truck that fits in a modestly sized garage.Originally Posted by Lester Polfus
Sometimes one wants a truck that fits in a modestly sized garage.
In 1986ish my dad bought a Ranger XLT with 2wd, 4cyl, and AT as our first "2nd car". He worked that truck harder than most people work their blinged out F150s. I remember when I was in college he won at auction the right to cut firewood in the national forest. For several months he would go out there, cut down a few trees*, limb, and then cut them into 8' logs. He'd load up that truck till it sat on the bump stops, then carefully drive it home where he'd cut and split it.
I once drove that truck across a swollen creek with a bed full of cut firewood from a regional park (I worked for the park dept part time as a laborer during summers). The water was well past the bottom of the door and the tailpipe was submerged, but I got it across and we got our free firewood home.
We also used it to tow my '72 Beetle halfway home from college one Spring when I screwed up the ignition timing and burned a hole in a piston.
I think he kept that truck until 2000 or 2001.
*He did that with a little Homelite saw that I still have and use to this day (that saw is about 30 years old).
Chris
I think Keith was being a little tongue in cheek.
I'm totally sold on the concept. I'm excited by the idea of a smaller truck that has as much cargo capacity and towing ability as my current truck, but with an engine less than half the size, and with better mileage to boot.
The damn thing will probably feel like I'm driving a spaceship compared to what I have now.
I was into 10mm Auto before it sold out and went mainstream, but these days I'm here for the revolver and epidemiology information.
I will second your assessment on the new Ranger. It is nothing to scoff at in the performance department.
A buddy has the 2019 Chevy Colorado. I am no fan of GM and swore them off after owning a 2012 Colorado, but the newer Colorado is a decent-sized small truck these days. The cab height is unusual and the bed height is flat out bizarre, but not too bad in the big picture. The new Ranger has to be better than GM, right?
After spending several days with a new Ranger as a loaner I would like to have one. I have my 2014 F-150 and am not switching, but I could see myself buying a 2WD former work truck and lowering it and doing a 93 tune.
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Early adapters are testers for for new products.
Ford is not known for their hybrid tech.
Smaller Ecoboost motors have "issues" Local PD stopped ordering them in their Explorers.
Unless there has been a huge breakthrough plug in hybrids get about 40 ish miles on E.
The towing ability of a vehicle is limited by suspension and brakes. A Ranger will never tow as much as a full sized safely.
Ford has sunk a ton of money, hired some pretty recognized talent, and gotten a metric shit ton of patents on hybrid tech over the last decade. The Fusion hybrid was well received and sales were solid in the mid-sized sedan category. For non-plug in hybrids, Ford was pretty consistently in the top 3 makers by sales with the Fusion and Escape hybrids. They certainly aren't as iconic as the Prius, but Ford is not a new comer to this field and is definitely prioritizing it.
Sorta around sometimes for some of your shitty mod needs.
Dunno how widespread those issues might be. I have a 2.0EB in my Focus that has piled up a quick 112k with the only hick-up being a known consumption of plugs on 87 (that I quit using). The Escape is their second highest volume unit behind the F-150 and the 2.0EB has a decent take rate in them. They also used them in the Fusion for quite some time, I rented one while I was waiting on my Focus back in 2016. The Ranger is doing pretty good volume and the only offering is the 2.3EB. With a few million units out there if they had issues we probably would be reading about in the WSJ. The early 2.3EB in the Focus RS had some head gasket issues (that were resolved), when running a boost package that put out 350hp.
True. I am in an area that American made Japanese autos are not looked down upon and I tend to look through that lens. The resale on Honda/Toyota hybrids (and everything else) is very good here. If one put a Fusion hybrid up against a similar Camry that both are 3yo. with a similar MSRP. The Camry will be worth at least 50% more than the domestic.
That would be pretty cool. I’ve gotten to work on a couple of solar pseudosatellite and wavecrawler projects, and it is a total ‘hold my beer’ endeavor.
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