I like it, things I notice first it is about the same size as a F 150. Has a lot of bells and whistles, but plugging in a USB flash drive loaded with music is great (having once crashed while retrieving a CD from the floor). The tail gate is lighter than other ones. Gas milage is real good, about 21 + around town (not a city small town) and got
32 on a trip in to St Louis on the interstate. When the weather gets cold heated seats.Have been considering a travel trailer, with 7500 lbs rating.
So, why not just get an F150. I'm not a fan of the new Ranger; it's way too big. Give me a turn of the millenium small truck ranger anyday :-)
Just replaced theball joints on my '96 at 365,400km
Glad I had the "blur tip wrench" to coax it apart - started at about
10 am with a trip to Parts Source to borrow the ball joint press and a set of pickle forks - finished cleaning up the driveway and putting away the tools at 6pm. A bit slower than it would have been on a hoist.
It was my understanding that the reason they dropped the Ranger (I had an '01) was that they cost almost as much as an F150 to make but they could only get 75% of the price - no profit. It was surprising, though I welcomed it back but if it's the same size, I'll take the F150. Don't see the point.
BTW, my '01 fell apart in '13. Its frame rotted out where the leafs connected and the springs were resting on the body. Scary. I bought an F150 the next day. ;-) It would cost me almost double the $$ to replace it now. :-(
My first brand new vehicle was a black 1980 F100. $ 5700. 6 cyl. 3 on-the-tree red vinyl interior It was so bare-bones - it didn't come with a day-night rearview mirror !! I had to go buy one at the wreckers. I drove it 13 - 14 years 300 k + km motor, trans, clutch still OK and a young guy bought it to remove the rusted box and put on a flat-bed. John T.
Yours came with a rearview mirror?? ; )
I had to go buy one at the wreckers.
I picked up a couple young hitch-hikers one day, 15 year old guys heading to the beach, and one of them was forced to ask, after seeing me shift the 3-on-the-tree " How do you know where the gears are ? " ... not stamped into the knob like the 4-on-the-floor cars that he'd seen before ... :-) Even for 1980 it was a very rare bare-bones vehicle - I don't think that it even had PS PB . but the advertised price in large bold type in the newspaper advert. would attract attention and get people into the showroom to get up-sold. John T.
+
Thanks for the report. I'll agree that the mid sized trucks look pretty big when compared to the full sized trucks, until you sit inside and realize a 3rd person is not going to fit as well on a bench seat. The mid sized trucks are pretty narrow by comparison. Gas mileage sounds great!
I'll be looking into upgrading my 07 Tundra this fall. I wish Toyota would stay up with the competition as I suspect what ever I get will not be as reliable or trouble free. None of my previous GM pickups were. I am not going to wait for the speculated 2021 Tundra. Right now the New
1500 Ram Limited or Long Horn and the F-150 King Ranch or Platinum are in my sites. We want the long trip comfort that these particular vehicles offer over mid sized, otherwise I would be looking strongly at the Ranger.
Probably gas mileage.
So way back when,,,, I worked at an Oldsmobile dealership. I was in the back end of the business. My sister, 12 years older then me, wanted a new car. I went with her to our fleet salesman and we worked out the details. Going through the items to add he came to the option of adding a right door mirror. My sister said NO, I don't use rear view mirrors!!!
I drove a car with a three-on-the-tree for my road test when I was 16. During the test, I had to park on a hill (put the car in reverse, turn wheel into curb which depended on direction, etc.). Everything went right but I shifted into second instead of reverse. I quickly thought, "he'll never notice that". He didn't. ;-)
Can you lay down a sheet of plywood in the bed? Between the wheels? Length?
My (former) '00 Ranger is still going strong (gave it to my nephew back in 2016 with 130k miles on the clock).
On my recent trip out west I rented a 2018 Toyota 4Runner in Portland. $179 for 4.5 days. (The next time you rent, check out autoslash.com)
We spent a day on the Oregon Coast, a day driving the scenic by-pass along the Columbia Rover Gorge and a day in the city. Bottom line, a combination of highway driving and twisty-turny roads, up and down hills, crowded city streets, etc. About 600 miles total.
SWMBO and I were amazed at how well the truck handled across all those different conditions. Even though it was the lowest trim level, the seats were extremely comfortable, the site-lines were great (nice and high) parking was easy. It's actually smaller than my daily driver (Honda Odyssey) but it seemed so much bigger, mainly because of the height. Almost 6" more ground clearance than my Ody. My only complaint is that it really needed running boards. SWMBO and I are short, so we were literally *climbing* in and out of the truck.
As far as "long trip comfort", the 4Runner seemed to meet that criteria. Hauling-wise, I think my Ody could fit more since there's more vehicle behind the driver and the seat come out. 4 x 8 sheet goods fit in my Ody, they wouldn't fit in the 4Runner. Yeah, I know it's not a pick-up, but it's a nice truck.
I can in my Honda Odyssey. I can carry 10' foot boards too, with the tailgate closed. ;-)
Vermont salt did mine in. They hadn't seen anything like it in the shop here (Georgia).
What about 12' boards?
$15,000 price difference also.
On 6/1/2019 10:05 AM, Leon wrote: ...
The plethora of cars disguised as trucks is phenomenal any more...but you have to search really, really hard unless you're content with regular cab or the extended cab to find anything with long bed--and afaict there is none manufactured in 1/2T that is 4D w/ long bed--has to be 3/4T (which is ok, but don't really need the weight capacity so much any more as have moved fuel transfer tanks to trailers for the diesel). But a shortbed is essentially useless for farm; can't even lay a post in the bed of a lot of 'em and shut the tailgate so can go somewhere at speed and not worry about losing half along the way. :(
So far I've just kept the old 2D because don't need the second seat often, but when do, the crammed leg room just wouldn't work well since almost always when that is would be for longer trips to the NM ground instead of just local. So, so far have always ended up w/ multiple vehicles.
As far as GM, everybody's experience is different, but we've had nothing but Chevy's since 1928 and I can't think of but one of the lot in the mid '70s that wasn't as reliable as could ask for...I don't recall ever doing any major work on any of them; the one was in the era of the sorry sheet metal and rounded fenders that caught all the manure and ensilage and so rotted out in a few years (like Fords typically did almost universally in the 50s/60s/70s until they finally began to improve bodies some).
Ram made huge inroads out here in farm/oil patch country when first introduced the new design but with GM and Ford beginning to catch up again after the big redesign the price differential is beginning to show up and Chevy is really catching up again...Ford still leads for the lighter duty and the city folk who do just want a car with a bed or the bare-bones oil trucks doing metering and well monitoring, etc., where they're just driving from site to site...
The GM ad on the Al bed is telling, though...I've seen any number of them with hard use that have torn just like the ads showed with the dropped block or toolbox. Don't know if they've done any fixes on that last year or two or not, but if you're going to use it hard, better have a bed liner from what I've observed.
If you're just going to the Borg now and then or puling the boat to the lake or the like, probably fine.
Well there is that matter of a $4000 price difference.
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