Why in your opinion is Ford Ranger the best compact pickup on the market?

 

Not anymore. It had been for 20 years, but the competition has finally caught up with the new models out. It's still a great little truck, but Ford has sat around on it for too long and will now have to play catch up. I like it better than the Colorado?Canyon and Dakota, but I think the Tacoma and Frontier are better buys now. The Dakota is just too big and has only adequate power with it's 4.7 HO. The Tacoma and Frontier get similar power and torque out of their 4.0 V6's and have better performance out of them.

 

I think the Ranger is last compact truck out there so ya its the best.

 

They are one tough unit thats for sure...

 

What really compares to it?

 

If you want a true compact, it's one of the last ones remaining. The Ranger's price is also pretty good from what I've seen around here. Compared with new designs like a Tacoma or Frontier, it seems to be far back, which is to be expected for such an old deisgn.

 

Yes the Edited by Admin use "Japanese" have good trucks but there crew cabs ware the ranger isnt(yet ) as far as the dakots its to big to be compact. the chevy is as big as the dakots now but i do like the inline5 thats in them.
And the ranger is the best cuz its a ford

 

I'm a Ford man, but the Tacoma is a better truck then a Ranger. How many Rangers do you know of, that have over 300,000 miles on the original engine? Toyota's do it all the time.

 

Very true, steve. Toyota does know how to make tough compact trucks, hopefully that knowledge goes into their next Tundra as well. The body on those old Toyotas may go earlier than the Americans but the important bits (the mechanicals) keep going forever. I know quite a few people around who still look to buy old Toyota compacts, they're generally cheap and dependable.

 

I am sure most of those jillion mile Toyotas are the I4 type. Not knocking Toyota, for sure, but my 2.3L Ranger...244K and ticking. If I didn't work offshore, I'd be around 300K or so by now. Quite a few 3.X Toyotas don't have the factory headgasket in 'em, to boot.

In my opinion, though, the 3.slow drinks gas for a 3.slow v6 and the new 4.OHC v6 drinks gas and has that LOUSY timing chain design.....and Toy still makes 4x4 4 cylinder trucks.

 

I don't know about the 4.0 drinking gas. As long as I don't drive like a madman I get around 18 around town and 20 or so on the highway with a tops of 27. Of course that was down hill out of the rockies. And through 2 Rangers with that enigine I have yet to have the timing chain problem. I guess I'm lucky.

 

I don't know of anyone personally with over 300k with anything other than an 84 LTD/Crown Vic. However I know lots of people with well over 200k on Rangers/Explorers. Toyota's supposedly supperior build quality is mostly just hype. I've had friends with Toyotas that had to have major work after 125k miles. Don't get me wrong, Toyota makes good vehicles, but they are not flawless by any means. Check out the Ranger forum and you will find tons of people with over 250k miles on their Rangers that are still all original. I feel that Rangers are the best as far as long lasting, but as far as power/comfort/convenience they are not up to the competition.

 

The two advantages I see to the Ranger are:

1 - it's relatively cheap, especially with incentives on all the left-over '04s
2 - it's still a 'compact' pickup and not a mid-size

Other than that, the Ranger is getting pretty dated. The only way Ford is keeping the sales up is with huge discounts, basically the same way GM is selling the (also dated) Silverado...but that'll only work for a while with all the new designs coming out.

The older Rangers were pretty reliable, but from what I've seen the quality has dropped in recent years - the last two people I know that bought Rangers had major problems within the first 100,000 miles. At this point, I'd probably consider the Toyota the most durable, with Nissan and Ford tied for second. Of course, that depends on what motor they use...I personally know of two Toyotas with over 400,000 miles on the original motor (one with the original tranny), and they're both 4-cylinder 2wd models. I don't think I've seen any V6 Toyotas make it that far, so for V6 trucks the Ranger might have a slight edge over the Toyota - at least the older models, the OHC 4.0 has some problems.

The weak points with the Ranger are probably the Mazda 5-speed tranny, and I've also seen a few rear axle failures...the most recent being an '03 Fx4 Level II that blew its guts out the rear cover at only 55,000 miles, locking up both rear tires and almost causing an accident. I'm a little baffled by that one, especially since that truck has been babied since new and the owner is very picky about maintenance. As far as I can tell from looking at the pile of shrapnel, it looks like the Torsen limited-slip was what failed, but it's hard to say for sure. At least, the Torsen is what's in the smallest pieces. The owner managed to find a good buy on a factory take-out new rear axle assembly ($1,100 with installation), so he replaced the whole thing with a new unit with a clutch limited-slip. Anyway, I feel a little responsible for that one...since I'm the one that recommended he buy the Ranger. From now on I'm not recommending anything to anybody...if anyone asks me what they should buy, I'll just tell them I have no opinions at all.

LK

 

You need to read through the posts in the Ranger forum. Someone asked this same question a while ago there, and there are numerous Ranger owners on this site with 300, even 400,000 miles on them. This is not, despite what many people think, a feat owned only by the Japanese. They're just better at publicizing it.

Now that the Tundra, Colorado/Canyon and Frontier have all gone mid-size, the Ranger is the last compact pickup truck. It doesn't mean much as Ford is going to kill off the Ranger in the next couple years, anyways.

 

I had and loved a ford ranger. It had 140k when I sold it because I needed a bigger truck to plow with. I HAD NEVER HAD A SINGLE PROBLEM WITH IT! Oil changes brakes and tires - that's it! It is my understanding that that same truck has just turned 200K and has only now needed just a water pump. THATS IT!

I often wonder if all those people that drive those other foreign trucks have family in Japan that they need to support? Do you think?