Soooo Ian, How Is It so far....

[Blue Goose]

Ian, I've always admired your 'brutal honesty' and 'let the chips fall where they may' attitude in your posts. Of course, I also absolutely loved the 'I'm working on the Ranger' blow by blow posts (sometimes great comedy)..... Anyway, what's your opinion(s) on your new truck so far?

 

[5.0Flareside]

yeah yeah tell us ian tell us. inquiring minds want to know. not like im gonna go buy a new truck because it or anything. just wanna know how ford is developing technology

 

[john112deere]

Liking it so far. It's been snowing basically the whole time I've owned it, though, so I haven't really had the opportunity to pay attention to how it "drives." I will say that if I expected to work it hard, the 3.73 gears would be a liability. I don't drive fast enough for the top end difference to matter much, but I think starting out loaded heavy with these gears is going to be hard on the clutch. Once moving it'll be fine, though, and considering what a small fraction of the miles I drive are hauling anything at all, I don't think it'll make any real difference over the life of the truck.

It rides a lot stiffer than my '97. That doesn't bother me at all, except it's stiff enough I can see a bump and an unexpected patch of ice (say, onto a bridge) being enough to set the rear-end off in it's own direction. Four-wheel drive and good tires help a lot, but compact pickups are inherently unstable when it's slick, and this one is no exception. It's damned good in the slick stuff, but it's not point-and-shoot snow driving like a Subaru.

Speaking of the 4x4...I've used it to get home every night. I'm pretty sure I didn't need it...but with the engine not broken in I don't want to suddenly lose traction and over-rev, and 4x4 plus lower speeds means less sand/stones thrown up at my new paint. I wasn't thrilled when Ford made the ESOF standard on Rangers, but I have to say it sure is easy to engage. Wish the knob was a little further from the radio, though...

I'm glad I went with the bucket seats...with the stick, the middle seat is pretty useless anyway, and I like the bigger console/armrest better. The seats don't fold forward as easy as the '97 ones do (two steps to tilt, then slide), but the buckets also remove the "flip up the armrest" step, so it more or less balances out. Haven't used the rear slider yet, of course, but I'll be happy for it once the weather improves. Power windows/locks/mirrors/remote access was a "free" option...and while I don't mind it, I'm glad I didn't have to pay for it.

The step bars are coming off as soon as I feel like picking up a wrench outside (which may well be spring)- never mind that I don't need them, they're virtually impossible to use, but perfectly positioned to get snow/dirt all over my pants when I'm dressed for work.

I didn't want the Sirius satellite radio, because I was afraid I'd like it. And I do. I'm not sure yet...but I probably will end up keeping at least the music channels.

Not sure what gas mileage will be like, yet...I've put a little over 150 miles on the truck since I picked it up, and burned a little over half a tank (19.5 gal capacity) according to the gauge. With the lousy conditions, green engine, and snow tires I know whatever it's getting now is going to be on the low end of what to expect from the vehicle, but if the gauge is accurate I was hoping for a little more range. (Generally, I figure on Ford gauges that the miles to half a tank are around 2/3 the miles to when I want to fill up...meaning on a trip I'd be buying gas ever 225 miles or so. I don't like to stop that often.)

I knew before I bought it that most of what's changed since '97 is (in my opinion) for the worse. Little stuff, but there's a long list- things like the "inner fenders" they used to put in the rear to keep stones, water, etc. from kicking up onto the underside of the bed, and eventually making their way under the rail and into the bed. Same deal somewhere in the front...I'm not sure where, exactly, but there's more salt spray in the engine bay than my '97 would have picked up in the same conditions.


I'm reminded of something a truck-loving friend's wife once told me, too- "A new truck is really just a box you bolt expensive accessories onto." I don't think I'd even driven it a mile before I started- winter wiper blades (the factory ones ice up bad), heavy rubber floor mats, and stick-on blind-spot mirrors. (Not to mention the $400 worth of tires I had installed before I even picked it up...)

EDIT: Chris, if you want to know how Ford is developing technology, the Ranger is the wrong truck to look at. That's quite fine by me (hell, if I could have had a brand-new '97 I'd have been even happier), but compared to a lot of vehicles this thing is really remarkably similar to my '97...which wasn't exactly clean sheet design that year, itself.

 

[5.0Flareside]

wow that sucks. but the word is that Ford is gonna dump the Ranger. so no reason to dump alot of money into R&D for a truck they are gonna get rid of. kinda understand all this. so not really a surprise on the going for the worse.

 

[Blue Goose]

I knew before I bought it that most of what's changed since '97 is (in my opinion) for the worse. Little stuff, but there's a long list- things like the "inner fenders" they used to put in the rear to keep stones, water, etc. f kicking up onto the underside of the bed, and eventually making their way under the rail and into the bed.

My twenty oh-five (like that?) Superduty didn't have any rear (two piece, front and rear) interior fenderwell splash panels in it like my '03 Superduty had. The bed's were the same, the holes to retain them were there, so I ordered them for an '03 and in minutes installed them.

 

[john112deere]

My twenty oh-five (like that?) Superduty didn't have any rear (two piece, front and rear) interior fenderwell splash panels in it like my '03 Superduty had. The bed's were the same, the holes to retain them were there, so I ordered them for an '03 and in minutes installed them.

If it ever stops snowing I'm going to check for mounting holes. The beds sure haven't changed much, so even if I have to drill for them, I may do that.

Speaking of that, I need to mount up some real mudflaps behind the front tires, too. It's amazing how fast a truck will get dirty on a snowy road without them.

 

[5.0Flareside]

lol get some that have a huge Ford emblem on them.. or...... get just some plain black ones and put a HUGE FTF logo on them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Blue Goose]

The guy at the parts counter couldn't believe they no longer had the panels and came outside to see my truck. We then went over to the used lot and looked at my old truck....He just shook his head as we went back inside to order them.

With those absent, you can see where the splash and spray can go clear to the inner top of the bed rails...

 

[john112deere]

wow that sucks. but the word is that Ford is gonna dump the Ranger. so no reason to dump alot of money into R&D for a truck they are gonna get rid of. kinda understand all this. so not really a surprise on the going for the worse.

No...like I said, it's all really little stuff. Trust me, 90% of the stuff I'm pissed about is stuff almost nobody notices...and if there were any REAL flaws in the truck, I wouldn't, either. In fairness, they did fix/improve some little stuff, too. The "elbow pads" on the doors are fabric not vinyl, there are decent tie-downs in the bed, and one more detail I'm forgetting right now.

I think the Ranger is a hell of a truck, and I'm extremely happy with the one I just bought. I'm a pretty backwards guy when it comes to trucks...much as it pains me, I do recognize that a company building exactly what I want would go bankrupt in a big hurry.

 

[5.0Flareside]

No...like I said, it's all really little stuff. Trust me, 90% of the stuff I'm pissed about is stuff almost nobody notices...and if there were any REAL flaws in the truck, I wouldn't, either. In fairness, they did fix/improve some little stuff, too. The "elbow pads" on the doors are fabric not vinyl, there are decent tie-downs in the bed, and one more detail I'm forgetting right now.

I think the Ranger is a hell of a truck, and I'm extremely happy with the one I just bought. I'm a pretty backwards guy when it comes to trucks...much as it pains me, I do recognize that a company building exactly what I want would go bankrupt in a big hurry.

oh ok. lol. your first post only really listed stuff you didnt like that they changed for the worse. lol. but i was hoping they at least improved a few things. glad to see that they did.

 

[john112deere]

oh ok. lol. your first post only really listed stuff you didnt like that they changed for the worse. lol. but i was hoping they at least improved a few things. glad to see that they did.

I'm not comparing powertrains at all, either, since it's not an even comparison between a 2wd 4-cyl and a 4wd 4.0. I suspect the SOHC is a significant improvement over the old pushrod motor (that was available in 1997), but I've never driven one of them with a stick, so I can't really compare.


One big thing they did improve was the steering...my '97s pump and box are both totally shot, but even compared to what that truck "should" have felt like, the new rack-and-pinion is an incredible improvement.