wildbill23c
Well-Known Member
U.S. Military - Veteran
TRS Banner 2012-2015
TRS 20th Anniversary
Ham Radio Operator
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2012
- Messages
- 3,917
- Reaction score
- 577
- Points
- 113
- Location
- Southwestern Idaho
- Vehicle Year
- 1987
- Make / Model
- Ford Ranger
- Engine Type
- 2.9 V6
- Transmission
- Manual
- 2WD / 4WD
- 2WD
- Total Lift
- 0
- Total Drop
- 0
- Tire Size
- 215/70-R14
- My credo
- 19K, 19D, 92Y, 88M, 91F....OIF-III (2004-2005)
New vehicles full of electronics aren't exactly trouble free LOL. They just cost a fortune to repair and at that point many will toss them and buy something else.Maybe, instead of integrating computers "to make it so you can't work on your vehicle", they did it to improve them significantly? Now, you don't HAVE to work on them, and that's what the vast majority of car buyers want. They start easier, and more often now that fuel injection is around. They go longer without maintenance. They get better power and fuel economy at the same time. The vast majority of failures that occur "at the worst possible time" are mechanical in nature, and have nothing to do with any computers.
You CAN go buy the vehicle you want, it's just not coming from your local dealer lot. When you describe what you want, you're describing several million vehicles that are already on the road, but you're choosing to complain because none of them are 'new' enough. You've said a few things that you don't want if you were to buy a new truck, but what would you want? What draws you to the idea of wanting a new truck at all vs just keeping the old truck that you like, and not worrying about the new stuff that doesn't scratch your itch?
I don't mind driving something new, but I find there are just too many gadgets in them and electronic nannies that get in the way when all you want to do is get out of your own driveway in a snowstorm.
I have my 88 B2 and it has its share of issues which I'm slowly getting taken care of, but the body on this one is in really good condition so I'm slowly going through and fixing some minor stuff that comes up as I drive it more. I don't think my B2 is going to be going anywhere, I like it way too much.
I'd love to get another Ranger, but haven't really figured out what I want for sure. The newer Rangers have far more electronics in them, but they don't have the stability control and I don't think they had traction control or maybe they did towards the end of their production? I just like the compact truck platform, especially when I don't need a lot of hauling/towing capacity all the time.
The newest Ranger I drove was a 99, it had the 3.0L V6 and an automatic transmission, and was 2WD. The 98 I drove for a while as a work truck had the 4 cylinder in it and manual transmission thing had almost 400k on it when the transmission decided that you no longer needed 2nd gear LOL.
I looked at a 2001 Ranger and was really close to buying it but never did for some reason.