'85's Midsize $.02

Omaha had their autoshow this past weekend and I was finally able to sit in the new Ranger after Ford dangled it in front of me a year ago. They have pretty much everything there to play with so you can go from one to the next and see what you think side by side with no annoying salesmen interfering... worth the $8 to park and $9 to get in on a cold winter day.



Anyway, the infamous oil filter shield. Just a rubber flap with a couple fasteners, no biggie. Some squirthead came over laughing about how you have to pull the tire to change the oil when he saw me poking around the wheel well with my penlight.



And then during TFL's towing thing they showed the spring was pretty close to the bumpstop with a trailer on it but commented that it wasn't really squatting that much. So while I waited for the cab to clear out I did a "fastpakr" and crawled under to investigate it.



There isn't really a ton of room between the axle and bumpstop to start with. Although the bumpstop (or "jouncer" as Ford calls them now) is much more elaborate than the chunks of rubber my trucks have.



First up we have miss 1619.





Lots of seat travel, impressive legroom. Seats are nice, truck feels nice. I am 6'-3" and wear 38" leg Wranglers for reference.



Knee doesn't interfere with the console too bad. I was concerned about this because my knee hits the console in my wife's Edge. Where my leg did contact it the thing was curved with no sharp edges. Still I wish I could delete the thing but it is tolerable.



I think it was "the truck guy" on youtube that didn't like the switch location, I didn't think it was too bad. About the same as my F-150... maybe a hair father back but not a whole lot.



For legroom I would say it is kinda similar fore and aft to the comfort of a first gen Explorer. If the guy in the front has the seat all the way back the guy in the back is going to be cramped and vice versa. Good for short trips with adults but I wouldn't really strike off cross country with an adult I fear retribution from sitting in the back seat. I think most midsizes are similar though.



As I figured it has a capless fuel tank compared to the reveal truck that had a cap (I took a pic of it knowing that would probably be changed for production)



(truck at the unveiling a year ago)



Miss 144 was there but was all locked up. Nice looking XLT FX4.





Lots of people grumbling about the price, same price as a F-150. Amazing how nobody can figure out that a $40k F150 will not be a Lariat.

Anyway, off to yota land for comparison.



Nice legroom, coming straight from the Ranger entry and seating position were weird though. The seat is like on the floor and the roof is low, it is kind of a weird hop/duck maneuver to get in (coming from a lifted std cab first gen owner take that for what it is worth) Console is lower, I liked it better than Ranger. Also I like REAL KNOBS for HVAC controls instead of membrane buttons like the Lariat Ranger (lower Ranger trims have two knobs) Shifter looks nicer and is less bulky than the Ranger.



Gladiator is coming, might as well sample the new Wrangler too. Interior is cool, probably the neatest of all of them... except for the 4wd lever.



Glad to have it, wish it could be somewhere else other than against my knee. I couldn't get it to move, some 8yo might have jammed it between selections so it is stuck somewhere it isn't normally supposed to be, I don't know.

Off to GM land, they only had a ZR2 which I really don't care for the looks of on the outside. Aside from a bland steering wheel and cluster the interior isn't too bad though. Console is similar to Taco, probably ranks #2 in my book behind the Taco.



Accelerator pedal seems unnaturally close to the trans tunnel though, I really did not care for that.



Entry had a little of the Taco weirdness but not near as much.

Rectangular lights sitting on an arched lightbar look weird though.



Also sat in the Ridgeline which kinda/sorta/not really is a competitor, very nice interior. Didn't get a pic though.

Anyway, that is my $.02.

Thanks, good info

Looks like the lights could be leveled pretty easy.

that type of jounce stop collapses a lot. its a softer stop than regular rubber. air gap doesn't mean much.

funny story about the knobs in the Toyota vs membranes. back in 2010 I was at the Dearborn reveal of the new Taurus SHO. while talking to the Ford guys I mentioned that with knobs I could manipulate the controls without taking my eyes off the road.

Thanks !

That is really cool. Not too many Auto shows, in my area, that showcase new vehicles. We have a automobile museum here that has a very extensive collection of classics and one offs, but rarely do I get to see a car before it gets to the dealerships.

side note ; the one input I had on my wedding was the location. It was between a garden, a big "cathedral?" or the Auto-Museum. I picked the Auto-Museum and each of the wedding guest got a ticket to see the exhibits.

alwaysFlOoReD said:

Looks like the lights could be leveled pretty easy.

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Just making them round would look better than the rectangular ones no matter what they are level to. They look like something stuck on out of a JC Whitney catalog.

pjtoledo said:

that type of jounce stop collapses a lot. its a softer stop than regular rubber. air gap doesn't mean much.

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I was afraid they were using them as a sort of overload airbag type thing after TFL's towing video. My theory now is the springs are set up in such a way they just don't squat a much when towing.

pjtoledo said:

funny story about the knobs in the Toyota vs membranes. back in 2010 I was at the Dearborn reveal of the new Taurus SHO. while talking to the Ford guys I mentioned that with knobs I could manipulate the controls without taking my eyes off the road.

Click to expand...

When we were stove shopping last spring the "better" stove had membrane switches for everything. Thinking back to how our old one had the covering worn off the popular selections like bake and timer even though it had knobs for the burners I didn't like the idea of that style of switch for everything... the same sentiment applies to a vehicle.

It is hard to beat knobs (except as shifters which I saw Ford is doing in other models now ) and I don't know why there is such a push to go away from them. My parents '14 Explorer even has some of the HVAC stuff in the radio.

I often have to drive (short distances) with work gloves on. So I like knobs over buttons. Maybe in my luxury SUV but not the work truck.

Ranger850 said:

I often have to drive (short distances) with work gloves on. So I like knobs over buttons. Maybe in my luxury SUV but not the work truck.

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lol, didn't think of that which is weird because I have been living in gloves lately.

85_Ranger4x4 said:

lol, didn't think of that which is weird because I have been living in gloves lately.

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Maybe for you it's a non issue. For me, I go to push the "volume^" button and change the damn station. rolling my finger across the top of the knob is better for me.


"Rolling my finger across the knob" sounds funny when you say it out loud.

Ranger850 said:

Maybe for you it's a non issue. For me, I go to push the "volume^" button and change the damn station. rolling my finger across the top of the knob is better for me.


"Rolling my finger across the knob" sounds funny when you say it out loud.

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My dd has knobs and a crappy Pioneer headunit that really only uses one button to do just about everything. Ranger has levers since it is all cable operated. So the button thing with gloves isn't a big deal in my world.

Lately the truck has been living on defrost/floor and heat with varying fan speed. Right now it is 12* with a feel like of -8*. Projected high of -2* on Wednesday.

When I was in high school the radio in my Ranger had tiny presets, with gloves you never knew which one you were gonna get.

The XL/STX Ranger that I want has knobs for the fan speed and temp with buttons (don't look like membrane) for mode... which isn't horrible. I don't change modes that often.

Tell me about it. It was a frigid 45* this morning. It's about 60* now. Brrrrr...
(Sarcasm)

Ranger850 said:

Tell me about it. It was a frigid 45* this morning. It's about 60* now. Brrrrr...
(Sarcasm)

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It's about 80 where I am right now.

Nice work!

Impressions from 1st test drive:

Note: There were some communication issues with dealership/sales rep which I'm skipping.

Previous driver had set seat at furthest back but highest setting, so getting in was weird. Once seat was adjust more appropriately, it was better. I still found the seat cushion short - I find it tiring on long drives to have short seat cushion - my Ranger has seats with the extendable cushion moved to the stops.

Interestingly, the display noted seats with occupants but not seat belted. And wouldn't let me take it out of park. Now the key fob was in another sales reps hand (duh) but he was just on other side of glass in show room from truck. Send sale rep in truck to get fob and when he was belted in, truck functioned as expected.

Parking lot has mean speed bump on entry/exit, and Ranger "rode like a truck over it"; my '17 F-150 is much smoother. We got stuck behind traffic at 1st lights, so couldn't make right turn without waiting. Engine did the stop/start thing as a result. Initially, I thought tires were spinning (it was sub zero and we had precipitation earlier in day); then I realized what it was - engine restarting and taking moment to get moving.

Really liked the mirrors as we merged onto the freeway - nice position, no mirror in mirror reducing view. Nanny was there reminding me about other traffic but not obtrusive.

We turned off freeway onto gravel road to turn back.

Ranger turning radius is nothing to right home about - I'm not sure its as good as my F-150 (RCSB), certainly not as good as our Explorer Sport. For some reason, I want to fade left when I reversed in it...hmmm - seating position not square to truck - I know that was issue in a generation of Chev trucks.

On way back, I attempted a couple "passing maneuvers". Ranger at 90km/h (55mph) is running <1,400rpm, so did a think about it, downshift few gears, accelerate thing. By which time the driver in the other lane had closed the gap I was aiming for - not as bad as transmission in our '12 Escape, but not the masterful job done in my F-150 either.

The wife commented that the interior feels the same size as our '02 Explorer Sport (Ranger was SCrew). She liked the lower window sills - she feels claustrophobic in some the newer vehicles with high window sills/low roof lines.

All controls are at decent height on dash/console. There's some functions on F-150 that are so far down on dash, that at night I have to pull over to side of road to operate (lighting/pedal adjustment...) Controls on steering wheel were at limit on small - I have hands large enough to palm volleyball and I had to have pencil to operate those on Escape.

Overall, nice truck, but didn't say "drop $50k (Cdn) on me today".