Sand is just as bad as salt. in stead of salt eating at open metal, sand basically sandblasts the paint off the vehicles and then it rusts that way, and don't even go near gravel like what Calgary does. The longest I've seen a windshield last here has been about 6months to a year, and the gravel dents and chips the paint. Salt is the best option as it melts the ice and gets rid of most of it. And if you want to see rusty imports come to Calgary, anything 10 years or older is gaurenteed to have rust on it, and if it doesn't, chances are it came from the south. I dont' know how Toyota holds their value for so long, I see more Fords and GMs last longer then Toyotas and Hondas.
I had a ranger that I made mine, there was very little of it that actually came from the factory like how it was. I rolled it and wrote it off completly, I miss all the work I did to it. It wasn't the money or my time that I was bummed about, it was how much i miss what I made mine to exactly how I wanted. If you can afford both, i'd do it that way and get the Toyota, and keep the Ranger. But I wouldn't have sold my 1989 Ranger for a 1998 Toyota truck, even if it was a good deal. I have friends that say Toyota is the best and blah blah blah, but the truth in the matter is not that every company uses parts built by other companies, Ford has the Mazda transmissions in some. Toyota has some of their engines built by Yamaha, GM has some of their cars built by Toyota. Toyota also uses Kia transmission for some of their smaller automatics. The truth now is that there is no such thing as brand loyality now. and on todays standards, there is no one vehicle better then the other. I've seen hundreds of vehicles last 500 000km+ many of them Ford and GM trucks (GM built engines, not the smaller toyota engines thats are now commonly used). I wouldn't put toyota over Ford, but I wouldn't put Ford over Toyota. Also, yes, the parts for Imports are higher, sometimes not by much, but other times, you'll feel like the parts store is bending you over a table. Ford trucks are just as reliable as any other truck out there, I'd even put them above many of the rest for reliabliability as I see more abused harder and last longer then many other trucks. Most people don't realize that the average person spends about $1200 a year in repairs on their car, that sounds like a lot, but its only $100 a month, and $25/week. To spend money on repairs, its about the price of a cup of coffee a day. Just because you have to repair a vehicle with higer milage doesn't make it unreliable, it just means its getting old and work needs to be done to get it back up to date. Personally, I'd keep the Ranger as that is probably the best small truck on the roads, in my opinion, and I drive a lot of trucks. I've never been disapointed in a Ranger (aside from this one 2.3L carbed, 2wd and no p/s, but that was a stripper version, and was overly high milage with no repairs done when it should have been repaired). End Rant. I've had a pretty bad day today, and I'm easily irratible right now.
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