NEW TOW VEHICLE Ford Ranger

[Joe Z]

Steve...... I've owned that truck (Ram 1500 quad cab) and foolishly sold it..... I liked it a lot and i think you will too.
Joe

[Mike Magee]

You'll have to wheel into that Ford lot with your new Ram, smile and wave.

[Ray N]

Steve, having owned and pulled with both a compact truck and a full sized one, I think you made the right choice. The comfort level, space for gear, and ease of towing will all be much higher. We were happy with our compact, but now that we've tried the full sized truck we will never go back. Eight to nine hour days in our compact were about all we could handle, now we don't think twice about twelve or thirteen hour days. The extra size will be intimidating at first if you've never owned one before, but you should soon get used to it. The only real disadvantage we've found is it is a little harder to reach things in the middle of the bed - and I'm a tall guy - a short person will probably need one of the built in steps that are available or carry around a stool to make it easy.

[floyd]

Originally Posted by Ray N

Steve, having owned and pulled with both a compact truck and a full sized one, I think you made the right choice. The comfort level, space for gear, and ease of towing will all be much higher. We were happy with our compact, but now that we've tried the full sized truck we will never go back. Eight to nine hour days in our compact were about all we could handle, now we don't think twice about twelve or thirteen hour days. The extra size will be intimidating at first if you've never owned one before, but you should soon get used to it. The only real disadvantage we've found is it is a little harder to reach things in the middle of the bed - and I'm a tall guy - a short person will probably need one of the built in steps that are available or carry around a stool to make it easy.

Ray N;
That is, of course, a valid personal preference, but I would sell my camper before subjecting myself to the chore of driving an oversized truck for pleasure. (I had a CDL or it's equivalent for nearly 40 years)
There are still smaller sized SUVs available which are comfy, capable and still somewhat of a pleasure to drive.
With a couple of mods, my Escape was capable of holding it's own on an open roadrace course against a 3 series BMW, and still do a great job towing my Scamp.
I love my Ranger,which has suspension improvements which make it's handling and ride more precise than when it was built.
Still there are those, like yourself, who prefer a soft and compliant ride,which only feels imprecise and uncertain to those like me.
There you have it, two divergent views of the same activity.

[Orlen Wolf]

Hey Steve

I also tow with a RAM 1500. It's a 2007 with about 85K on the clock now and has been the best tow vehicle I've had in the 40 years I've been dragging trailers around. I think you will love it.

[Greg Janke]

Ranger's a great truck and excellent TV. Like it? Buy it!

Greg

[floyd]

Originally Posted by Greg Janke

Ranger's a great truck and excellent TV. Like it? Buy it!

Greg

I just came back from my local Ford dealer. The salesman said they quit making the Ranger...No demand, couldn't sell'em, But we have a 5 year old 2wd Sport on the lot if you want to see it....only $16000
No demand?!?!
Go figger
So I made a phone call and did a little research. Turns out the Ranger was not
canceled for lack of sales. It was forced off the market by the new CAFE
standards which started this year.
Oh,It's not that 29MPG is not respectable for a truck, it is. The problem is
that the Ranger is not expensive enough to justify the federal fines which are
threshholded now at 35MPG. It is hardly possible to make a truck get 40MPG
highway which is what it would take to make 35MPG average.
Many if not most Rangers are bought as fleet vehicles and often as low
priced handy second cars for families everywhere. Ford hopes that it can avoid
some of the federal penalties by selling more of the smaller,and more expensive
vehicles for that market and pushing the rest into Fullsized trucks.
The fullsized trucks have huge profit margins and can carry their weight in
federal penalties.
This all adds up to mixed news for fiberglass trailer owners.
The larger trailers will benefit from the increased sales of oversized trucks,
while the smaller ones will suffer from the elimination of smaller affordable
vehicles with adequate tow capacity.
This also explains the loss of most other small trucks from soon to be former
full line auto companies.
Oh, I forgot to mention that the last Ranger off the line went to one of it's
largest customers...ORKIN corp.
Customers like Orkin, Com Ed, NI Gas, and Municipalities will now have to pay more at fleet
time....HHMMM.. wonder who will have to bear the cost.

[cpaharley2008]

There is a great demand and high prices right now for used vehicles, since the "Cash for Clunkers" removed about 50% of used vehicles, dealers are marking up any they can get a hold of. If you have a used vehicle, you can probably trade it in for a lot more than it is worth for a new car/truck.

[Radar1]

Originally Posted by floyd

I just came back from my local Ford dealer. The salesman said they quit making the Ranger...No demand, couldn't sell'em, But we have a 5 year old 2wd Sport on the lot if you want to see it....only $16000
No demand?!?!

New Ranger Supercabs with 4.0 engine and tow package are being advertised for less than $18,000 here in Atlanta. Won't be long before they're gone though.

[Raz]

Originally Posted by floyd

I just came back from my local Ford dealer. The salesman said they quit making the Ranger...No demand, couldn't sell'em, But we have a 5 year old 2wd Sport on the lot if you want to see it....only $16000
No demand?!?!
Go figger
So I made a phone call and did a little research. Turns out the Ranger was not
canceled for lack of sales. It was forced off the market by the new CAFE
standards which started this year.
Oh,It's not that 29MPG is not respectable for a truck, it is. The problem is
that the Ranger is not expensive enough to justify the federal fines which are
threshholded now at 35MPG. It is hardly possible to make a truck get 40MPG
highway which is what it would take to make 35MPG average.
Many if not most Rangers are bought as fleet vehicles and often as low
priced handy second cars for families everywhere. Ford hopes that it can avoid
some of the federal penalties by selling more of the smaller,and more expensive
vehicles for that market and pushing the rest into Fullsized trucks.
The fullsized trucks have huge profit margins and can carry their weight in
federal penalties.
This all adds up to mixed news for fiberglass trailer owners.
The larger trailers will benefit from the increased sales of oversized trucks,
while the smaller ones will suffer from the elimination of smaller affordable
vehicles with adequate tow capacity.
This also explains the loss of most other small trucks from soon to be former
full line auto companies.
Oh, I forgot to mention that the last Ranger off the line went to one of it's
largest customers...ORKIN corp.
Customers like Orkin, Com Ed, NI Gas, and Municipalities will now have to pay more at fleet
time....HHMMM.. wonder who will have to bear the cost.

Interesting, my understanding was to discontinue selling the Ranger here was a marketing decision. The new design was so close in size to the F150 the two would compete for the same buyers.

[GeorgeR]

Hi Steve,
Congratulation!

The intent of this post is not to be political, but just to reflect DC’s reality. There could be another background for the demise of the Ford Ranger in the US. In the typical sausage making process in DC, it is easy to slip in a little pill. For some it is very good, for some poisonous, but all perceive it as the best sausage based on circumstances. The new CAFE standard has a little poisonous pill, which could benefit vehicle manufacturers by increasing vehicles’ footprint. http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dl...111219975/1429 "The loophole is the formula for setting mile-per-gallon targets. The standards, which actually depend on the sizes of vehicles automakers produce, are expected to require that firms boost average fuel economy to 35.5 mpg by 2016 and 54.5 mpg by 2025. Those oft-cited numbers are averages. In reality, each car company must meet a different standard each year determined by the literal "footprints" of the vehicles it makes. A vehicle's footprint is its track width times its wheelbase."

Ford’s R&D and Marketing investment in F150 versus lack of investment in Ranger tends to support this footprint study. For Ford, it is a double whammy win, easier to meet new standards and better profit from larger vehicles.

There are many sausages made in DC, but my favored one is a good old Polish one.

George.

[Greg H]

Not funny but the last Ranger was built today in ST Paul, Mn. The death of the Ranger and the last Ranger was built for Orkin pest control and will be used to kill bugs.

[Herb Sutton]

The politicians never learn, You can't legislate technology, You have to engineer it.

Consumers are a provincial lot, if it is snowing in Yonkers, it must be snowing in Key West and San Diego too. They only started listing tow ratings about three years ago.

I expect we will see a lot of old SUVs and pickups around doing the towing.

[Byron Kinnaman]

Originally Posted by Herb Sutton

The politicians never learn, You can't legislate technology, You have to engineer it.

Consumers are a provincial lot, if it is snowing in Yonkers, it must be snowing in Key West and San Diego too. They only started listing tow ratings about three years ago.

I expect we will see a lot of old SUVs and pickups around doing the towing.

Listing or in owners manual (tow ratings)??

I think a car I had in 1974 had tow ratings in manual.

[Herb Sutton]

Originally Posted by Byron Kinnaman

Listing or in owners manual (tow ratings)??

I think a car I had in 1974 had tow ratings in manual.

I meant in Consumers Reports.

[GeorgeR]

Originally Posted by Herb Sutton

The politicians never learn, You can't legislate technology, You have to engineer it....................

I agree with the engineering part but disagree with the politicians learning, they continually learning how to stay in power. I hope this is sufficiently Politically Correct perspective.
George.

[john warren]

i love my 03 ranger, its my second and i loved the first one too.

will watch for a good used one if this one ever dies, has 100,000 and seems the same as when new,,,if you don't count muddy dog footprints.

ford is dropping ranger sales here and i think they may be making an error.
i don't want a full sized pickup or i wouldn't have gotten a ranger in the first place. so i will not be moving up to a f150. and as much as a love my ford, if they will not make what i want to buy, i'll buy used or somewhere else.<_<

[Doc Sarvis]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

There is a great demand and high prices right now for used vehicles, since the "Cash for Clunkers" removed about 50% of used vehicles, dealers are marking up any they can get a hold of. If you have a used vehicle, you can probably trade it in for a lot more than it is worth for a new car/truck.

Being one or those who does not believe everything I read on the Internet I looked up the actual figures. There are approximately 239 million passenger cars and trucks registered in the United States. Of these, 86.5 percent are more than two years old, which means there are approximately 206,735,000 used cars and trucks registered in the U.S. The Cash for Clunkers program removed 690,114 used cars from the road, which is about three-tenths of one percent of the used cars registered in the U.S. Where did you get your 50% figure?

Also, the phrase "you can probably trade it in for more than it is worth" is self- contradictory. A car is worth what you can get for it.

[itlives]

Originally Posted by Herb Sutton

I expect we will see a lot of old SUVs and pickups around doing the towing.

How's about my old pick up with a (soon to be) 1985 2.0L Ranger engine?
It will be mated to the VW tranny and get around 23-24 MPG towing and 25-26 not towing.

[gmw photos]

I thought of this thread when I went to the auto parts store today. Parts houses use a jillion of the little rangers as delivery trucks. When you see a vehicle in use in a lot of fleet type ops like, it's generally a pretty good sign it's a bullet proof daily runner. Nobody would know that better than auto parts houses !