Far more beaten than “Charlie”, but same color and similar trim. Image from BidCars.
2009 was a very rough time for many people. For myself, it marked the end of my 10 years with Lowe’s. The send off was wonderful, with a gold watch, my 401k and a hearty “thank you”- nope not at all. Instead, I had to press to get my 401k released and was invited not to come back.
At the time, my wife Cindy was driving a ’98 Ford Expedition (a story for another day) and I could not find work. Desperate, I accepted a job doing flooring measurements for a Lowe’s installer and needed a work vehicle. My mechanic, Tim, had a well preserved 2001 Ranger XLT with the 2.3 and A/C. It had 188,000 miles and was owned by the president of a local Air Conditioner company. So I traded our Expedition for the Ranger and some mechanical work.
On use, I was immediately impressed with how crisp (for a truck) the vehicle shifted, with a clutch that felt perfect. Tim had replaced all those items just before I took it over. However, there was a curious glitch in the interior, with an ever-on airbag light. Tim explained that the seats came from a junkyard ’99 model and the connectors were not the same. Fine.
The very familiar ever-on airbag warning light…
Later, the check engine lit up one day, and I never addressed it. I used to joke with people that between the CE and airbag lights, I kept my hands warm during the winter.
Charlie, the name given the truck by my daughter, was pressed into service, hard service, right away. Living in Findlay, Ohio, my measurements took me up into lower Michigan and over to Sandusky; even out onto the Lake Erie islands. At one point, I was driving 1200 miles weekly to do installer measurements. One day, out of boredom, I counted how many times I pressed the clutch; 119 times!
Other than at the very end, the Ranger never left me stranded; it would go to Virginia Beach and back, and to Chicago and back! I was constantly on the Ohio turnpike; I drove it over dirt roads, through snow drifts, and one night I had to drive through a snowstorm to measure a bedroom for carpet. Not one issue. Ford had really built a solid truck and I was very impressed.
After three years and the accrued mileage, my beloved Charlie was very tired. One day, I was out in the country measuring for a really nice customer, when I walked out to see all of the truck’s antifreeze spilled on his new concrete driveway. I asked the client for a bucket that I could use to rinse everything down, which he kindly provided. Then, he what I was going to do. Not wanting to look embarrassed I told him I could limp Charlie back into town and have a mechanic troubleshoot the problem.
However, just as I drove away and found myself between two very tall cornfields, all the gauges maxed out and I shut down the engine. I coasted into a farmer’s lane and contemplated what to do next. I called into the office to get all my other measurement jobs reassigned, then called Mrs. Chip. As divine fate would have it, she was at AAA renewing our coverage. It went into use immediately; so I put in for a tow and waited for less than an hour.
Hopefully, this one hasn’t been overheated.
As I rode the 60 miles home in the tow truck, I thought about my next steps. Was Charlie worth a replacement engine? Sure. I mean, the odometer reading was 138,000 (I assume he meant to write 238,000 – ED) at this point and everything still worked. Then again, all that truck ever required, ever, was a battery. That’s it. Or so I thought.
The final outcome was this: I gave the truck back to Tim to scope out how bad things were. It turns out that Ford had no blame in this, nor did I. Tim found out that his son had driven the Ranger for a few weeks before I bought it, and he’d overheated that poor little 2.3. Now, a replacement engine was needed. But it was going to take at least a week to sort everything out. I then traded the Ranger with Tim to get repairs on our family’s ‘91 Buick Park Avenue (acquired in the meantime) and started a search for another work vehicle. Again, that’s for another time.
So thank you Tom, for mentioning that the little Ranger hasn’t had any love here. I’d own another in a minute. It was simply the most reliable vehicle we’ve owned. Ford had a great hit on their hands. It’s really sad to see this ocean of recalls and vehicle failures in 2025.
The original iterations on the American designed Ranger were all excellent, even if you could pinch pennies and option them with exactly zero horsepower. They tended to be able to limp along no matter how much abuse you threw their way.
Just yesterday, I was helping my roommate fix some worrying / dangerous issues in his Ranger. Some vacuum lines and a fuel pressure regulator later, it’s no longer trying as hard to kill its driver. For the most part everything has been easy to work on and straightforward.
I had my 1986 Ranger from new until 1995. No breakdowns and only a few minor repairs, though a couple more than some of our newer cars; still very good for that era. There are two of those first gen Rangers almost identical to mine that I see in our neighborhood still going strong. Hard to believe that they are almost 40 years old. As for the “newer” Rangers like Chip’s, they’re everywhere. A true American classic. I’m glad it served you well.
Thanks for the tale Chip. A very accurate account of these perfectly sized pickups. I was lucky enough to have a 2000 Club Cab version with a V6 and automatic in my company fleet in 2005 to 2013. Initially a salesman’s rig, it was turned over to the warehouse for deliveries. Overloaded with a pallet of shingles (2800 lbs) or two it was slow, but reliable. Gifted to our warehouse manager by my boss when he lost everything after Hurricane Sandy it continued giving faithful service for 3-4 more years.
I had the same truck bought new in 01 for $11,700. I drove it for 10 years until the frame rotted out. Reliable with great mileage I still miss it.
Chip, at that time I lived down the road in Lima. I had bought a 03 Regal to drive back and forth to Celina everyday. You could have used the Park Ave to do the measurements. 3.8L engines ran forever, 32 MPG, nice comfortable ride. A careless backhoe driver took out my Regal while it was parked. I had 367,000 miles and going strong when that happened. Broke my heart.
ah good ole Lima! The tank capital!!
I did use that 93 Park Avenue for running details until it simply would not run.
So what took place at some 183,000 miles was that I would start the faithful 3800 only to have it stall over and over. I took it to my mechanic in Findlay and Carl and 3 of his mechanics did everything possible to figure out the issues. They were using online help, replaced injectors, CPU, coil packs, you name it.
He reached out to a friend who was also the shop teacher at Findlay HS. He and his 3 mechanics jumped in to help, but to no avail. Carl pulled out the parts that didn’t fix the issue and got the old thing warmed enough to get it to the local Ford store, where I traded it in.(I wrote a CC about this)
Carl got a phone call asking if I still owned the car. He wanted it because “in 15 years I’ve never returned a car that came in with the same issues I gave it back with.” After Carl told him the story, he called the Ford store and offered to buy it for $1000. They declined. He told them that the car didn’t run, which was met with a salesman’s argument. He challenged that person to go try to start the car and to call back. The salesman did and was astonished that in fact, it would not stay running. “We have ASC mechanics here” to which this other man supposedly said “big deal. I’m ASC certified too and could not fix that car!”
it was wholesaled, and after my doing some detective work that would have pleased even Jim Rockford, found out that the car was sold and brought back on a flatbed with an angry customer demanding their money back! I saw that car at a Columbus Buy Here Pay Here lot for about 4 months before it “went away.”
I was one of my favorite car which you’ll see when you read the CC.
Not a Ford guy here but it’s hard to argue with how well and long these things ran. Grandpa had one from 2005 until he died in 2014. No problems.
Id happily be a customer to ANY auto maker that could build something this reliable today.
I bought a new Ranger in 1995. Somewhere around 2000, I sold it to a coworker with 60k on the clock. He drove it until the odometer said 288k and then sold it for $600. Solid trucks.
Not sure of all the differences but the Mazda based Ford Rangers we had here were a bloody good ute Turbo diesels were the best version Ford actually deleted the big gas option rngine as it didnt stack up well against the TDI version awful ride but really hard to kill.
I bought my 96 Ranger in 97 and kept it 23 years, because it was the most reliable vehicle I have ever owned. I used to joke that it was the wasn’t just the most dependable vehicle, it was the most dependable THING in my life, and that included my ex-wife.