This is a story about a relationship that began and ended with shouting.
“What are you doing now?” my mother shouted, poking me in the chest through my greasy coveralls. “You have a real job, get a real car!” Mom was right; my yearlong experiment with a high mile RX7 wasn’t that successful. It looked great and was fun to drive, but it required constant attention. I was supposed to be spending my free time on my wretched Triumph TR4 project and didn’t need another distraction.
Recalling my Uncle’s parts chasing pickup, I decided that a Ford Ranger was a suitable replacement. After the usual pre-internet newspaper and magazine search I wound up with a silver 1988 short box, with a 5-speed, 2.0 liter four, and ridiculously low miles. The previous owner had bought it as a cosmetic write-off, then repaired and repainted it over several years of free time.
Originally a zero option truck, he had partially upgraded to an XLT interior so although it had a rubber floor mat, it also had nice door panels, cloth bench seat and a radio. Beyond that it was dead nuts simple. Manual steering, manual brakes, no A/C, no power anything.
I was proud as can be of this, my first serious vehicle that I hadn’t cobbled together from others’ castoffs and it was dubbed The Wee Truck.
Driving The Wee Truck took a firm hand on the tiller. The unbelievably heavy armstrong steering was about 6 turns lock to lock, and the unassisted disc brakes took a firm shove on the pedal.
A first time driver of The Wee Truck had to take a short tutorial to avoid immediately careening into oncoming traffic. The uninitiated would approach a turn by placing their foot lightly on the brake and turning the wheel a quarter turn, which would result in the Ranger continuing in a straight line at unchecked speed followed by frantic wheel wrenching, pedal mashing and a string of curses.
My Girlfriend (later Wife) and I had many great adventures with The Wee Truck.
It was just the thing for a young active couple. The short box was never an issue; it accepted camping gear, bicycles, home renovation supplies and garbage.
The camping trip shown above was memorable because The Wee Truck’s battery died, and we had to push start it everywhere we went. When we got home I put in an oversized premium DieHard battery so it wouldn’t happen again. (Remember this, it becomes significant later).
The Wee Truck carried many and varied loads. In addition to this Honda 450, we helped move friends, and moved ourselves a couple of times.
One winter we lived in an old rented house where 100% of the front yard was driveway, I used to shovel the snow into the wee truck and haul it to a nearby park. Once I bought a yard of loose topsoil, and the backhoe operator heaped the entire bed to overflowing. I swear the front wheels were dangling above the ground on the trip home, it really lightened up the steering effort but didn’t do much for the brakes.
All in all The Wee Truck was great. It didn’t cost much to run, there was almost nothing to break and unlike the RX7 the heater worked spectacularly. There was only one thing I disliked about it:
Behold the mighty 73hp 2.0. The Wee Truck was the slowest gasoline powered vehicle I have ever driven before or since. Slower than my 40hp VW, so slow that a trip over Hamilton’s Skyway Bridge necessitated downshifting into fourth, then to third, and chuffing up in the slow lane at 60 km/hr.
Ontario has emissions testing every two years, and on these occasions that Aisan two barrel carburetor became the scourge of my existence. Two tests were done; one at idle, and one at 40 km/hr.
The Wee Truck had never idled well, and at 40km/hr it lurched and stumbled. Every two years I rebuilt the carburetor so it would run a little better, and every two years it would barely squeak out a pass, with unburned hydrocarbons right on the limit.
Despite my biennial carburetor annoyance the Ranger was otherwise highly reliable, with only a single noteworthy failure. One sunny afternoon at the park I returned to The Wee Truck and started it up to go home. Something didn’t sound right, so I shut it off to find that the engine was still cranking. The starter solenoid had jammed, and the entire electrical contents of my oversized premium DieHard battery were being fed to the starter motor in a single meal.
Because I never carried tools in the Ranger, all I could do was pound on the solenoid with my shoe, which didn’t help. I stood back and watched as the starter ground on and on, and the wisp of smoke from under the hood became a column. Amazingly nothing caught fire or exploded, and I returned later with a pair of pliers, disconnected the solenoid, push started the wee truck and drove home.
When my son was born in 2000 things didn’t change much, in fact he enjoyed playing in the truck bed. The whole family still fit in the Ranger, although with the infant car seat installed only first, third and fifth gears were available.
However, two events were about to change my relationship with The Wee Truck;
The first was when I got a new job. It was for a tier one automotive supplier, and a big step up in responsibility for me. Guess which vehicle belongs to the company owner.
The commute was over an hour each way. I should have expected this, but The Wee Truck responded to being driven three times as far by wearing out and breaking three times as fast. Truck maintenance became a series of late night and weekend thrashes so I could continue to get to work.
The other was that Mrs DougD became pregnant again. One day I was pulled out of a meeting at work and told that my very pregnant Wife had fallen and I was to meet her immediately at the hospital. How my foot tried to push the gas pedal through the floor as I wrung the truck out on the highway. The trip still took an agonizing hour, the Ranger just couldn’t go any faster.
The Ranger bounded into the parking lot, I bounded into the maternity ward to find that the baby had been turned upside down by the fall, but Wife and child were not in immediate danger. Luckily baby turned herself back in time to be born healthy two days later, but I looked at The Wee Truck in a different light after that.
In the spring of 2003 I had a lot on my shoulders. The family stress of a toddler and a new baby, a long commute and a demanding job when I needed to be home more. Work was a disaster, the pressure of the auto industry was far greater than I had imagined, and some nights I didn’t come home; I even slept on my office floor. The company was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, and tempers flared as the project managers fought each other for scant resources.
The Wee Truck needed a ton of work. It was running worse than ever, the emissions testing deadline was looming and I had no time. One wet snowy morning it absolutely refused to start, and I snapped. I shouted “That’s it, you’re fired!”, stormed back into the house and made a call to my father in law, the Ford Sales Associate. Two days later a lightly used Focus ZTS was in the driveway.
The Ranger languished in the snow, and once the weather warmed up and it would run again I sold it for little more than the value of its rust free bed and fibreglass cap.
A ten year relationship and it ended with shouting. At the time I felt The Wee Truck had let me down, but I probably let it down too. If I’d had more time or spent a bit more money I could have kept it going for a while longer, or at least made a more graceful transition. But it was for the best, I have a better job now, family life is great, and I’ve had a ten year relationship with the Focus.
With no shouting…
I had a 92 Green ranger 3.0L V-6. I loved that truck. Also like you, kids and job at the time demanded a different rig. Now four kids later,….you get the picture. These rangers are found very easily on C/L all the time. great little haulers!!
I know the feeling. Even after all the trouble it gave you at the end, you still feel like you let one of your buddies down. That’s when you know you’re a hard-core car guy.
Really enjoyable & well-written posting dougd!
It puzzles me however why these smaller pickups disappeared from the market. Power problems with this one aside, they would still seem to be a very practical choice for those who want/need a pickup but really don’t need the capacity and fuel consumption and parking headaches of a full-sized truck, especially in a city.
I ran across a nice Mazda B2200 a few weeks ago (posted on Cohort) and it struck me that the market seems to have forgotten about this likely sizeable niche.
I was working as a sales rep for a Ford Dealer in 1984. We ran a special on the base Ranger for $5995 plus tax, tag & title. This had no options not even a back bumper. They sold by the truck load!! Young kids first car, extra vehicle to have around the house, light duty work truck ect. I think we need a no frills cheap small truck today. Are we as a nation “too good” to dive bare bones transportation? Comments please.
We’re a nation where safety regulations have made it impossible to sell bare bones transportation. I think we’re at the point where it would be pretty much impossible to sell a truck for much less than maybe $13-14K, even a very very basic one.
If it weren’t for stringent safety/emissions requirements, I’m sure somebody like Mahindra, Tata, or Great Wall would love to sell a truck that meets those criteria here.
(Not attempting a value judgment on whether those regulations are a good thing, but their existence is a big factor.)
It’s possible the safety content, if widely-enough used, might come down in cost, like commodity computer hardware. Otherwise, I think the price increases are better explained by inflation.
Circumstantial evidence: Notice how supermarket package size is decreasing lately? For example, ice cream used to be ½ gallons; now, it’s 1½ pints. Apparently customers would rather buy less than pay more.
Nissan did sell the Versa for $10K there for a while and I think you can still get one for $12K or so. On a strict variable cost comparison it costs less to build a RWD BOF vehicle than a FWD unibody. So if people were to buy enough of them to amortize the costs efficiently someone could offer a mini truck for that price.
$5995 in 1984 translates to $13,726 in today’s terms. I have no doubt an major manufacturer could make a bare bones small pick up for that. The problem is would there really be a market for it.
I am glad that we have safety regulations. I drove in some deathtraps in Asia and saw some pretty horrific crashes. No thanks.
Quite apart from safety regs, there’s too little profit in Bare Bones: look what happened to the 2CV: there was continuing demand for it, but Citroën kept trying to replace it with more modern models. And my Exhibit B is the Tata Nano.
Today the bulk of carbuyers seem to expect standard luxury, “All the Fruit” as the Aussies call it. Stoicism is a minority dissenting position; Epicureanism rules.
Firm believer in “stripper” vehicles here. They represent the greatest automotive value–save buying used of course. Easy credit and 5 year loans have encouraged (and enabled) buyers (at least in USA) to go more upscale with their cars (and far too many other gizmos as well, but that is for a different discussion).
Being “Jack Benny frugal” led me to purchase a new 2011 Kia Forte LX. I will never forget when my 11 year old son got his first ride in it. He wanted to roll down his window. He inspected the door and asked “Where’s the button Daddy?” “There’s not button there son, turn the crank!”
–Even though my car was almost the cheapest of the cheap available at that time ($14.5k), with manual trans, windows,and locks, it is equipped with Bluetooth, satellite radio, a console with two cupholders, full wheel covers (even though I like dog-dish caps) nice cold AC, intermittent wipers, and a few airbags. It’s amazing how today’s “Stripper” would have been considered “Loaded” just a decade or two ago.
Agreed. I bought a stripper Sedona. Front and rear air, power windows and locks powered bya strong V6 and a 6 speed auto. Everything you need, nothing you dont.
They disappeared because people quit buying less than full size trucks in significant numbers. At one point the Ranger was solidly in the top 10 selling vehicles in the US. However peak mini truck was 1999 and other than some blips here and there sales of every small pickup dropped from there. Eventually the sales numbers got to small for it to be worth the while for every mfg to spend money updating them let alone a serious redesign. At his point the total less than full size market is only about 200K per year, not enough for more than a couple of players to have the potential to make a profit selling them. What is on the market now is only profitable because they haven’t spent any money updating or doing a new design.
In the not too distant past, I owned a 4 cylinder/auto compactl pickup. It had a choppy ride, was slow, noisy, uncomfortable, and returned about 22mpg on average.
During the same period,my employer provided a 2008 Ford F150 extra cab with 6 ft bed, 4.6 Triton V8 for a project I was heading up.
The Ford was vastly more comfortable, quieter, more powerful, larger, and returned about 21 mpg.
The purchase price for compact pickups is not much lower than a full size pickup, and the fuel consumption isn’t much better either. I will never own another compact pickup–the value proposition just isn’t there!
I had a Ranger, a 90 2.9, 5sp, 4×4 and I thought that the ride was good for what it was and it had enough power to get the job done, however it was cramped. Once a kid came around it quickly went away. As mentioned in the article with an infant car seat in the middle you were stuck with only being able to use 1, 3, 5. With it on the outboard position my wife was miserable traveling for any distance. It got traded in on a 92 Crown Victoria and I picked up a beater 79 F250 for truck duty. The Ranger returned 19 mpg in regular driving and 24 mpg on trips, while the Crown Vic got 20 mpg in daily driving and 26.5 on trips. The F250 mpg was in the single digits but I could carry in one trip what could take two in the Ranger.
I do still drive a mini truck though, a decedent of the first mini pickup in the US, a Scout II. It is cramped (while my Scout II with the Traveltop isn’t) and yeah it rides like crap, is very noisy and only manages 13-14 mpg, It redeems itself by being able to pop the top off in about 5 min and by being very capable. It has almost 1 ton of payload so it actually can haul a lot of weight if not volume.
With cars readily available in all sizes and prices from the Nissan Micra ($9998 in Canada) to the Audi A8 ($83 900), and annual pickup sales running at about 2 500 000 units in North America, you’d think there’d be room for at least one model that was a little more compact, ‘basic’, and fuel efficient though.
Sooner or later, someone will figure it out. And odds are it won’t be a domestic manufacturer.
Have we seen this movie before? 🙂
Nice story.
I didn’t know the Ranger could be had with a 2L. The story says it was underpowered; I wonder if one got better mileage vs. the [US] Pinto engine?
Too bad the market for “baby” pickups like this dried up.
I wondered about that too. Was that a Canadian market thing only? I didn’t know there even was a 2.0 L version of the Lima engine. The previous 2.0 was an import from Germany, but that ended quite some years earlier.
Doug, are you sure it was a 2.0 and not a 2.3? Inquiring minds want to know; this is one of life’s more important questions. 🙂
The 2.0 was available in the US, they didn’t sell all that well but they did sell some.
The picture of the carb and air cleaner positively identifies it as a 2.0 as the 2.3 used the Motorcraft/Holley/Weber carb similar to the one used on the Pinto.
I recall rebuilding a one barrel Holley (marked Motorcraft) on an early 2.3 Ranger. It was CA emissions. Gutless was only the first of many complaints about that truck.
By 1988 the 2.3 had fuel injection, as my 2.9 V-6 powered one did. EPA figures show the 2.3 got 2 mpg better than the 2.0.
Getting a carb’d 1980’s vehicle to pass biennial smog checks in California is quite a challenge as well. Our 1986 Dodge Ram Van needs the timing backed way off to pass.
Got it…had forgotten about the continued availability of a 2.0 for so long. Must have been quite rare.
Yes they were rare. They did not share much with the 2.0 at least not nearly as much as you would think. The head was significantly redesigned and they did a poor job of it too. That meant that they were prone to cracking. Because of that and their meager sales it was impossible to find a good head. So someone made an adapter so you could fit a 2.3 head on there and use the 2.0 intake as the two heads had different intake ports. The outers on the 2.3 were oval and on the 2.0 they were round.
The 2.0 used in this era Ranger was based on the 2.3 used in the Ranger and Pinto.
Yup, it was definitely a 2.0 because it was hard to get engine parts for it, I always had to get my carb rebuild kit from Ford.
I think this might have been the last carbureted vehicle sold by Ford in Canada, I think in 88 every other available Ranger motor was injected, even the 2.3
The carb was a horrible design, it had so many vacuum diaphragms and emissions doodads on it I often considered replacing it with a carb off some older Toyota, but the regular emissions test and the fact that I needed to drive it every day put me off trying.
I also had a ’92 (V6, automatic, 2wd, short bed). I liked everything about it but its absence of power. It could barely keep up with freeway traffic in Houston. 75mph was a real feat for the truck but I could see no reason why other than it was just puny. BTW, it passed emissions with no problems.
I got so many requests to buy the truck in the two years I owned it I finally gave in and sold it to a construction worker for his personal ride. I got what I paid for it two years earlier so except for gas, routine maintenance, and insurance it was a free, if under-powered ride.
Since then I’ve acquired a 1992 Jeep Comanche (4.0 six, automatic, 2wd, long bed). Compared to the Ranger the Comanche hauls a$$ – buries the speedometer needle (at 85) with ease.
A Ranger that looked very much like this was on the periphery of a good chunk of my childhood. When I joined the Boy Scouts, the Scoutmaster of the troop had a first-series Ranger, in silver, very close to this one except for it had the “chrome” accented grille and a long bed, and was *I think* an ’86. Basic in every other respect, painted bumpers, 4 cylinder, no A/C and a very basic interior (but in red vinyl!). The next year his son went off to college and he relinquished the lead post, but continued to be involved, and the silver Ranger was a fixture on every camping trip, hauling as much gear as could be loaded into it and doing an admirable job of keeping up. He wasn’t a talkative fellow and often drove solo, as he could only take one passenger anyway, but eventually I ended up in the passenger seat of the Ranger coming home from a trip to the mountains, and found out that he was actually a really interesting guy–he spent quite a while telling me stories of the hot-rodded ’58 Ford he drove in college and in his twenties (this would have been mid 60’s to early 70’s).
By the time I finished up with Scouting in the mid 90’s, he still drove that little silver Ranger. I haven’t seen him since but my father recently ran into him in my hometown, and he was still involved with the boy scouts despite being over 70 himself. I wonder if he still drives the Ranger? Seemed like the kind of guy who appreciated simple, reliable machinery, so it wouldn’t surprise me too much.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: there is something special about a truck that makes people include them as part of the family. People tell stories of long lost trucks the way they would talk about a long lost relative or friend. That just doesn’t happen for a sedan.
Depends on the sedan. When I was young my dad bought a brand new 1969 Checker Marathon. So many fond memories of that car.
A truly unique experience. You should share if sometime if you have not already.
Can I just say that this tiny truck with it’s entirely black fascia, bumper, mirrors & door handles looks more masculine than the current chromed-out offerings? It’s beautiful. I want one to outfit with a modern 4-cyl diesel engine so I can finally have what Mahindra was unable to sell to me.
We have Mahindras I saw one last week we also have Fotons, and Great Walls, Ive no idea if they are any good but they are much cheaper than the Japanese/Thai offerings and have long warranties.
Been wondering about that myself- Mahindra had a bad name when they first came in to Oz, but Great Walls are everywhere now. The one or two people I’ve spoken to about them seemed pretty positive. Foton- haven’t heard anything positive or negative.
ATM I would probably still go Japanese or Thai, with Great Wall a possibility .
I agree that Great Wall will eventually catch up. You’re right about seeing a lot of them around.
The local farm supply runs a Great Wall. Only one around here, though.
Loads of Great Walls and Fotons here – living in a rural town a lot of farmers are buying them. Most are as ridiculously tall as the current Hilux/Ranger/Navara though. The local Mahindra dealer is about 200 metres from my house, but sales seem a little slow on the uptake, as I ‘ve yet to see many on the road. They are much more heavy-duty than the Great Wall et al though.
This brings back some memories. My Dad was looking for a replacement for his crusty ’81 Monte Carlo when he happened on a classified ad for one of these Rangers. It was only a few years old and had something like 40km on it, and was apparently in cherry condition. The old man turned in down, so I had to ask what went wrong. He test drove it in town, and despite shifting gears like Stirling Moss, he complained that the city bus outran him at the traffic lights. The M/C with its tired 267 cu.in, must have been some kind of rocket car in comparison.
Im glad SOMEONE had a good experience with a Ranger. After wrecking my pristine ’81 CJ-7 Laredo, I got downgraded to a ’87 Ranger (2wd, 2.9 v6, 5spd reg cab shortbed) and I absolutely hated it! It wasn’t unreliable or anything, but just very mundane and lacking in character. Drove like the economy truck it was and my 6’1 large frame didn’t really fit well in a singlecab minitruck. I wasn’t into the lowered minitruck fad ever, and that was fading out in ’94 anyway. Definitely a dark year in the life of a gearhead….
Yes, the Ranger was lacking in character, but at that point every previous vehicle I’d owned had so much character that it was just a relief to drive something that started every time I turned the key.
I bought a new ’88 Ranger XLT V6 5 speed long bed to use as my driver for my job that took me all over the state. It was black with red velour and aluminum wheels. I loved that truck. I could haul lots of stuff in it and I thought it ran pretty good. When it was about 3 years old I rear ended an ’82 Olds 98, my drivers front to his passenger rear. That Olds folded up in the quarter and trunk. I had a broken grill and bent fender and bumper, but drove it away. A couple of years after that I had a violent transmission failure and had to find a used trans for it. I found this wasn’t easy as the V6 trans was prone to fail. It was also a real pain in the rear to get the trans out. I talked to someone at the Ford dealership and was told that the mechanics would all try to get out of doing that job. I had the same difficulty when changing the clutch on its successor ’95 Ranger. That’s when I changed to a Dakota. Anyway, that ’88 soldiered on until I gave it to my youngest daughter to drive in high school at 216k miles. She put another 10K on it in the next two years before getting a car to drive to college. I sold it to my nephew and he drove it for a year before passing it on to someone else. It was a great truck and I never thought it was underpowered. My ’95 had the same drivetrain and was a short bed, but I even hauled a full UHaul trailer with 3 adults in the cab and a bed full of my oldest daughter’s household items from Los Angeles to Indiana with only one time feeling a mountain was a bit too steep, but that is another story for another time.
Lots of these in the high school parking lot growing up (1995 graduate) the one I remember was passed around a family with 8 boys and 1 girl. It was an extended cab, short box, 4×4. Beat hard, put away wet, kept going.
The girl was in my class, had muscles honed by bailing hay that put most of the male athletes to shame.
A Ranger made my short list when I considered a new car around ’85. A very popular choice for my age group (about 20). Kind of wish I’d done it, I got my first truck last year and have been surprised how much it has really impacted my lifestyle for the positive. It is a shame that Ranger size vehicles no longer sell well. Sort of surprising with fuel prices what they are.
Hear lot of discussion about this size truck and how they are overwhelmed by the size and economy of the F150 and others. I must say, however, that if they still made a simple, dependable, and economical truck for a good price – I would buy new again. Every time I buy one for comfort and forget that formula I have to pay for it.
A couple of Ranger stories:
1) My old supervisor in Philadelphia had a mid 90’s Ranger (4×4) regular cab in pristine condition. I commented on how well he kept that truck (I used to detail cars and still occasional detail for some people). He pulled me over to the truck and asked if I could tell if anything was amiss. The speedometer was in Kilometers and the truck sported heavy duty dual shocks per side. Turns out the truck was supposed to be destined for the South American market and somehow ended up in a South Philadelphia dealership. My supervisor saw the truck in the dealership, knew the difference (being a gear head himself) and bought it on sight. There must have been some chicanery in getting it registered in the States, but somehow he did.
2) I had a 1997 2.3L 5 speed regular cab Ranger that I bought from a neighbor. I instantly detailed it, bought Factory Ford alloy wheels off of eBay, stainless steel cleats for the bed, and rolled on a bed liner. I used that truck for years and would up selling it for the same cost I purchased it for. I regret selling it to this day.
3)My father-in-law has been a volunteer for a local community carnival for over 30 years. The carnival always has a raffle for a new car every year (all expenses paid including taxes) and one year they were raffling a new reg. cab Ranger(auto/ 2.3Duratec /Sirius radio). He won that and it is his prize possession.
Awesome story. I’ve never understood why compact trucks are not being offered in the USA as much as they were 40-30 yrs ago. Although full-sized trucks are good for full-sized tasks, not everyone needs, or even wants a full-sized truck. Sometimes a small truck is just fine for the job.
Here is a factor in the death of the compact truck that everyone seems to miss…
In the heyday of the mini-truck, such trucks were a viable alternative – in terms of both price and MPG – to an economy car. To wit, a 1985 Corolla and Pickup were within shouting distance of each other in price and fuel economy.. That made the Pickup a viable alternative for young singles, and also the two-car family.
In 2014, a basic Corolla costs far less than a comparably-equipped Tacoma and delivers 50%++ better mpg. The compact truck is no longer a viable alternative.
Is it? A car is fine, but sometimes you need a bed to carry more than what a simple trunk (boot) can carry.
I hope Toyota never discontinues the Tacoma.
2014 Corolla L (Cheapest) $16,800
2014 Tacoma (Cheapest) $18,125
That is within shouting distance in my book, and not that much more than pure inflation would price them compared to 1988 models. Considering additional safety and other features, probably a bargain compared to 1988.
2014 F-150 (Cheapest) $24,735, a huge jump from $18,125
When our neighbors moved in they had a little square Ranger pickup like that, in two-tone brick red and off-white. It had an exhaust leak that made it sound like an airplane coming up the driveway. I think it’s still sitting behind his father-in-law’s shop a mile or so from here, with leaves and blackened fir pollen all over it.
I still see quite a few Ranger trucks around here. I remember when the newer more rounded body style came out being amazed at what small wheels and tires the base models had, made to look even more diminutive by the wheel cutouts that were large enough for the 4×4 versions.
I had the same thing happen with the starter on my 71 Vega. I had no tools so I pulled off my shoe and used my sock to try to protect my hand as I pulled on the battery cable. Still burned my fingers, finally grabbed one end of the sock with both hands and the cable pulled out of the end of the terminal. It worked fine after it was reconnected and never happened again. It sounds like the 2.0 engine was the same as in the family’s 72 Pinto. In that light car it had good power, but I imagine the gearing and extra weight and emissions were too much for that engine. 10 years is a good amount of time for the truck to serve you. I wonder if because it was running rich it had a plugged converter. That will really cut power.
No the Ranger 2.0 was based on the US built Lima 2.3 while the Pinto had the German built 2.0 though the Lima engine shares a lot of the basic architecture of the German 2.0.
Speaking of gearing the base 4cyl 5sp Rangers got 4.11 gears in many years despite having the tiny 14″ tires. Can’t say I’ve driven one so equipped but I imagine that the engine is screaming at freeway speeds.
Guess that explains why those engine have head cracking and other issues. If Wikipeda is accurate, in 72 with the Pinto it was 86 HP. Probably head modifications were needed for emission requirements. Interesting the engine is different.
Two Ranger stories:
Back in the early 90’s my father in law had a Toyota pick up he loved, but it was totaled in an accident that nearly totaled him. Oddly, for as big of a Toyota lover that he was, he replaced his Yota with a Ranger. (Eventually he replaced all of his Toyotas with Fords.) IIRC, it was a very early one, an 82 or 83, much the same spec as DougD’s ride, no options other than a radio and heater. I think he loved that Ranger even more than he did the Toyota. One day he was bringing us some furniture (we lived about 12 miles apart back then) but didn’t show up when he said he would be here. Turns out the truck caught fire and burned to the ground, along with all of the furniture we were supposed to get!
Long story short, he was in the habit of parking the truck underneath the Georgia yellow pines behind his house. It seems that a bunch of pine straw (dead needles) got into the heater plenum and eventually near the motor; once the heater motor got bogged down with enough pine straw it overheated. The remaining pine straw in the plastic plenum caught fire and the truck was toast…
My brother in law bought a used Orkin (pesticide service company in the US) Ranger in the mid 1990’s, and not unlike DougD’s truck’s original owner, took a year or so to repaint and re-fit the truck with a nicer interior. I think it had over 200K miles when he bought it, it ran really well for the remainder of the time he owned it. One time me, my BIL and FIL all got in the cab of the truck to go somewhere nearby, but with all of us being near 240 lbs and 6’0″ tall, it was a verrrry uncomfortable ride. Good thing it was only 20 minutes or so. Also, with the 2.3 Lima in there, it was a rather slow ride, too.
We had a town dump in our city in Georgia, I would borrow the truck for the annual “clean up the city” day where you dump just about anything for free. One year my BIL and got together and decided to make one trip to the dump rather than each of us waiting in line for an hour to get in and out. We loaded up that little Ranger with all kinds of trash. I’m pretty sure the front wheels were off of the ground at times, and thankfully the dump was only six miles away. I don’t think we ever got out of second gear!
When I finally bought my own pickup, I considered a Ranger and an S-10; but I already had kids at that time, so I went with an extended cab Dakota. That was a great truck, but my kids grew way faster than I anticipated and we were out of room in no time.
I agree with other folks here, even though you can buy a full sized pickup relatively inexpensively, I think a successor to the VW Pickup or the Dodge Rampage would sell well. There are folks like me who would like a little pickup and who don’t have the space for yet another vehicle. Now that I’m an empty-nester this would make a great little vehicle to have.
I see an opening in all of these Euro-vans coming to the US market from Ford and Fiat; I think once there’s enough experience with them that some company here will be brave enough to offer one of the Mexican- or South American-style mini FWD pickups…
When I was a boy, my stepdad had two compact pickup trucks. He had a 1975 Datsun, and then later, a 1978 Toyota pickup. While I don’t remember the Datsun, I do remember quite well the Toyota. We used it for everything from skiing to camping, to just about everything you would think one could use a compact truck for. While small trucks may not be for everyone, I believe that people today would want a compact truck more than that of a full-sized pickup truck. Full-sized trucks are fine if you need a full-sized truck, say for towing a 25 ft 4,000+ lbs travel trailer, etc. But for smaller, lighter duty work, a small truck is perfect for the job. I loved that Toyota truck, I miss that Toyota truck.
The 2 liter engines were from Argentina . I had the opportunity to drive my brothers Ranger with that engine, and yes it did feel underpowered and noisey.
Great pic of the Burlington Bridge. That angle made me recall when the bridge was just the one on the right, for both directions of traffic.
I’ll have to tell you about the crash I was in on the other end of that bridge some day.