From the August 1994 issue of Car and Driver.
Every time we test a pickup truck, a dozen letters turn up like this one: “Hey, dudes, I thought you were Car and Driver, not Truck and Driver!”
So, while we have a moment here, let’s answer your soon-to-arrive screeches about this story:
Like it or not, dudes, trucks are the fastest-growing segment of the auto market. In 1993, three of the four best-selling vehicles were pickups. The Ford F-Series took the top spot, with the big Chevy C/K trucks following not far behind. The new Ranger, the subject of this long-term test, came in fourth, selling more than 350,000 copies—that’s one of every 40 vehicles sold last year.
Cars and trucks are a lot like dogs. Cars are the purebreds, all nice and civilized and offering cozy comforts, like air conditioning and a lounge-car ride, and no banging of heads on the headliner. Trucks are the mutts—they’re inexpensive, wily, game for anything. And they love to roughhouse. The sales stats are evidence that a lot of people prefer mutts. The Ranger seemed an obvious choice for us to test because it was, at the time, the newest of the litter.
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We returned our first Ranger after only 5000 miles because it was too much of a mutt, which is to say it didn’t even have an air conditioner. What it did have was a howl emanating from the driver’s side of the windshield due to an air leak. So we exchanged it in April for the pick of the litter, a $20,771 Ford Ranger XLT.
This truck had some purebred features. The stereo was above average, there was A/C, power windows, and a split bench seat—which looked and felt more like buckets to us. Power came from an eager 4.0-liter V-6 making 160 horsepower and linked to a four-speed automatic. One last feature—aside from the sharp two-tone blue and gray paint job—was Ford’s extended “Supercab,” which provided enough room for a pair of side-facing jumpseats in back.
Still, it wasn’t a car, and many of the Smart Set on Hogback Road complained mincingly in the truck’s logbook. The managing editor, who wails weekly about the slipped disc he suffered, no doubt falling off a bar stool, wrote that the seats are spongy and offer little support, and the truck’s suspension is sensitive to every line in the road. “As a truck, it’s fine, but as a car … ”
Tech editor Don Schroeder chimed in. “I like the simplicity and beefy feel of the Ranger,” he wrote. “It seems purpose-built and has a nice all-around compromise between ride and stiffness. But I wouldn’t want to live with it.”
The Vituperative One, Brock Yates, who put the Ranger to work for a short time in western New York, was more confused as to where this mid-sized truck fell among its peers: “It has a very utilitarian interior, but if it’s a work truck, why the cloth upholstery? Then again, if it’s a sports truck, why not a better suspension (which apparently depends solely on the fatso tires)?”
But the artful dodger Phil Berg, our four-wheeling doyen, angrily defended the Ranger: “Hey, all you car lovers, this truck is a mini-Explorer! People will buy this pickup and throw a cap on the bed for thousands cheaper. It’s even better on the long highway than the Explorer, because it lacks the vague steering of the top-of-the-line Ford SUV. It’s not painful at all—it’s practically a car.” (Amazingly, Berg does not indulge in caffeine.)
The consensus was that the Ranger had a—surprise!—trucklike ride with carlike aspirations on the inside. The interior looked like it was assembled from the Taurus, Escort, and Mustang parts bins. Despite the height and the bumpy ride, the well-crafted dash and numerous creature comforts made us forget we were driving a truck—sometimes.
Early on, we installed a protective Durakon Duraliner in the Ranger’s bed for $250. It’s the automotive equivalent of your Aunt Ramona’s plastic furniture covers. It fit snugly and did a good job of preserving the paint job. Still, the tailgate section of the cover popped off, never to be replaced, after yours truly clumsily tried to steady a package against it. After this, the poor truck’s tailgate began to look like Freddy Krueger’s emery board.
The Ranger’s 7500-mile scheduled service (which we had done at 8700 miles) went off without a hitch. The oil change, lube job, and tire rotation cost us $39.
So far so good. But at 12,000 miles, every new owner’s automotive nightmare appeared: an oil leak, and it was coming right from the drain plug, even though the plug seemed tight. One staffer had to put down newspaper before allowing it in his garage. We let it drag on for a thousand miles, then took it to Gene Butman Ford in nearby Ypsilanti, where repairs (including replacement of the crankshaft seals and the oil-pan gasket) totaled $828. The good news is that Ford paid for it under the Ranger’s three-year/36,000-mile powertrain warranty. This stop also included our 15,000-mile service, where an oil change cost us $22.
Once the leak was fixed, no major problems surfaced, but the Firestone Radial ATX P265/75 R-15 tires remained a nuisance, tracking poorly during normal conditions and getting loose during wet-pavement acceleration and braking.
Last Christmas, in western New York, your humble servant ran headlong into the worst whiteout snowstorm he’d ever seen. That’s no exaggeration—even native Buffalonians agreed. Although the Ranger had shown little dexterity even on simply wet roads, it now performed like the wily mutt. The sheer competence of the truck’s four-wheel-drive system got it through the drifts and snowplow mounds. But then, as the snow melted and gave way to less worrisome slush, the Ranger turned tail-happy as ever.
At 21,162 miles, two new Bosch wiper blades were installed after the old ones turned the glass into impressionistic smears. The cost: $14. Shortly after, our 22,500-mile service, which included a 15-point inspection, tire rotation, and oil change, cost us $44.
By 25,000 miles, the truck’s wet-weather handling continued to be a spot of bother. The standard Firestone tires seemed even more slippery when wet, sliding at the slightest provocation. Firestone produced these tires for the Ranger, and on the plus side, they give off remarkably low road noise. Looking for grip, we replaced them with a set of Firestone ATX 31-by-10.5 light-truck tires. Although they made more road noise, the new ATXs, which are Firestone’s off-the-shelf tires, felt more competent when wet and improved tracking in all conditions.
Now that our mutt had some traction, eternally roving staffer Larry Griffin took the Ranger out for its last 10,000 miles. It was Michigan to Wyoming to Montana to Idaho to Colorado to Utah, and finally back to Michigan, which in Larry-speak constitutes a ride around the block.
He writes: “The new tires have felt great on whatever surface—smooth pavement, snow, ice, mud, gravel, etc. The Ranger tracks and steers superbly on smooth or moderately lumpy surfaces, but quickly discombobbles on pronounced truck ruts and washboard. Yet the handling in most situations is plenty good to satisfy and entertain an old sporty-car guy like me.”
At 28,000, the motor that drives the power window on the pilot’s side gave out, and we made our only unscheduled service stop. Quality Motors in Larry’s hometown of Independence, Kansas, had a new motor installed a morning later. This repair was covered under the 36,000-mile basic warranty. Larry was so happy with this service that he dedicated three whole pages in our logbook to praise the service department. But he had less to say about the guy who, a few days later, stole his license plate.
Our 30,000-mile service stop, which included an oil change, new fuel and air filters, cooling-system service, new wheel bearings, wheel alignment, and a brake inspection, cost us $242.
The truck seemed to mature in the year we had it. Gone was the loosey-goosey handling and the erratic tail-wagging. The new tires seemed to have done the trick. Not including the new rubber, we paid only $3 in repair charges (for the scratched paint mentioned earlier) and the $14 for wipers. Oddly enough, even with the Ranger’s drip-drip oil leak, we had no unscheduled oil additions. On the other hand, we didn’t play rough with the Ranger, as do a lot of carpenters and drywallers.
In our farewell track tests, we left the new tires on. The Ranger’s grip improved only slightly, from 0.70 g on the skidpad to 0.71. Zero-to-60 times improved to 9.3 seconds from 9.8 the first time around, and the top speed went from 103 to 104 mph. But contradicting our assumptions about the new tires, it took another four feet of braking from 70 to 0 mph—204 feet to 208. Life is a mystery, isn’t it? Over our test, the truck gave us a respectable 18 mpg.
All in all, the Ranger served its masters well, disappointing only those staffers who didn’t care much—if at all—for trucks in the first place. But for those of us who enjoy trucks, this dog really could hunt.
Rants and Raves
Berg and I just completed a late-night blitz to Elkhart Lake. No penalty box, this truck. In Wisconsin, we borrowed a comparably equipped Chevy S-10. The Ford wins hands down. —John Phillips
(Before the new tires) Perhaps I’m a car wuss, but I think the ride on this thing is horrendous. Drive down the Davison [i.e., poor] Freeway, and it bounces and jerks like a . . . Bronco. —Don Schroeder
On narrow paved roads, it’s a handful just keeping this rig on the road. My brother’s larger, rear-wheel-drive truck tracks down the road much better. —Aaron Kiley
Service Details
Service and Repair Stops
Scheduled: 4
Unscheduled: 1
Operating costs (for 35,000 miles)
Service: $347
Normal wear: $14;
Repair: $3
Gasoline (@ $1.09 per gallon): $2123
Life expectancies (extrapolated from 35,000-mile test)
Tires: 44,500 miles
Front brake pads: 62,500 miles
Rear brake shoes: 200,000 miles
Specifications
Specifications
1993 Ford Ranger XLT
Vehicle Type: front-engine, rear/4-wheel-drive, 3+2-passenger, 2-door pickup
PRICE
Base/As Tested: $16,407/$20,771
ENGINE
pushrod 12-valve V-6, iron block and aluminum heads, port fuel injection
Displacement: 244 in3, 3996 cm3
Power (SAE net): 160 bhp @ 4200 rpm
TRANSMISSION
4-speed automatic
DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: 125.4 in
Length: 198.2 in
Curb Weight: 3858 lb
C/D TEST RESULTS: NEW
60 mph: 9.8 sec
1/4-Mile: 17.4 sec @ 78 mph
100 mph: 43.0 sec
Rolling Start, 5–60 mph: 10.1 sec
Top Speed: 103 mph
Braking, 70–0 mph: 204 ft
Roadholding, 300-ft Skidpad: 0.70 g
C/D TEST RESULTS: 35,000-MILES
60 mph: 9.3 sec
1/4-Mile: 17.2 sec @ 78 mph
100 mph: 45.9 sec
Rolling Start, 5–60 mph: 9.3 sec
Top Speed: 104 mph
Braking, 70–0 mph: 208 ft
Roadholding, 300-ft Skidpad: 0.71 g
C/D FUEL ECONOMY
Observed: 18 mpg
EPA FUEL ECONOMY
City: 17 mpg
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