Seriously Toyota?

I'm just going to stick with used vehicles.

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: In reply to aircooled: I'm serious, if it weren't for modern safety standards and that style Toyota Pickup came with a modern drivetrain and descent radio, I'd buy it.

How many 2wd 5speed regular cab long bed ford rangers did you buy? That truck was available until a year or so ago and I routinely saw them for ~15k brand new.

nocones wrote:

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: In reply to aircooled: I'm serious, if it weren't for modern safety standards and that style Toyota Pickup came with a modern drivetrain and descent radio, I'd buy it.

How many 2wd 5speed regular cab long bed ford rangers did you buy? That truck was available until a year or so ago and I routinely saw them for ~15k brand new.

yes, but if you ask around here.. the Ranger was the -worst- vehicle every built

mad_machine wrote: yes, but if you ask around here.. the Ranger was the -worst- vehicle every built

Clearly, you haven't driven many or the competition. S10's and Nissan's are about the worse. Toyota isn't very high either, to me.

The 80s Rangers were craptacular but the final generation models were great trucks. They were big enough to be useful but they weren't gigantic Trucks of Doom. And they didn't seem to rust hard or need regular expensive maintenance.

They could be had with the bulletproof 2.3/2.5 engine, the Duratec 2.3, the unkillable 3.0, the bugs-finally-sorted-out 4.0, and the "why you do that Ford??" SOHC. Four outta five ain't bad.

And everything was available in all permutations of transmission and drive type. I towed a steel flat-top tandem axle trailer with a 5sp 4.0 4x4 and the durn thing got 20mpg. Just don't go under 65mph and you can leave it in 5th.

Grizz wrote: I'm just going to stick with used vehicles.

Same here. And I have a nice employee-discount being constantly dangled I front of me.

Build a vehicle that fits my needs, and I will be the first guy in line to buy it...

No one currently builds what I'm looking for, so I will continue to buy used.

N Sperlo wrote: All car companies have become far out of touch with what many people can afford, yet like our friend Mike Rowe says, just because they can't afford it, doesn't mean they wont.

Production costs have risen. (...and I suspect that volume has dropped.) Worker pay has been flat.

For $37,000 you could own 37 of my Gen I 4Runners.

My Toyota dealer has had the same stripped Tacoma on the sales floor for about 6 months. Sticker on it is $17.xK. Apparently no one wants to buy it.

Here's why, I think. If you want to do truck-y stuff, there's no reason to buy a brand-new truck, just to beat it up. Ten grand will buy you an awful nice used truck, maybe already pre-beat.

On the other end... at one time, a buyer might have considered a compact pickup as a substitute/replacement for a daily driver car. That makes much less sense now, as $18k can buy all manner of interesting cars, with far more amenities than a stripped Tacoma, and close to twice the MPG.

Apparently if it was 4" narrower and 4" shorter they would have a line out the door of grmers ready to buy

Ranger50 wrote:

mad_machine wrote: yes, but if you ask around here.. the Ranger was the -worst- vehicle every built

Clearly, you haven't driven many or the competition. S10's and Nissan's are about the worse. Toyota isn't very high either, to me.

I just remember asking about the Ranger earlier this year.. and the overall tone was the the Ranger was not worth the money when you can buy a full size F150 that costs the same and gets better miliage

that's why Ford dropped the Ranger.

Knurled wrote:

Woody wrote: It's also worth noting just how well these things hold their value.

Yeah, between rising steel prices and the sheer bulk of the thing, that's got to be worth $500 in scrap after six-seven years.

scrap gets up to the $175-$200 per ton range here in the dead of winter.. if you're smart you sawzall the cats off the exhaust and sell them separately.. aluminum wheels sell for decent money on the CL... so it's probably worth at least $1k parted and scrapped in 6-7 years..

i paid 39k for my f250 4x4 crew 6.7 turbo ecoboost it is the XLT which used to be top of the line, but no more........not real plush and rides llike a lumber truck unless you have a load on it.........it will burn rubber. pulls 33' camper 80- 85 mph no sweat...

Knurled wrote: The 80s Rangers were craptacular but the final generation models were great trucks. They were big enough to be useful but they weren't gigantic Trucks of Doom. And they didn't seem to rust hard or need regular expensive maintenance. They could be had with the bulletproof 2.3/2.5 engine, the Duratec 2.3, the unkillable 3.0, the bugs-finally-sorted-out 4.0, and the "why you do that Ford??" SOHC. Four outta five ain't bad. And everything was available in all permutations of transmission and drive type. I towed a steel flat-top tandem axle trailer with a 5sp 4.0 4x4 and the durn thing got 20mpg. Just don't go under 65mph and you can leave it in 5th.

I had a 4.0 liter extended cab Ranger for several years that I bought used. It was a great truck. Got a friend that put over 200k on one. Looking at new prices at the time, the Ranger wasn't appreciably less expensive than the V6 F150. I think that is what killed it in the end.

Ram 1500 Tradesman- $ 24385.

GMC 1500 w/t $25,630 w/V8 and 3.73 gears
Chevy 1500 W/T 25,530 w/V8 and 3.23 gear

Knurled wrote: When I was younger and more foolish, I found that I could get a V8 5-speed Dakota with either the tow package (Sure-Grip!) or 3.92 gears for $15k, in '97. I say "either" because I wanted BOTH and one of those wasn't available with the other options I wanted, probably the 3.92 gears. I figured it was a hell of a lot cheaper than a Mustang GT for roughly the same power and RWD-ness...

My buddy went through exactly the same thought process. That truck was kind of fun. We used to go find the overrated Dakota R/Ts and embarrass them.