The Ford Ranger is so bad that I created its own page. Press
Home to see the other cars in my history. I wrote this page
hoping that at least one person will read it and reconsider their
thoughts of buying a Ranger. For a couple of
thousand more I could have gotten a real utility vehicle instead of
a make believe joke.
Have you seen that cartoon sequence of a simple children's
swing? You know, pictures of the marketing requirement, the sales
brochure, the engineering design, the manufactured item? I am
reminded of this every time I approach my Ford Ranger. I start
with this because I believe that anyone who likes their Ranger is a few
cards short of a full deck. Unlike the cartoon which has various
pieces missing or in the wrong place, the Ranger is its own worst joke
on itself.
I would have bought a Toyota or a Nissan except that the dealers would not
budge on their prices. I mean they start out costing more but I
did not need them to match the Ford price, just negotiate a
little. I knew I was buying the cheap version and I knew that I
was missing out on the luxury of a well-designed car. But I also
knew that my wallet was going to suffer in any case and I wanted a
bandage from the dealer. El Paso's Casa Ford had the bandage.
$4,000 off the sticker price clinched the deal. So this article
is a list of bitching about the car. I said I bought one. I
did not say I liked what I bought. I regret that I could not
like the Ranger better.
Toyota and Nissan invaded our country back in the mid 1970's with a
deluge of car models that had all of the creature conveniences that
Detroit never considered. Detroit has always had the attitude
that if we build it, people will buy it. Asking what the people
wanted never crossed their minds. This is why GM went
broke. Chrysler went broke because it over-engineered its cars
and the manufacturing quality was dismal. Ford is on its heels
and was awfully close to the GM bankruptcy except it bit the bullet
earlier and tooled its plants to accept different sized vehicles.
But the bottom line is still that Toyota and Nissan work to build
quality products that meet the customer needs. American
manufacturers have never figured this out and have dropped like flies
since I first saw the Willow Run assembly plant in 1949.
Yes. There is the ongoing Toyota brake and acceleration
problem. It will blossom and then fade. Some people in
Toyota made some very bad decisions. But the real reason for all
of the bad press is not the Toyota car problems. The real problem is
that the Toyota quality image has been tarnished and the American
manufacturers want everyone to know it. Right now might be
the time to buy a Toyota: they need the sales like never before and
they are dealing.
Sounds great. Many years ago when American Motors
(Nash/Rambler/Jeep) was capsizing, a bill was presented to the
Wisconsin State Legislature for the state to only buy automobile
products made within the state. The head of the state highway
patrol went before the legislature and informed them that the highway
patrol would consist only of Chevrolets manufactured in Janesville as
he would not permit his troopers to suffer the indignities and problems
of an American Motors car. This bill had a short life.
If you really want to buy American then you are best off following
his example. You can feel sorry for the out of work Ford people
but you do so at the expense of not owning the car that you want or
need. When it comes to spending the amount of money you need for
a new car, the first objective should be finding one that best fits
your needs. This means quality and design and features that are
what you want, need, and are state of the art. I can buy off on the quality, maybe. But
for design and features, the products manufactured for 1967 were better than the 200x
Ranger.
Here is a list of minor Ford
Ranger inconveniences that Ford could have just as easily improved but
decided to stay with
tradition
(or incompetence). I doubt following my suggestions would have cost
Ford much if anything at all.
Another great idea ruined by the Ford people. Why? You cannot
get to the rear area. Either forward or backward the seats
stop in exactly the worst possible position. This prevents
you
from putting anything
larger than a woman's purse in the back. Great for small children
who like to climb trees. There no trees to climb in this area so they
get to climb the seat and step through the center console.
If I get into the cab with something small, I can toss it over the seat
but then finding it later is a problem. Lift the lever on the
passenger seat of my Tercel and the seat
slides forward and tips forward maximizing entry to the back.
Ford? Anything you do makes access worse. You simply cannot
use
the King cab space for the purpose it was intended.
Be really careful here. They even have it printed on the
driversde sun visor: The Ranger is hard to control at highway speeds
and because it is long and narrow, it may tip over. Heed the
warning: the truck is tipsy. You feel it on curves, you feel it
if you have to avoid something in the road. Compared to my
Tercel, the Ranger unsafe at any speed. And I never felt unsafe
in
the Corvair. Read the next section with a grain of salt/sand: for
the Ranger, ALL roads are rough. If I drive over 200 miles in any
one day, I must take the next day off and stay at home. My arms
will be sore and my back muscles so tense that I really need a
masseuse. You see many Rangers as utility trucks: meter readers,
inspectors, etc. This might be he best use of these things.
Sort of the pickup truck version of the soccer mom Minivan.
I had a Plymouth many years ago. I ordered it with the maximum
strength torsion bars. I often stated that it did not bump over
railroad tracks, it climbed them. But even though it was a tough
suspension, it was a suspension. It had some movement and some
give. I think that they forgot to put springs in the
Ranger. In the
Tercel, the ride was interesting as the Tercel climbed up and
down potholes too small to see. The closest analogy that I
can make for the Ranger is that of a grasshopper. The Ranger
literally
bounces from one hole to the next as if on a bent pogo stick with a
stuck
spring. There is no front-to-back -- there is no give. The
truck bounces up in the air, sometimes leaving the ground even at 10
mph. My daughter recommends railroad ties in the back. I
might just do this. There are a few ties left out back.
Bumps
on the head are dangerous because they might break a blood
vessel. In the ten minutes it would take me to find out, I would
realize that I have not kept my will up to date and that Warfarin
really is a dangerous medical option. More probable is that I
will land from one of these bumps no longer with the front of the
Ranger landing straight ahead. This is one reason for the sore
arm muscles: when the Ranger lands it selects a new random
direction. This must be corrected immediately -- with some
strength on the wheel or you will end up either seeing the world
inverted or at least through a side or the rear window. It is
best to get a good grip on the wheel before the Ranger lands. And
remember this is true at ANY speed over 10 mph.
The roads in this town are all dirt. Dirt gets
potholes which move every day. Dirt is all the same color.
With polarizing sunglasses, you cannot see the holes. The Ranger
will get stuck on soft roads anytime, anywhere, pothole or no.
The right rear wheel will dig itself up to the axle before you even
realize you are stuck and, no, I do not have a lead foot. The
Ford Owner's manual says to just drive carefully, never lower the air
pressure, and let the wheel spin slowly until it gets traction.
Sorry boys, this is the best way to hang the Ranger's frame on the
roadway that you can imagine. I get sick to my stomach when I get
out of the car and see dirt over the hub cap and sand spitting out of
the muffler. Once the frame is in the dirt, you need someone to
tow you out -- do not even try to move as the springs will find this is
the time to be real springs and force the wheels even deeper into the
dirt putting additional weight on the dirt supporting the frame.
You want to drive on soft roads? Toss the Owner's manual and lower
the tire pressure to between 15 and 20 pounds. If you get stuck
now, lower to 12 pounds, carefully dig out the right rear tire, and get
some help to pull the Ranger back to undamaged roadway -- backward is
easier than forward at this point. Make sure to raise the tire
pressure again before driving on the highway. You might apologize to
the homeowner in front of whose house you have just created a big, soft, hole. Or you might carry a shovel. Or
maybe the homeowner knows about Rangers. One time in the
neighborhood when I got stuck, the neighbor's boys rushed out with shovels while the mother pushed.
The Ranger came with a donut tire even though the dealer assured me
that it was a full spare. I should have crawled underneath and
looked for myself. The original equipment Continental tires are
P225 70SR15. No one except a Ford dealer stocks this tire.
A while back when I had a flat and needed a new tire a Discount Tire
center had one old black tire this size. I should have
passed. It thumps and I am sure will need replacing soon.
This time when I had a flat (somehow or other these Continentals get
flats, even in the tread area, that require replacement), I broke down
and ordered two new Michelins from Costco along with a new wheel.
Now I have an extra donut and two new Michelins in the back and the
other rear Continental is now the spare. I explain this in detail
as the personality of the car has changed dramatically. First
off, the Michelins have sufficient traction to handle the dirt
roads. So ar I have not had to reduce the tire pressure to drive
around town. Second off, highway driving is sane. If I keep the
Ranger long enough all of the tires on the ground will be Michelins.
By the way, this improvement does not come as a great
surprise. My Datsun 200SX came with Bridgestones and rode like a
truck on rough roads. When I replaced the Bridgestone tires with
Michelins, I could drive across the desert feeling safe while
easily maneuvering around the rattle snakes. On the highway, the
Datsun now drove at 120 mph in comfort (yes, I was that stupid)..
Years ago I bought a 1989 Dodge Van. That car was a
mistake. Buying it was a second mistake. Not just my
individual Grand Caravan LE (with the trailer-towing package): the car was an
engineering lunacy. I swore off any American car and specifically
swore off anything that came close to the Chrysler Corporation.
The Dodge Regional Office informed me that the seat was
designed for little old ladies doing their daily shopping and
delivering the kids. It was not designed for the
highway or for anyone over 5' 8" tall. The seat has a firm
ridge across the top and a fixed headrest jutting forward. This
means that anyone average height for a gringo or taller can only drive
the car knowing that they will need serious neck massage when they
leave the car.
The Ranger has the same problem. I guess housewives have gone
beyond daily suburban chores. If the seat were as bad as the
Caravan (and they never did fix that problem -- and the Dodge pickup
his
the same), I would have noticed it
immediately. It took multiple trips before I noticed the sore
back and neck. Dealer solution? Recline the seat so the seat does
not contact my neck. Right. And then neither does it
contact
my back. Have you are driven a car where you have no back
support at all? Believe me, the sore neck is the lesser of evils.
Oh. I see from the owners manual that some seats have a lumbar
support knob. Great. I like lumbar support knobs.
With a long back, they are helpful. But when the seat is
pathological in the first place, what is a little lower support when
the seat it trying to break your upper vertebrae? I do not
have the problem of such a knob in my bucket (?) seats.
They are NOT bucket seats. The dealer said they were but they
have this 60-40 split just to the right of the center console.
Special order seat covers. Really dumb but it permits a third
rider up front. This is necessary because a third rider could not
go in the back. And, you know, the inability to get from the
front to the back is a real hazard and should be the subject of a
safety recall. Again. The Tercel. There is a
handle on the side of the seat. This permits you to set the seat
angle. Mostly you set it all the way forward to reach the back or
all the way back to sleep or to your favorite position for
riding. Then there is the handle under the seat at the front that
permits you to move the seat front to back. The Ranger has
these. They work. But the Tercel has a lever in the
back. The Ranger does not. This means that the child in the
back is locked in. He cannot get out. With some boys this
might be an asset -- but it means that in an emergency the kid can not
get out and you cannot get to him! There is no back lever.
The back lever in the Tercel releases the seat to go all the way
forward and the seat back to flip all the way forward. The Tercel
is small but with the seat in this position an adult, even me, can get
into the back seat without a problem. The Ranger does not have
the ability to move the seat and the seat back in a single
operation. Worse -- even if it had such a lever, an adult could
not get back to get his kid anyway. An adult cannot get to the
back. Permitting a child to ride in the back is a safety
hazard. I say again, the Ford marketing people and the engineers
should not have been laid off 30 years ago. And I know from
personal experience that the Ford corporate executives have seen the
Tacoma and Frontier and they know about these dangers -- they do not
care about your safety or your child's. They saved $5 on a lever.
A serious word of warning here. The split seat means that you
cannot use standard seat covers. Buy special order from J.C.Whitney.
But now you have a real problem. If you use the console cover,
you cannot use the console -- the cover seals the console shut.
Another warning. More severe. The little tray at the
front on the floor is sort of nice for holding things. But when
you move the driver seat forward you will smash anything in that tray.
Unless what is in the tray is stronger than the drink holder at the
front of the seat. In this case, you break the drink
holder. And, of course, there is no seat release at the back of
the seats but that is a separate issue. You know, I think the
king cab for Ford was just an after thought. No. The Ranger
itself was just an afterthought. No serious design work
whatsoever went into this product.
What were they thinking of here? There is a center
console. It is
shaped strangely for the available space. Maybe if there were a
nice shift lever on the floor, the console would be the right size and
shape. As it stands, it is truncated by about 8 inches. So
there is a 8" space to collect junk to then fall on the floor while you
are
driving. The truncated center console folds up -- and it needs to
because it covers the seat belt latch. This means everything
inside sloshes to the back every time you get in the car. But
that
would only be a problem if it were big enough to be useful. They
have molded lots of breakable plastic inside to restrict usage. Maybe
some engineer got cute with a row for coins and maybe that strange
plastic arrangement is to hold sunglasses
which have no business being in there.
And a word of warning here. The center console flips up to make a
sort of bench seat. Enough back support for your pet cat. BUT. When
you flip it up, make sure it is latched tightly. Latching is not
automatic. Flipping the console up when it is not latched will quickly
transfer the entire contents into the rear area. The area I have
already described as needing a small child to gain access. Even when
latched you have a problem. You have seen those Laundromat clothes
dryers tumbling you clothes? This is nothing compared to the confusion
of your belongings inside the console after you have flipped it. ANd
you know that this has happened as soon as you do it since you hear all
of your coins in the front row jingling their way to the back and
bottom. What makes this worse is that the bottom instead of being nice
and smooth has all sorts of little niches and crannies designed to
collect dust and tiny items (maybe dangerous) and small coins. For
your own sanity keep your coins for toll booths somewhere else. It
will be easier to fish into your pockets looking for change than
frantically attempting to locate the jingles that were flipped into the
black hole of the center console.
The center console sort of reminds me of those little trick boxes
from when I was a
kid. Remember? You open it up and see a ball, close it,
tilt it, reopen it and, surprise, no ball. Repeat the process and
again see the ball. Some Ford engineer thought this so cute he
installed a half-inch space between the bottom of the center console
and the ledge between the seats. So now you put
something on this ledge (fabric covered no less) in front of the
console and start to drive. What you placed on the ledge slips
neatly
under the center console and you think it is lost. When you
stop, it (maybe, maybe not) magically reappears. Great fun for a
five-year-old. Not so much for an adult. Great way to lose
sunglasses or cell phone. They could have made the center of plastic, slightly
dished and it would have been useful. Now it is just a nuisance
that must be regularly cleaned with a carpet cleaner. Then again
if they had done it right, the center console would have been long
enough to cover the area and it would only be exposed when the console
was raised. Come on, guys. What were you thinking
here? Would it have cost more to have done it right? How
much more?
The car actually came with a cigarette lighter and ashtray.
Detroit maintains this legacy but you
can discard the ash tray and use the hole for a drink
holder. They could have priced the ashtray as a dealer
option and saved most of us money. Maybe they think the Marlboro
man wants to drive a pickup instead of riding a horse. Oh.
I
forgot, the Marlboro man died and has no use for a Ranger.
The drink holder actually snaps to the driver seat/console.
Moving the seat forward forces this anachronism into the little front
trays -- smashing anything in them. I tossed this thing and bought a
cheap "organizer". A little clumsy but nothing gets broken when I
move the seat.
The cigarette lighter sticks obtrusively out of the center left of
the
dash. You can remove the lighter but now you have a
useless hole. There is a matching hole on the right
side. The Japanese have conveniently located their 12V jacks out
of
sight although still within easy reach. Why out of sight? Gadget
theft is a major issue today. The last thing you want
is a myriad of cords hanging from the center of your dash panel.
The Nissan I rented had the second plug inside the center
console.
The primary plug down and to the left. Useful and hidden and a
little too smart for the Ford engineers The dash on my Ranger
looks
like a cow being milked. The CPAP inverter, rear camera, radar detector, two cell phone
chargers, and my camera battery charger. All of these are
normally in the center console but for my Ranger, they sit down below
because running cords to the console is hazardous.
New cars have lots of little storage areas wherever possible.
Male mammals have vestiges of nipples. Ford
has vestiges of storage areas.
The
little bin at the bottom of the doors? Again smaller than those
in my
Tercel. If I drop something into it, I cannot fit my hand inside
to
get it back. Under the dash is a nice pocket
for
gadgets but they cut it in half. Why? They wanted to prove that
they
are with the "In" crowd. The left half has a bright chrome MP3
player
jack. They could have put this jack up where they have the
second (or even the first) cigarette lighter plug. This would
have
been better but then you are again advertising an expensive
gadget. I repeat: the upper dash is no place for
electric/electronic equipment plugs. Replacing one of the few storage
areas with a covered to provide a 3/8" chrome hole is really
stupid. And now the cord for the MP3 player wraps around the
steering wheel or your hand while you are driving. Doesn't anyone
at Ford drive a Ranger? Maybe they know better. Maybe
someone will read these pages and not buy a Ranger. That would be
best.
It could have been twice the size and be useful. As it is, I
can keep that black book of papers and maybe some medicine but not much
else. My Tercel has a bigger glove box. The Ranger small glove box is
the reason for the plethora of "pickup cab organizers" (Google it).
During the day they have a real Catch-22. If you wear
sunglasses, you cut the glare from the clear flat dash gauge cover
enough to read the gauges -- otherwise you just see the reflection of your
hand on the steering wheel. The plastic makes a good mirror but
eliminates any chance of seeing your controls. But if you wear
the sun glasses, any of the LCD panel displays disappear.
The radio display is the first to go -- and it has the clock.
The lights are not nearly bright enough and to see them at all means
going to the maximum brightness. At night they are bright enough
but during the day they are obscured by the upper dash. Since I
drive on two-lane roads much of the time, I drive with my headlights
on. But even with the lights on when I wear sunglasses, the dash
if very hard to read. There is also a generic problem with LED's.
and LCD's. You cannot see their LCD's with sunglasses. This makes the
clock on the radio display useless (the entire display window is
black). LED's can be made bright enough but then they would be
disturbing without sunglasses. WIth sunglasses if one of the
Christmas tree warning lights come on, it is highly unlikely that I
could see it. And no, there is nothing wrong with my
eyesight. Ford has a desert proving grounds. They should
use it. At Chrysler the desert group had an unending list of
requirements sent back to Detroit.
I think this is the place where their engineers hung out instead of
doing real work. Right in the center of the dash display at the
bottom is this grid of warning lights. Again, you can lose some
with sun glasses and some I have not figured out. But they have
even screwed these up. For example, when the car has decided that
the seat belt needs to be fastened, you get a chime alarm.
Continuous. The Tercel turned of the alarm after a few
minutes. When my dog sits on the seat, the alarm goes off for the
entire trip.. But this is the seat belt.
There is actually a light for tire pressure. Considering the
problems that Ford has had with Firestone tires, this is probably
necessary. While in town, I use this to remind myself to lower
the pressure to 15 pounds. When leaving town, this reminds me to
raise the pressure back up to 32. But the other day while driving
on a dirt road detour, I got a flat tire. Probably some
construction junk that I did not see. In any case, I drove for a
while on the flat - until I reached hard road and looked down to see
why I had the drag. The tire pressure indicator was lit. I
had a flat tire. Changing the tire was actually easier than I
thought it would be. The jack works and the spare tire raising
mechanism works. The dealer lied to me: I had only a donut -- but
it worked..
What did not work was the stupid flat tire indicator. It came
on. It is yellow/cream. Most of the display things that are
problems are red. Maybe driving on a soft tire should be cream
and a flat tire red. Maybe this is too much to ask but a flat
tire should be red and not cream. But this is negligible compared
to the real problem. The Ranger has a chime alarm -- I hear if
from the seat belts. But when you have a real problem -- like a
flat tire, no chime. No audible. Maybe if you drove on nice
smooth Interstate highways all of the time, you would notice the flat
immediately or have time to spend looking for displays to arrive.
But when you are driving on the roads which mandate a small (or large)
truck, taking time to watch for random display lights is guaranteed to
give you problems more serious than a display is capable of
indicating. If I watched those lights, I would lose a fender,
something serious on the undercarriage, or discovering that the
Ranger cannot fly (I already know this but a real-time example would
eliminate my need for heart medicine). I bought the Ranger
because I knew the local roads would ruin any American car and maybe a
Japanese car as well. But I thought a small pickup would be able
to handle a dirt road. I was wrong.
Interesting. They have the normal quarter/half tank
markings. They are in white and very visible. The
Empty indicator is Red. Not visible. It looks like
you are in serious trouble when you get
to one quarter tank: it looks like you are on or below Empty. I
guess I shall get used to it. But I should not have had to;
after all there are about 20 little lamps that light up for all sorts
of reasons in the lower center of the dash. It looks like
Christmas when you turn on the ignition. I am sure that one of
these indicates that the gas is low. The red mark for empty is just stupid.
The reason that our country is not Metric is because the UAW
and SAE thought they could prevent the 1970's onslaught of Japanese
vehicles if they cried about needing two sets of tools.
They failed on three counts. They did not stop the Japanese
invasion. They did not stop the need for two sets of tools.
They did stop the migration to Metric. In this day and age
speedometers should be able to display American and Metric speeds
equally well. And as a matter of fact a growing number do.
But
Ford? Probably not in my lifetime. The little tiny metric
numbers are centered (obviously) at the very smallest circle that could
hold the necessary digits. Other cars have at least moved these
out to
where they are usable. I mean, i really hate the French but
Detroit is just across the river from Ontario, a French-speaking,
Metric-using
culture. Are there not enough Canadian engineers in Detroit
to impact the cast-iron thinking of Ford executives? Maybe
Dearborn is too far from Detroit. We had a lot of Canadian
engineers at Chrysler.
Another golden oldie: most new cars have the headlight switch as a
rotator cuff on the turn signal post. This is great. The
Japanese have created a third post on the right side
for windshield wiper control. Not Ford. You must reach down
into the darkness to find the headlight switch to turn it on and then
again into
the darkness when you leave the car to turn it off. Nothing
automatic here. Even Chevrolet, the ultimate dark age vehicle,
has
learned better than this.
Remember the old days when you turned the dome light on and off by
forcing the maximum
panel dimmer position? And thereby (ruining your preferred dash panel
light
settings)
Remember? Nobody has done this for 20 years.
But no. If you have a Ranger, you still have the problem.
The little 3-position switch at the side of the dome light does not
exist. I have gotten into the habit of reaching for the thing I
want to change. I need to relearn what knew when I
first got my license 50 years ago. And they have it turn itself
off in a few minutes. They could have saved money by doing it
right and using the electronic timer for a better purpose. Tradition. Ah, tradition.
Another gotcha. My Japanese cars all have the same 4
slide controls: Fan switch, Inside-Outside air control, temperature,
vent choices. And, separate push buttons for the AC and the rear
defroster. These
are intuitive and do exactly what you want. Oh, in some cars the
AC is also implied when you slide to
Defrost. But otherwise what you set is what you get. On the
Ranger there is no need for the rear defroster switch: there is no
rear defroster.
So how did Ford screw this one up? They still have the old, I
mean really old, traditional 3 knobs. You know: before they had
Air Conditioning. Those 3 knobs. The left sets the fan
speed. The
center the temperature control. The right a vent selector.
No Inside-Outside control. No AC button. So you can blow
air in your face or you can
use the AC. I
should just be able to set the switches to what I want. Some Ford
engineer has already guessed what I need and replaced my choices with
his
personal preferences. Or maybe, he thought that adding AC to the
selector knob was the best he could do in his spare time rather than
adding the obvious little (blue on most cars) button. Adding
positions to the rotary switch cannot have been cheaper than adding a
separate button. They did not save money here. Maybe the
assembly robot would have needed to be a little smarter.
I fiddled with the Ranger air control switch until I figured it
out. It could not be more stupid:
There are 8 positions:
1. The vertical dial position is OFF. The fan switch has no
OFF -- just low to high. This is at least counter-intuitive and
backwards.
2. The right side of OFF has positions for air flow: up, down,
defroster, and some combinations. ALL activate the AC.
3. The left side of OFF has 3 positions: Upper vent, AC, and Max
AC. They ALL activate only the upper-vent. The bottom two
also activate the AC.
Therefore:
1. You have ZERO ability to control outside air flow. In
fact, I have no idea if the vented air is outside, inside, or a
combination of the the two.
2. The right side and the left AC and Max AC positions blow cold
air. I
believe all of the vents are open.
In other words, of the 8 switch positions, 3 are absolutely
useless. The ONLY position for which the fan blows but the AC is
off is to blow air in your face. You cannot get total air
circulation in the car no matter what you do -- unless you want it cold.
The end result is that when driving on the highway, my feet freeze --
with the windows open at 100 degrees outside.
If I use the temperature control switch, worse things happen.
1. If upper-vent-only only, then I get hot air in my face and my
feet (and the rest of the cabin) get no circulation at all.
2. If I use any other position with the fan on, the foot
temperature alternates between cold and warm as the AC unit cuts in and
out.
And they actually paid engineers to make my life miserable?
I thought everyone had bought into the Lock, Accessory, On,
Start sequence. Ah No. The Ford still has Accessory
before Lock. After having had a Dodge Caravan 20 years ago I was
at
least prepared to try backwards before thinking that Accessory was
omitted. It seems to me that some years ago there was a problem
with cars going suddenly the wrong way and plowing into things in front
of or behind due to shift lever errors. It also seems that nobody
admitted to a mechanical problem and they did complain about user
error. As a result, the manufacturers all standardized the shift
order to: P R N D 2 1. Good idea. A little late maybe but
they got there. Maybe nobody is going to crash through their
garage door because the ignition switch order varies between common
sense and American but it would be nice for it to be consistent.
Common sense? The key comes out in first switch position -- not
some place in the middle of the selections (ala Ford).
This one really caught me off guard. You get two keys with the
Ranger. Any expensive Ford for that matter. Each has a little fob
with buttons to lock and unlock the
doors and to blare the horn. Sort of neat but the rented cars had
a few more buttons and were much more user friendly. Now I know
why people use the fobs to honk their horn as they walk away from their
cars. The locking button is inconsistent. Sometimes it will
lock on the first try, sometimes the third or fourth. The horn
only beeps when the door is already locked when you push the
button. Because the button is cheap and operates erratically,
you push it as many times as necessary to hear the horn honk.
Sorry, but I think it is stupid to push the fob while standing next to
the door to see if the door lock goes into its little hole just to save
a little noise.
Also note that the buttons on the fob are reversed from the door
lock buttons on the inside arm rest -- but these do not beep if you do
them wrong but you can see if the little button on the door has popped
up or down. Do not be driving when doing this as you need to turn
your head half way around to see the button.
The real surprise is the security feature: you cannot make duplicate
keys. They will not work. The plastic cap on the original
key hides a little radio transmitter (RFID) that must be in the switch for the
motor to start. Other keys may actually fit the switch and turn
the lock but the Ford motor will just crank over until the battery is
dead. You can buy a third key from Ford for $25. You must
program this key by using the original two and playing on-off games
with the switch. You had best do this when everything is new as
if you need to replace one of the original two keys, the dealer will
charge $80 or more in addition to the $25. Lose or break a key:
$100 minimum. I guess this is cheaper than having your car stolen
by an amateur. A professional just buys one of the computers to
match the radio signal of the car. Gimmicks.
But you know why Ford is going broke? Gimmicks like the door
lock key and the gas cap. They make a small profit when you go to
buy duplicate parts that you can only get from Ford But if you
are as frustrated as I am, you do not buy another Ford. You see,
this antitheft embedded RFID in the key is a gimmick. Compare
this to the Altima. Same concept except for the Altima there is
no key -- just a button. Altima puts the RFID chip in the key
fob. The fob with your house keys go in your pocket. The
same little computer knows the fob is there and you just push the
button. Why bother with a key if the computer chip is all that is
necessary? ANd you do not have this three-inch pointed monster
poking holes in your pockets as does the Ford key.
In the Ford, I leave the store and try to remember where I
left the Ranger. It is easy to find: it is tall and cherry red
with reflective tape. Oh. There are lots of red pickups -- I pick
out mine and walk up to it. I juggle the keys out of my pocket then
push the key fob to unlock the door. The fob is cheap and it may
take a couple attempts to get the door unlocked. And I must be
within 20 feet so that I can see the black button against the black
door plastic. Yeah. Right. I know the Ranger unlocked
because it lit me up as it turns on the inside lights. When I am
in dangerous areas, the last thing I want to do is tell the world I am
entering my car. I open the door, toss in my things, get in, close the
door, put the special key in the ignition, and turn it to start the
engine. The light went out. Push the button to lock the doors.
Whew. I was not robbed this time.
In the Altima, I leave the store, look in the right direction
and push the fob button (maybe even with the keys still in my
pocket and maybe 80 feet away). From down the aisle I see the
lights blink. I
walk to the Altima. See. This is the difference. Ford makes
a token approach so it can claim to be as modern as its
competition. I guess tokens are good enough for red-necks.
Some people actually like their Rangers. Then, (maybe, maybe not)
I return the keys to my pocket, open the door, hand in my store things,
get in the car, push the button, the doors lock, and I drive
away. Secure, fast, easy.
You cannot tell me for the people in Dearborn security is not an
issue. Remember I lived there: I can remember diving under
my car to avoid robbers as I pushed the button to activate my
alarm. Oh. Right. The Ford does not have an alarm it just
makes the horn go beep beep beep. The Dodge had the alarm.
Short version: buy the Altima and you need no key and the fob works
from 80 feet away. Buy the Ford and you need the special
expensive key and the fob unlocks the key only from 15 feet away,
sometimes.. And mine wore out on the exact same week that the
warrantee expired. Now I just have the key. And notice that
unlike many cars, the key only locks/unlocks the door in which you have
inserted it. Cars 20 years ago would lock/unlock the other side
door if you double-clicked the key rather than a single click. 20
years? Ford has not got a chance of catching up with today.
This is a very bad joke. Like many cars, the fuse panel is
next to the right foot of the front seat passenger. Ford, of
course, uses the mini-fuses. These are about the size of a
penny. The panel has a couple of very large pullouts in the very
front and center. My cigarette lighter fuse failed for
no apparent reason the very first week I had the truck. The
little diagram in the owners manual does not tell you where the fuse
for the second lighter is.
The panel is typical of Ford. They have copied everything that
anyone else has done. But like many cheap copies, they have
forgotten the reason why things are done the way they are done.
The only way you can test the fuses is with a strong flashlight in your
third hand. As your body will cover any outside lighting even in
Arizona. Then because of the large plugs in front and other
reasons, you must use your left arm and hand (cramped badly) to fit the
tester prongs into the dots in the fuse tops. To see these dots
in the dark you must have great night vision. Telescopic vision
is also necessary. In addition you must be a short, anorexic
acrobat to maneuver your body around the front seat structures.
In other words, it would be to your advantage to have an anemic 8 year
old daughter on hand if you need to replace a fuse. My daughters
are grown so I live a fuse blown. I note that nothing I have
plugged into the other lighter plug has blown that fuse. I
presume the first fuse was a cheap thing. You know, quality
control.
Wow. I really like electric windows and mirrors because I
spend most of my driving time alone and need the comfort and
convenience of pushing buttons to adjust without endangering my life by
reaching across the car at 80 mph. But again, Ford has lost to
the Japanese. When I turn the engine off, the power to the
windows goes off. This means that when I go to get out of the car
I have to re-insert and turn the key to raise the windows. In
the Japanese cars, the power stays to the windows, and lights for an
extra minute so that you can secure your car on the run.
Somewhere there is a little Ford computer retaining the
ceiling light power. Ford engineers? Maybe they have not
ventured from
Dearborn since 1969.
I have always had problems with mirrors. I am fairly short
with a long back. I sit with the seat close enough for my feet to
hit the peddles and my head almost touches the ceiling -- in many cars
it does touch. If the windshield has a blue strip across the top,
I cannot tell the color of the upcoming traffic light. The Ford
Ranger mirror sits exactly in my line of sight. That means if
there is a car approaching from the right, I shall not se it -- even
after I have hit it. The mesh of black dots on the windshield
just makes it worse. The side view mirrors? To get them
adjusted correctly I must do it manually as the electric adjusters just
click at that far forward.
This reminds you of the Civil War term: shoddy. You know, the
clothing made from compressed fibers rather than woven material.
Pretty but not designed for its utilitarian purpose. The lower
front bumper of the Ranger is made of a black shoddy plastic in a lack
of design the negates its purpose. I used to wonder why I saw so
many Rangers driving around with their front bumper removed. Now
I know. Don't kick the bumper hard or hit one of those concrete
parking barriers. The bumper will break taking integral
parts with it and damaging your radiator. When I bought the
Ranger my first response to this was: "How could anyone be so
stupid?" The 1989 Dodge Caravan LE bumper constricted the air
flow so badly that an "Engineering Change" caused Chrysler to drill
holes along the entire underside of the bumper permitting air inside
the engine compartment. It still overheated when you stopped or
drove slowly and the bumper would collapse if you pressed on it with
your hand. I thought that was stupid until I found the
Ranger. They have shaped their shoddy plastic into a nice Cheerio
smile to make the car look friendly -- like the Chevron ads. The
problem is that where
you need a bumper the very most, all you have is this big Cheerio
hole with the radiator on the other side. At 70 miles an
hour a pigeon will ruin your day. Maybe the license plate holder
that the dealer did not install would protect me from the pigeon.
But then the Ranger might look like a Cheerio with buck teeth. I
don't know. Why can't they just make a bumper that protects you
from bumps? Something that would make a utility vehicle
sturdy instead of shoddy, maybe?
Postscript:
I hit a dog on the highway. The dog died. I almost stopped
before I hit this dog just standing n the road. No town. Ho
homes. Middle of nowhere. This dog is in the road. Not a
big dog. My dog is much bigger .I felt sorry for the dog. I held my dog a little tighter.
In any case the shoddy Ranger bumper split in half. In
pieces. Worse than that my radiator leaks and is curved neatly in the
bottom center most of the way to the top. I need a new
radiator. I need a new bumper. I need some support (?) brackets
-- same shoddy black plastic. I shall invest in one of
those off road under bumper things
that make you look like you want to drag race through the mud. I
saw three other Rangers today missing their lower front bumper. I
wanted to wave.
Yes, the company does this. Lack of design is just
lazy. Malicious manufacturing is just that: malicious. Here
are two examples:
The gas cap is plastic and has markings above the threads which
change annually. Annual changes make it very expensive for
after-market
companies to keep up. The threads do not
change. Just the plastic lines above the threads. If you
use a cap from the wrong year or an OEM, the little light on the dash
panel says the gas cap is missing. Malicious.
The oil filter has two problems, both resolvable but also
malicious. Compare the Ford filter to a FRAM filter and the
differences are immediately obvious. The Ford filter is highly
polished and is just enough smaller that a filter wrench designed for a
standard replacement just slips. If you try to use a friction,
adjustable wrench you will find that the highly polished Ford filter
stays in place and your wrench turns freely. No, pieces of
sandpaper will not help. I tried. Note also that the better FRAM
filters have a black coarse end section to assist in the proper installation and
removal of the filter.
Oh. If Ford had installed the filter properly this would be a minor
problem. But Ford assembly has attached the initial filter so
tightly that you need special tools and/or assistance to get it
loosened. Unlike the gas cap problem which is permanent, this is
a one time problem. One time only unless you are dumb enough to
buy a Ford replacement
filter and believe tighter is better. The FRAM filter says 3/4
turn after initial contact. 4,000 miles later it was still tight,
did not leak oil, and I took it off with my right hand. The
hand with the weak wrist. When I had the Honda they always called
me the finger tight kid. Some things don't change.
Not a filter problem but a problem. My Toyotas had a brass
washer between the crankcase bolt and the crankcase. This
made removal easier since the heat did not tighten the bolt . Two
times now I have had to go to a mechanic to loosen the Ford bolt
because my wrenches were not strong enough and someone somewhere had
roughed up the hex head edges. Not bad but enough that my 3/8
sockets do not quite fit right. One of these days I shall buy a
new bolt. If I bought one of those washers, the bolt and washer
would probably fall out as I drove down the highway.
I bought the 4-cylinder. This was a mistake. I should
have remembered from my experience from the Dodge Coronet: the smaller
engine is not necessarily the most efficient. Because it is a
4-cylinder, the rear end ratio is higher. The higher ratio means
that the engine works harder on hills and at higher speeds. After
all ,most people do not buy a truck to have sufficient torque to
haul their loads. The small 6-cylinder is available
with two rear end gearings. With the lower gear ratio at highway
speeds the engine is running at much lower speeds than the 4-cylinder
and the 6-cylinder with the higher gear rear end. This means more
power on the highway and less downshifting on hills or bridges. The
cost of the lower gear ratio is in hauling really heavy loads around
town. So take it from me, if you want one of these (or other
brands) and plan on any highway driving, buy the 6-cyclinder with the
low-gear rear-end rather than the 4-cylinder. The increased
performance of the 6-cylinder comes with matching gas economy.
At 34,000 miles when I changed my oil (I always change my own oil
and brakes), I noticed fresh transmission fluid on the bottom of the
transmission. I have an appointment for service at the local Ford
dealer on Friday. I am sure they will blame it on me rather than
honor a warrantee. But then other than the absence of engineering
and marketing and the absence of a useful front bumper, there
have been no visits to Ford for fixing things that went wrong.
But to go wrong at 2,000 miles short of the warrantee? What if I
had not changed my oil? Nothing to do with repairing a
transmission is cheap.
Surprise! The dealer is covering it on warrantee. The
problem: a bad seal. The dealer does not stock transmission seals
so I must allocate two days next week for the transmission to be
removed, repaired, and replaced.
Why do I write all of this about my Ford? My father worked for
GM. I worked for Chrysler. I grew up with Detroit
iron. I am ashamed that a company as great as Ford is so arrogant
(or so stupid, same thing) that it would rather go broke than to give
in to the customer. Toyota and Nissan would not have the market
share they have if Detroit responded to customers.
I am not talking about gas shortages or economic evolution. I
am talking about the items listed above. My daughter warned me
about this. She warned me AFTER I bought
the car. Not her fault -- I did not warn her about what cars I
was looking at. After 40 years it would
seem that a
company on the financial ropes would have at
least attempted to understand why.
When I was young my friend Chuck was a Chrysler fan. He took
my dad on once (only once) and my father put Chuck down with a comment
that Chrysler was a good company, it is too bad they just don't make
better cars. I thought that a little rough on Chuck but I came to
believe my father was wrong. He was correct: quality control on
Chrysler products has become a world-wide joke. As you can see
from other of my pages, I think Chrysler is a bad company and deserved
to go broke. The Dodge pickup however has corrected most of my
complaints about the Ford pickup. I mean the Dodge driver cabin
looks like a serious attempt to make driving a pleasure. But I
agree with my father: it is too bad they don't make better cars.
To me it looks like the Ranger is a good, solid pickup. 2008
truck. 1970 design.
The Japanese have asked the people what they expect in a
car and then exceeded those expectations. Ford marketing has asked
what is
traditional and has maintained those traditions. It reminds me of
Fiddler on
the Roof. Traditions are fine cultural legacies. So are
corded telephones. Some
legacies are
best left in museums: Nash, Hudson, Studebaker, Kaiser, Chrysler,
GM, and Ford. The days
of selling whatever you make
are history. I went cheap. I know I went
cheap.
I got what I paid for. I could have bought the Toyota or the
Nissan. But I went cheap. The sad thing ... I have
explained the sad thing. Enough.
Oh. So far I like my Ranger. I am disappointed that 40 years of progress have been lost on Ford but the car seems to be sturdy and, hopefully, reliable. Ford claims to be reliable. We shall see. As I said once to someone: You only complain about things that can be improved. Otherwise it is just bitching.
If you want bitching, see my diatribe on Ford Credit.
I am lucky. Had I awaited another week to change my oil, I
would have gone past the warrantee mileage. I hate it when
products are designed for the life of the warrantee rather than the
life of the product. And 36,000 is a minimal drive train
warrantee! So now I must either buy an extended warrantee or
trade the Ranger in for a real car. I think I will be better off
with a real car. I shall start looking at Nissan and Toyota
Ranger equivalents. Last time they would not deal on prices with
the Toyota recall problems and the state of the economy, and it being
almost April, I think they will bargain now. I hope so.
Every time I buy an American car, I regret it and promise never
again. I am getting too old to back down another time: this time
we will have a Japanese pickup or car.