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Ford confirms Ranger, Bronco, will return 2019

I think it depends on the manufacturer. GM and Ford seem to rust out worse than ever. Not so much the frames but the bodies. Maybe they've got it back under control now but from the early 2000's to around 2011 or so they don't seem to be very good. Guess we won't know until the newer vehicles get more age and mileage on them.

I had a 2001 Tacoma that had a new frame installed about 2007-8 iirc. The dealer did an excellent job, new frame, rear springs, hangers. Cost me $120.00 for new parts.
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That's pretty amazing. Never heard of GM replacing anyone's rusted out frame for $120. It's not terribly uncommon to see GM pickups from the mid-late 90's that are hunched up from tweaking a rusted frame over large bumps. Never happened to us but have heard from a fair number of other shops in the rust belt who have had Chevy frames buckle and bend when trying to lift the vehicle up on a hoist.

I can't comment on the Tacoma's frame rusting issues as we just don't see Tacomas here. GM and Ford still rule in this area when it comes to trucks. Any imports are almost strictly cars, mini-SUVs and mini-vans.

Alan
 
I have 4 Toyotas after owning a couple Fords. The 91 Bronco was awesome (maybe too tall for constantly loading canoes) and I wouldn't mind getting another one some day. I traded my 99 Ranger in for my current Tacoma I bought new in 2005. It did have the frame replaced this past summer. Frame, springs, coils, lower control arms, ball joints, new fluids, wiring harness, new body mounts and bolts even. It cost me $85 total because my refrigerant was low before they started. The paperwork indicated that Toyota paid the dealership $12K to perform the recall. There's no buy back like the 2004 and earlier models because Dana/Spicer who provided the deficient frames has to pay for it all. I will be comparing the Tacoma to the new Bronco when the time comes but the overall value will most likely be in favor of the Tacoma. I drive my vehicles to 250K or more and then give them away, but I know the Tacoma maintains a high resale value. Tacoma's and Subaru's seem to be the boater's choice around my area in PA. ....But those Bronco's were super cool!

Barry
 
About rust and road salt in general, while vehicle frames and bodies have gotten better, depending on where you live the stuff put on the roads may have gotten worse.

If you live in an area where the roads are pre-treated with brine solution before snow or ice, much worse. Some of the brine solutions contain magnesium chloride instead of sodium chloride. That stuff is nasty, especially if you park in a garage that is above freezing.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/loca...ce812b3fdd2_story.html?utm_term=.f2a7478507c1
 
The chicken tax and strong words spoken led Mazda to get into bed with Ford, in so many words. This partnership and others like it resulted in Japanese - American vehicles rolling around our roads in the 90s. I drove a brand baby spanking new Mazda/Ford pickup off the lot one fine spring day. Nice little 4 cyl. 5 speed standard 4x2 xtra cab; very easy on gas and never made so much as a whimper or a whine. I eventually outgrew it. Those little trucks don't fit a family of 5, believe me I tried. I should've gotten the undercoating done. The box started to rust through after 5 years. I loved that little truck, but fitted with a cap it was like crawling into a tiny Aladdin's cave; over the tailgate and into the tools and gear on all fours got real old real fast. Gosh I miss that truck.
 
Today's news release... sounds like Ford expects some big sales. IIRC President Trump was tweeting this morning... this is big, big news, really big, folks! Believe me, these new trucks are going to be incredible, just incredible, time to make the Ranger great again!

;)


DETROIT - Ford Motor Company announced Tuesday it will invest $1 billion in Michigan plants to prepare for the production of the new Ranger pickup truck and Bronco SUV.

Auto enthusiasts have been anxiously awaiting the comeback of these two iconic Ford vehicles. The automaker announced during this year's auto show in Detroit the Bronco will be back in 2020 and the Ranger will be back in North America in 2019.
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http://www.clickondetroit.com/automo...nco-production
 
It would be nice if they offered the Bronco in a stripped down version for those of us who don't have 40K plus for these vehicles.

We had 2 Chevy Suburbans when the kids were young, 78 and 89. Both had rubber floor mats, crank up windows, no ac on the 78, manual trans with a minor chrome trim and nice rally wheels.

Good looking inexpensive big vehicles for a young family who lived on a budget. We fished the Montauk beaches and road tripped to Canada every year with those vehicles.

Today you can't order a vehicle like that, too many mandatory option$
 
Robin said:
It would be nice if they offered the Bronco in a stripped down version for those of us who don't have 40K plus for these vehicles.

We had 2 Chevy Suburbans when the kids were young, 78 and 89. Both had rubber floor mats, crank up windows, no ac on the 78, manual trans with a minor chrome trim and nice rally wheels.

Good looking inexpensive big vehicles for a young family who lived on a budget. We fished the Montauk beaches and road tripped to Canada every year with those vehicles.

Today you can't order a vehicle like that, too many mandatory option$
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I agree, I dream of the day you can get a real utility truck, no or very little electric/electronic, standard, manual window, no ac.... Bare bone, just what you need, 4 wheels a great engin and drive train, solid body and frame!!
 
There is an odd trend out this way that just before you retire you buy a new truck. So, one fellow at work bought a GMC Canyon SLE and paid 46k, he is 59 and retiring at 60. The other fellow is 64 and got a full size GMC and paid 64K.

Every now and then we like to sit down and do the build and price option on the biggest truck that is available with all the options. Today was a Ford Super Duty 450.

2017 Ford F-450 Platinum Crew Cab, 8', 6.7L 4 Valve Power Stroke® Diesel V8 (B20) Engine, TorqShift® 6-Speed SelectShift® Automatic w/6.7L, 4.30 Limited Slip Axle Ratio, 4X4, DRW. With fees and taxes.. $111,338, or, a bi-weekly payment of $736.00 for 6 years.

Last weekend I was reading a review of the new Tacoma and they panned it because the ride was rough! It is a truck after all, I guess they forgot that part.
 
Will be picking up my new Tacoma next week; long story short...grandsons equal the need for legal back seats. Anyway, I was really disappointed that I could no longer get a manual transmission vehicle without also agreeing to it being 4 wd. I bit the bullet but I'm not particularly happy about it. For where & how I drive, the manual is a safer way to go in my opinion because it gives you more options when driving; especially downhill in the snow.

I remember the "old days" when you could go to the dealer and essentially build the vehicle you wanted. Now when you click on "build" (at least on the Toyota site) you get very few options and most of them are pretty expensive. I even had to shell out an extra $30.00 to get the tie down clamps for the bed of this truck. I would much prefer a stripped down vehicle without all the perks the dealership tells me I want. What I really want is just legal back seats, 4 cyl, 2 wd and a manual for shifting through the gears. Nothing else.

My wife says this is the price we all pay for the newly automated assembly lines where the majority of the work is done by robots. She may be right but it's a bitter pill to swallow nonetheless; at least I think it is.

In the end I'm sure I'll be happy with the truck but it still grates that I had to purchase a 4 wd just to keep a manual transmission. There ought a be a law ;)

That's all for now. Take care and until next time...be well.

snapper
 
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For where & how I drive, the manual is a safer way to go in my opinion because it gives you more options when driving; especially downhill in the snow.
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I haven't had a 5 speed in years. Not because I can't drive one or don't like them but simply because I'm a bottom feeder and I take what comes along, which is automatics. Anyway, in your situation why not just manually shift the automatic? I live in the flat lands but have done plenty of driving in mountainous areas. Manually downshifting into 1st, 2nd, or 3rd has never been a problem with automatics. Nor is locking it in 1st when crawling up and down rocky desert 4x4 trails. Manually shifting an automatic isn't nearly as fun as a manual but it seems to get the job done.

Alan
 
Alan - I certainly understand your suggestion but it's your last statement that resonates with me. I feel like I'm actually driving when I'm doing so with a manual transmission. Guess that makes me a bit of a dinosaur; which is still OK by me!

That's all for now. Take care and until next time...be well.

snapper
 
snapper said:
Alan - I certainly understand your suggestion but it's your last statement that resonates with me. I feel like I'm actually driving when I'm doing so with a manual transmission. Guess that makes me a bit of a dinosaur; which is still OK by me!

That's all for now. Take care and until next time...be well.

snapper
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I understand completely. Most of us are in the same boat, literally. Where most people use motor power we use paddle power (except for that traitor Memaquay). Taking off from a dead stop on a steep hill where rolling backwards more than a few inches will lead to trouble is no big deal with an automatic but gives a real sense of accomplishment (and relief) with a manual.

Alan
 
Mihun09 said:
2017 Ford F-450 Platinum Crew Cab, 8', 6.7L 4 Valve Power Stroke® Diesel V8 (B20) Engine, TorqShift® 6-Speed SelectShift® Automatic w/6.7L, 4.30 Limited Slip Axle Ratio, 4X4, DRW. With fees and taxes.. $111,338, or, a bi-weekly payment of $736.00 for 6 years.
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$100,000+ trucks? Please Sir, may I have another?

I have read that the best profit margins in new vehicle manufacture for the big three are in selling over-gussied pick ups.

That alone makes me wonder what Ford is planning or where they will go in the future with the Ranger and Bronco. I doubt they will offer a basic manual-everything work truck, and if they do I’ll bet it won’t last long. Even the foreign manufacturers don’t offer such a sensible, basic, economical work truck anymore (mores the pity).

I do think there would be a demand for such a basic workman’s truck, just not enough obscene profit margin.
 
not exactly a canoe , but rather a PenYan cartopper , Had a lot of fun with that truck and boat back in the ,70,s
 
Mike,

That alone makes me wonder what Ford is planning or where they will go in the future with the Ranger and Bronco. I doubt they will offer a basic manual-everything work truck...
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IIRC the news reports said that a basic version under 25K will be available with some saying base price might be less. This could be the same sort of economy truck with the four-banger, high mileage, fuel economy that sold well earlier. It's true that Ford makes some pretty good profits on those shiny loaded luxury trucks with butt warmers and rear view mirror wipers.

Thank God the Sea Splash Ranger isn't being offered... can you imagine being seen in this monstrosity, worse than sticking red-hot needles into eyeballs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wspesAEPhmA
 
Oh gawd I couldn't get past the 03 second mark of the see splat. I've been known to look down my nose at tarted up pickups. Maybe I'm jealous. Or more likely I miss my uncle's old GM from the 50s. No phat tires nor shiny rims, no pearlescent paint, and no fuzzy dice anywhere. A plain work truck for his plastering business. Just enough room in front on the bench seat for an inquisitive little nephew, and acres of space in back for tools, planks and junk.
I once owned a bare bones pickup myself. 4 cyl, 5 speed, 2wd, crank windows...can't remember if it had ac. The salesman couldn't believe his luck when the man after spurning all the doodads and bells on offer crumpled and accepted to add a hood deflector. Smoky coloured and curved pos. I couldn't believe it either. I hated looking at that every day I drove that truck, but after paying the extra $100 couldn't bring myself to remove it. Kept hoping for the lucky day I'd hit something. Actually, I did hit something eventually. A bird, and it was a big one. Might've been a duck. It bounced off the windshield and kept flying, leaving behind a glutinous smear of crap and egg (!!). But it never as much as glanced off the deflector. dang. That expensive piece of plastic must've done it's job.
 
Jim Dodd said:
Doing a little on line looking, I started looking at the Nissan Frontier.
Has anyone had any experience with them ?
The closest dealer is about 100 miles away, which I'd of course like it if they were closer, but when you live in the Sticks, You get what you get !

Jim
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I have a 2012 Nissan Frontier PRO-4X. It already has close to 150,000 km on it and I enjoy driving it. The nice thing about Nissan compared to Toyota is that many features on the Nissan are standard including a tough sprayed on bed-liner and bed rails with mounts for tying down loads (this was not the case for Toyota when I was in the market for a mid-size truck). Added bonus, my PRO-4X came with a roof rack that perfectly fits my canoe.
 
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frozentripper said:
IIRC the news reports said that a basic version under 25K will be available with some saying base price might be less. This could be the same sort of economy truck with the four-banger, high mileage, fuel economy that sold well earlier. It's true that Ford makes some pretty good profits on those shiny loaded luxury trucks with butt warmers and rear view mirror wipers.
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If that 25K is in Canadian dollars, under $19,000 USD, it could be the small, basic work truck that is missing. But a 2017 base Nissan Frontier (if you can find one available) is $18,000 USD, and even that “mid-sized” truck is pretty well appointed.

https://www.nissanusa.com/buildyour...53&dclid=CMv2jdSmhtMCFWa1swodBRgJGg&year=2017

I’ll be interested in how “base” a model is available unoptioned. Crank window, manual 5-speed, two-seat or bench with no “extra cab” backseat, limited electronica/ simple sound system, vinyl floor mats. Open the window to adjust the sideview mirrors, back up camera means turn your head and look.

Those were the days, and I kinda doubt they’ll come again.

And then I’ll be curious whether Ford continues to produce such an affordable starter truck, or whether it gets bigger and fancier and bloats into something else over time, same as every other once affordable plain vanilla small pickup.
 
I’ll be interested in how “base” a model is available unoptioned. Crank window, manual 5-speed, two-seat or bench with no “extra cab” backseat, limited electronica/ simple sound system, vinyl floor mats. Open the window to adjust the sideview mirrors, back up camera means turn your head and look.
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That's my 2010 Ranger, except for 4WD and the extra cab space behind the seats which was sufficient for a dog, with hot dog breath being kept further away and downwind from the air flow provided by ventilation, panting in anticipation for are we there yet?

Self-driving vehicles seem to be coming and Ford reports megabucks being invested in the hi-tech developments that will be needed. Performance in snow where the edge of the road can't be picked up by sensors is said to be poor so I have my doubts that it can be made to work in the northern wastelands. You guys further south should be good to go and the killer smart phone junkies kept from driving dangerously on crowded roads when a robot can do that better. I can see MADD, Mothers Against Dumb Drivers, being a real force for autonomous vehicles, a united force pitted against smart phone users in vehicles.

Ford's March sales are in and F-series trucks are up again, 10% higher than a year ago, while car sales by contrast dropped. Some of those must be for pretty basic tracks for fleets and business so maybe the Ranger will join in with some kind of basic truck being offered. Still all rumors and we really don't know what's to be made available until Ford decides on a news release.
 
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