i have a 2003 ranger. anytime i go to fix anything i end up having to enghineer a rig in order to make it work, nothing ever goes as planned. i hit 115k on my ranger right before christmas with oubout 1k miles on oil. soon after 115k miles the ranger blew up. $2000 and a giant pain in the a** to swap motors, because once again nothing went as it should and even down to the wiring harness had to be rigged somehow. if this doesnt make a car a pos then i dont know what does this is my expeirence though so i can speak for others i just wanted to put this info out there as just because you dont hear about something doesnt mean it doesnt happen. (2.3l regular cab stepside)
The inline 4’s I’m told were very long lasting. The 3.0’s not bad either, but the 4.0’s has timing chain guide issues. But I have the 4.0 and at 14 years old and 115,000 miles, I’ve had no issues. BUT, I also keep the oil changed.
thats what i thought, im 16 its my first car. as soon as i got it i changed the oil which wasnt bad to begin with. and the records of the car show its been sent into a shop for oil changeed its entire life. like when i bought it there was no reason to believe this thing was anything above prestine condition
Well sad for your ranger, maybe it was a bad year or this particular one? I don't know a lot about Ford pickup trucks reliability but I know people with rangers and they are happy with it. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but in my opinion f150s are decent pickup trucks and rangers are just smaller f150s, I don't see how they could be so different. It's not toyota reliability, but there is worse out there.
smaller F150? It's a different chassis, different body, different powertrain. Which part exactly does it have in common with the F150 besides the badge? The F150 is exclusively designed and built by Ford of N.America, whereas the Ranger was always kind of in international mix (including partnership with Mazda)
Well that's why I said I don't know a lot about ford pickup trucks reliability and to correct me if I'm wrong. I didn't know they were built in different places in the US. But I still don't think they are absolute trash, are they?
to sum things up my dads bought a new 2500 truck from dodge in 2014 it was in the shop 34 times he traded it in for a 2026 chevy that every once in a while youd turn a key and nothing was there, chevy couldnt fix it, not 2018 comes around he gets a f250 powerstroke and the death wobble issue is the only issue pressent, you can take this info however you want. and no from my knowledge a ford ranger is supposed to be a very good truck and often compared to the toyota reliability
Well it's good to see multiple opinions.
Usually Ford pickups have different engine options. One would be decent, the other horrible. Car Wizard has a video on it. Some are good enough, some aren't.
