unicornduke | (Reply)

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The "revamped" Rangers are bigger and kinda tricked-out. They look like they're more for people who want to *look* like they do pickup truck stuff instead of for people who actually *do* pickup truck stuff. As well, they do not come in manual transmission at all and they have a metric f-ton of electronics crap on them.

The 2006 I currently have is configured very similarly to your Tacoma. V-doors, manual transmission, 4wd. It's a great truck for my work purposes. Fits a fridge or a stove in the back, is easy to load because bed deck is a couple inches lower than in an F-150. Prior to this one, I had a 2000 Ford Ranger which rolled over 300K before I retired it (still running but with rusted out rocker panels) and gave it to brother-the-younger. I bought this one used at 100K, have put about 97K more on it.

There used to be a selection of nice little pickup trucks (Toyota made one, Nissan made one, Ford and Chevy both made one, GMC made one...) and they have all... gotten bigger or been discontinued. *sigh* My dad has a pretty nice condition 2015 Ranger that's an automatic. I guess I can take his once mine dies. (Dad is 80. His need for a small pickup truck is probably in the single-digit years at this point.)