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Ford confirms Ranger, Bronco, will return 2019

I think the first Chevy LUV appeared in the early 70’s, well after the early Datuns. The 1[SUP]st[/SUP] generation LUV (Light Utility Vevicle) was pretty basic, I think the only option may have been to order one already rusted out. Really bad tin.

Favorite memory of a Chevy LUV was a brother-in-law’s poor student rustbucket. He lost everything but second gear 100 miles from home and the truck was DOA on arrival. We had it towed to a local shop.

The tow truck was one of those wheel –lift forks type. We followed the tow to the mechanics, which I should note was atop a very steep hill.

You know this is going; the driver lowered the LUV and retracted the arms. The LUV proceeded to careen down the steep hill, attaining heretofore unknown speeds, before coming to an abrupt stop when it broadsided a hulking SUV.

It was a good opportunity to inspect the chassis; rusted body parts flew off in every direction.

Hot dang, lookie what I found in the library. A 1986 paperback copy of Halberstam’s The Reckoning. 700 pages well worth a re-read. It is already pretty dog eared and will make a good tripping book.
 
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
 
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
Click to expand...
I'm looking at getting one for work to replace my old Chevy Colorado. They get good reviews although the combinations of cab style and engine get complicated.

I find most trucks too big now, hurts my knees to jump down off the back!
 
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
Click to expand...

I had to rent a car recently and they upgraded me to Nissan Frontier and I loved it. It was the only rental vehicle that I drove that made me feel bad about my 2002 Ranger and made me want to upgrade. I hope my next truck will be full size but if not I would definately look at the Frontier.
 
I have 2 friends that have them Frontier, They seem reliable, but not the greatest on fuel economy!!
 
If I were looking for a small pickup, the Frontier would be right up there on my list with the Tacoma.

Mike - yeah those LUV's weren't first or best, but where I was living at the time, they were far more numerous than anything else. IIRC, they were the first with front IFS. In my neck of the woods, they had a lot to do with the "acceptability" of mini trucks. I knew of a couple that went +200k miles, when that was a big deal. Yeah - they looked like heck in the end.
 
Thanks Guys !
That's making me feel better about driving into a Nissan lot soon. I'm real happy with a plain jane truck.

Jim

Y
 
Jim Dodd said:
Doing a little on line looking, I started looking at the Nissan Frontier.
Has anyone had any experience with them ?
Click to expand...

No experience , other than with 70’s still-Datsun badged stuff of friends that ran forever.

I looked long and hard at the Frontier in 2013 when I was truck shopping. I could readily get a more base model Frontier at the time, and would certainly consider a Nissan for engineering dependability, but there were things beyond price point that dissuaded me.

MPG was one, and, honestly, base model appointments were another. I am done with un-ergonomic bench seats. Gimme some big boy comfort bucket seat bolster; I may be in that truck seat for days at a time.

BTW, I am one of those weirdos who loves researching vehicles and car shopping, and as usual I visited Ford, Chevy/GMC, Dodge, Nissan and Toyota dealers with my prep work in hand. heck I hit Subaru and Honda for a looksee, even though they didn’t have anything appealing

It’s a game, and car salesman aren’t on the showroom floor long if they lack gamesmanship skills.

The game can be fun, and prep-work is the funnest part of that; I prepare grid sheets for sundry vehicle information, with blanks for various specs; engine, MPG and tank size, road clearance, storage capacity, spare tire. . . .every feature you can think of.

Most importantly including the five+ (confusing) prices car salesman throw around like Nerf Balls (invoice price, upcharges/prep, discounts, tags/title/taxes, out the door).. . .maybe six if I have a trade in. Those numbers become deliberately can’t-keep-track confusing, and I have wait-wait-wait caught them in sleight-of-hand shenanigans more than once.

Most importantly on that head-to-head comparison grid, a blank spot to staple their business car on the top corner. I relish that trick where the sales guy abandons me on the showroom floor, nostrils full of new car smell, to go “talk to his manager”.

I find a table and spread that crap out of everyone to see, Ford, Chevy, Dodge, Nissan, Honda, Subaru, Toyota. The colorful business cards stapled to the corner help attract attention. The sales guy will come collect you from the showroom floor like you are a lost dog with a $1000 reward.

Take your sweet time putting that crap away.

My proudest moment in new car buying was getting thrown out of Timonium Nissan in 1993 for such antics. That guy was pissed, lashed out and accused me of being a “professional buyer”. He might as well accused me of being exceedingly handsome and well hung.

I laughed all the way to the Toyota dealer.
 
I would have liked to see that Mike !

I remember a fellow I worked with, back in the early 70s, that went into several dealerships, with a list of what he wanted in the new car he wanted. Asked the salesman for the price of said car and options. He told the salesman where else he was going shop, with the same paper, and wanted the lowest price.
After three or four dealers he bought the car.

As for Nissan, there aren't that many dealers close by, and I'm sure each knows what the other guy is charging.

Funny story Mike !

Jim
 
Sounds like the makings of a viral youtube video, Mike!

Funnest time I had buying a car from a dealer was the last minivan we had (a Nissan). Managed to find two almost identical 2 year old vans at different dealers, and got them into a short bidding war. It helped that it was the slow season for car sales. That was a great little van too.
 
Some inside advice from someone who worked at a dealership. Many dealers used cars are on a "floorplan" from a bank. They make payments on it every month. Sometimes if you come in with a cash deal at the end of the month you can get a better deal because your vehicle will be taken off the plan off the plan saving them money.
Turtle
 
One customer of ours had an early 2000's Ford Escape (nice domestic vehicle) with a 4cyl. 5spd. in 2WD (FWD). She ran it to 185,000 miles before getting rid of it about a year ago (never even put a clutch in it). She wanted to replace it with another Escape but they no longer offered a 5spd and they'd gotten much "fancier". She went out and bought a small SUV made by Suzuki (forgot the model name) instead. We'll see how it holds up but after having it in a shop for oil changes a couple times I'm impressed with it. It's a nice and simple vehicle that looks well put together and easy to work on. No frills but not cheap either. She's a smart lady.
Click to expand...

Apparently my memory is failing me. Something didn't set right when I wrote Suzuki. I just looked up that customer and it was a Mitsubishi she picked up, not a Suzuki. An Outlander Sport to be exact.

Alan
 
Mike McCrea said:
No experience , other than with 70’s still-Datsun badged stuff of friends that ran forever.

I looked long and hard at the Frontier in 2013 when I was truck shopping. I could readily get a more base model Frontier at the time, and would certainly consider a Nissan for engineering dependability, but there were things beyond price point that dissuaded me.

MPG was one, and, honestly, base model appointments were another. I am done with un-ergonomic bench seats. Gimme some big boy comfort bucket seat bolster; I may be in that truck seat for days at a time.

BTW, I am one of those weirdos who loves researching vehicles and car shopping, and as usual I visited Ford, Chevy/GMC, Dodge, Nissan and Toyota dealers with my prep work in hand. heck I hit Subaru and Honda for a looksee, even though they didn’t have anything appealing

It’s a game, and car salesman aren’t on the showroom floor long if they lack gamesmanship skills.

The game can be fun, and prep-work is the funnest part of that; I prepare grid sheets for sundry vehicle information, with blanks for various specs; engine, MPG and tank size, road clearance, storage capacity, spare tire. . . .every feature you can think of.

Most importantly including the five+ (confusing) prices car salesman throw around like Nerf Balls (invoice price, upcharges/prep, discounts, tags/title/taxes, out the door).. . .maybe six if I have a trade in. Those numbers become deliberately can’t-keep-track confusing, and I have wait-wait-wait caught them in sleight-of-hand shenanigans more than once.

Most importantly on that head-to-head comparison grid, a blank spot to staple their business car on the top corner. I relish that trick where the sales guy abandons me on the showroom floor, nostrils full of new car smell, to go “talk to his manager”.

I find a table and spread that crap out of everyone to see, Ford, Chevy, Dodge, Nissan, Honda, Subaru, Toyota. The colorful business cards stapled to the corner help attract attention. The sales guy will come collect you from the showroom floor like you are a lost dog with a $1000 reward.

Take your sweet time putting that crap away.

My proudest moment in new car buying was getting thrown out of Timonium Nissan in 1993 for such antics. That guy was pissed, lashed out and accused me of being a “professional buyer”. He might as well accused me of being exceedingly handsome and well hung.

I laughed all the way to the Toyota dealer.
Click to expand...

LOL. My sister in law bought a toyota matrix long wile back, and sitting in the salesman office listening to everything he had to tell here about how reliable the car is, that she won't have any issue for hundreds of thousand of km and on and on and on.... To finally ask her if she will take the extended warranty with her new car, Her to respond, " what for? you just told me how reliable and trouble free this car will be!" I have to say she never had any trouble with yet!!
 
Whatever the product, when I am pressured to purchase an extended warranty, I just say - "if you think it needs it, then I don't want the item in the first place."
 
I have an '09 Tacoma with 190,000km, 4wd, leather, back up camera. I maintain it myself and plan to keep it going for another 10-15 years or until the axle falls off. I never did want the back up camera and leather but I bought it used and it came with all those things. Now, I wouldn't go back to cloth or no back up camera. Leather is so much easier to clean and back up cameras are the bomb.

All of what you say about high margins on the options is true. Companies don't want you to buy the base model of anything. My company sure doesn't.

I work in manufacturing and we model our business from the Toyota Production System, a system which work out its flaws by building quality into the process. Quality can't be inspected in to the product, it has to be systematically routed in through all aspects of the business - working with your customers, your factories, your suppliers, etc.

We keep statistics on warranty and repairs, and we use that data to drive improvements to our factory. We have voice of the customer calls, where we phone our largest dealers and talk to them about problems they are seeing so we can go out and address them in the factory. This builds relationships and fosters good will, and although sometimes the conversations can be difficult we look at them as opportunities.

Oh, and my next vehicle will be a Porsche. Dream car since I was 10. Base model though.
 
OK,you got me thinking Tacoma, but nobody has answered about the frame rust problem. I know it's real, I see them for sale with new frames. Any inside info here?
Thanks.
 
I would suggest perhaps going either to the Toyota corporate web site or force a dealer to answer the frame question and get it in writing. My 1990 Hilux I bought used several years ago and has 350,000 miles on it has a mostly pristine frame, which is surprising considering it was off roaded prior to my purchase. It was a southern US truck originally and as far is I know, only the US had the frame swap allowance.

On the subject of frames, go to any Dodge dealer and look under the trucks on the lot, they all come with pre-rusted frames.

PS, I googled the frame issue and came up with mostly disgruntled owners who have worthless trucks, and then this little gem...

http://www.autoblog.com/2016/11/14/toyota-3-billion-settlement-rusty-truck-frames/
 
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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. I ended up selling the truck for $4500 in 2013 with 240,000 miles on it. It cost $17000 new.
I never had one issue with the truck during the 12 years I owned it and I now have a 2013 extended cab Tacoma 5 speed 4 cyl. It should be my last truck.
 
Turtle,

OK,you got me thinking Tacoma, but nobody has answered about the frame rust problem. I know it's real, I see them for sale with new frames. Any inside info here?
Click to expand...

No inside info but this report states that 2005-2010 Tacomas could have rust problems... it's dated Nov 2016. If I were buying a used truck here in Ontario, rustproofing maintenance would be something to think about. So far the Krown oil spray rustproofing I've had applied to my truck (Ford Ranger) seems to have been working... I get underneath it once a year and inspect for rust.

http://autoweek.com/article/recalls/toyota-will-settle-truck-frame-rust-suit-suit-34-billion

Some car experts go so far as to say that rustproofing is unnecessary with the measures being taken in the factory to prevent rust, others say, play it safe and do the rustproofing.
 
Here's a report that claims rustproofing isn't necessary with modern vehicles, although rinsing off the underside to remove road salt is recommended.

http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2015/03/should-you-rust-proof-your-new-car-.html

Rust complaints with Ford Rangers seem to have decreased since the 90s when it seems there was a lot of rusting going on, so if the above report applies, measures may have been taken to prevent rust.
 
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