New Ford Ranger mega thread

Looks like Ford plans a redesign or significant facelift after two years: https://www.whichcar.com.au/news/2021-ford-ranger-is-this-it

 

The current one has been in production since 2011 so the platform is already long in the tooth.

 

And they still haven't got it right. To screw up something as basic as folding rear seats 8 years down the line makes me wonder what poor dog they are ****ing.

 

I just mentioned that yesterday too, the Colorado has the same goofy style back seat as the Ranger, sure glad some time was spent designing the Tacoma rear seat!

 

Not particularly a fan of Chevy but at least they got it to fold flat. Albeit higher than the taco, it does seem much faster and simpler to make the change than the taco so some will prefer it for that reason. How much seat adjustment is lost in the taco with the rear seats stowed?

 

Chevy does offer a rear seat delete option for access cab models at all trim levels. It's too bad you can't order a Taco TRD with utility package - the jump seats are easy enough to remove, the seatbelt retractor not so much.

 

https://vimeo.com/319392361

 

What would be great is if the companies agreed to true third party testing and real world testing protocols to come up with mpg numbers instead of the government doing it for them, but that’ll never happen.

 

Mine hits the numbers dead on. First vehicle to do that.

 

My 2013 got about 15 average mpg stock, 13 mpg with the blower, and now it's lucky to get 11 mpg with bigger tires. That's all on me though and too be fair I'm not particularly worried about fuel economy with the mods I've made and how I use my truck.

 

Seems many if not most aren't. Mine's a work truck daily driver so I use it to make money not piss it away through the tank. With the miles I drive the 50% better mileage I get(23 this tank) translates to an extra $1100-$1800 or more a year in my pocket depending on the price of fuel. I dont miss the power of the 4.0L since it was never enough anyway. Were I still skiing regularly I'd have a 4x4 and happily justify the cost same as others.

 

I have two trucks, one for work and one for play. The Tacoma is for play. The other truck regularly touches 20 mpg but has no lack of power. My kids also can’t kick the front seats lol, which is nice. I’m very lucky to have two vehicles though and I get that most people can’t pull that off.

 

Gotta say, after living with push-button start for a month, it is better than having a keychain jabbing into your leg all the time.

 

I'm not a fan of the push start. The other day I was driving my wife's car. We're way out at the end of the parking lot, snow everywhere. We load the car, she says she'll run the cart back and meet me at the front of the store. I get in, boom, can't start, they key is in her purse. You never know where the dang key is if you have two drivers. Super frustrating. The technology would be great if you were the only one to drive the vehicle. Or if they were credit card sized and each driver always had one on them. In it's current form it's just always frustrating.

 

How is that any different from her keeping the regular key in her purse and not giving it to you? That's the person's responsibility to keep track of the key.

 

Had it been a regular key, it would have been in my pocket when I shut the car off at the store. Since her purse was in the car in our garage, there was no need to put it in my pocket. Trust me. If you have two people driving the same car with a smart key, you literally never know where it is.

 

It isn't.

 

What's nice on most Ford and GM vehicles is the built in cellular remote start and unlock/lock. Many times I've started the truck and unlocked the doors from my phone from out of the range of the key fob when we are loading kids in the morning without dicking around with a fob or button on the door handle. Hopefully Toyota will include it on the 2020 refresh, I can't remember if it was one of the new features. It's free on Fords that have Sync 3 for 6 years. I'm not sure what the cost is on GMs since it uses LTE to communicate with your phone.

 

Or, you know, just take both keys that came with the vehicle... If the fob is too bulky, you can always get a Lexus credit card-sized key programmed at the dealer. The absence of knee-jabbing outweighs all these manufactured "inconveniences".

 

I both like and dislike the wireless key concept. It is nice in a lot of ways, but there are also car thefts now because people can just wait for you to hit lock on your key fob when you leave the car and gain the information they need to drive your vehicle away. It was a problem in Medicine Hat, Alberta not to long ago. The cops even put out a notice that people should manually lock their doors with the button inside the vehicle until they found the thieves.