Just came back from the machinery auction. Cheapest ranger went for 2500. Had 145,000 miles on it, no exhaust from the cat back, no rear window and a bed that needed to either be painted or a bedline be put in because of how nasty it was . All the other rangers from Progress Energy went for at least $4,100.

Typical Hondas went for stupid money as usual. (i.e. higher than private party book values )

 

Ford made the pinto for a few years...It sold a few units...Does that mean it wasn't "useless"? How about the Festiva? Or any other number of by-gone cars designed and produced by Ford or any other vehicle maker?

On 100K miles: Well, you have to remember that MOST people with cash on hand to be buying cars, still remember when vehicles only got 100K on them before needing a new engine or something else. i.e. over 35 or 40 years old. Most other people, ?U?N?DER that age, are looking for something they can not afford.

Prackticality is nada. The vehicle will sell to whoever has the money and the desire for such a vehicle. But if people want a vehicle that gets good mileage, they buy a 4 cyl CAR which gets 28 MPG and up. Not a truck which gets 18-23.

On your dad's fleet, good! Almost ANY vehicle, made after 1994 or so, that is properly maintained, will get in excess of 200K. (there are SOME obvious exceptions to the rule)

A ranger towing an F-150? Good! Thats cool! I can only imagine the condition it wad in....both BEFORE, and AFTER it was done.


Look around at Dodge Caravans. They were the most popular mini-van during the late 80's and early 90's. (And beyond IIRC) People bought them, and used them to tow small boats and other smaller loads. The problem was that they treated these MINI-vans, like their older larger cousins......full sized vans. Which were built with V-8 engines and larger transmissions designed to handle the loads.





I'm not saying that your truck WON'T fetch the price you're asking. I'm saying that I wouldn't pay that much for a 1/2 a truck. If I'm going to buy a truck...I want one that will HANDLE a decent load, like a vehicle, and not have any issues with it when I get to a hill, or worse, a mountain pass. BVefore you say "a mountian pass...yeah, we have a TON of those around here". I've moved to and FROM Seattle, more times that I care to admit. And every time, I've towed a vehicle through the Rocky Mountains.

 

Comparing a 28 year span vehicle like the ranger (the 4cylinder variant)which is from 1983-2011,to a Pinto that was poorly designed and unsafe, which ran from 1971-1980 is blasphemy!

The Ranger is a replacement of the Ford Courier station wagons from the 1960's . So technically this need for small trucks has been around for at least 50 years in the Ford corporation.

I wouldn't compare that at all to the Ford Pinto, which didn't even need to be positioned at the time with the 4 cylinder Mustangs and Escorts already in place. Ford was in the business of wasting resources and instead of bringing over the wildly popular euro Escort, they thought Americans wanted a POS new design that was bigger. If only...

It all comes down to supply and demand. There's a demand for these "1/2 trucks", there wasn't enough demand for the Pinto. Thus one line running 30 years and the other line running 9


-Rant
It's the natural selection of things, just like government bailouts of failing businesses. The only way to fix a bad business model is to let them fail, if they fail and get backed up (i.e. bailout) , they will never learn, and fail again. This isn't the first time the government has had to bail out auto makers, probably won't be the last. So dumb!

 

Finally, we agree for the most part.

 

This brings to mind Obama and the Chevy Volt. Worthless POS. (the Volt not...well, on second thought I stand by my original statement.)

 

Yep, just like Chrysler, we bailed them out back in 1979, then 30 years later we bail them out a second time? And look where they are, still failing. lol Government including Bush's bailout and Obama's Volt need to stay out of big business and let them crumble if they can't manage to control their finances

 

+1

I'm still waiting on my bailoout. I mean, I had a business which suffered because of the economy too ya know. I eventually ended up closing my martial arts school due to low enrollment. I spent $30,000 starting it up, and ended up in the hole about another $30,000 when it was all said and done. I want $75 to do it all over again. I can get it right this time...I swear I can.

 

Sold the truck by the way $2,500 I had to convince them the power steering noise was normal. I can't believe there's people out there still that don't know Ford power steering pumps sound like hell, especially in the trucks. I had to show them my Escort did the same thing to convince them haha.


I lost my business and my house I put a second mortgage on to get the business started. No bailouts for me either. Mine had a twist to the story because my old landlord wanted a cut on my profits after he saw me raking in the cash, and I said no, so he locked me out of my own building(still dealing in court over this ), but still. Where's my money?!

 

No bail outs for you unless you are union and voter for Obama the first time around. if you're just a normal guy, you are worthless to him. As a matter of fact, you are kind of a thorn in his side.