What Makes The Ford Ranger So Great?

there Comes A Time in a car Brand's life where they just Peak it's not very often but sometimes they just make something that will never be able to be topped again for Ford this has happened a couple of times now first it was the GT40 that was used to beat Ferrari for multiple years in a row when nobody thought they could then it was the Mustang Boss which proved America was on top with the horsepower War but the one that many people forget about was a simple truck that still to this day is a perfect example of the midi truck my name is Mark Ronin and this is the Deep dive on the Ford Ranger [Applause] foreign [Music] in the early 80s the American car industry had to completely rework their vehicles something called the gas crisis had just happened in the United States and that meant that any company that actually wanted to sell cars in the United States which is a huge playmaker in the car industry had to start selling vehicles that were good on gasoline even though the gas crisis was a bad thing it really did spawn a bunch of cool cars because they had to think outside of the box since nobody could really afford to daily drive those big gas guzzling V8s anymore so this would kind of be the spawn to the whole Japanese sports cars craze in the United States but what about trucks I mean most trucks have big gas guzzling V8s as well right correct you nerd so of course the American companies had to think of some new trucks and after seeing the success of the mini trucks made by Datsun in Toyota in the past four knew it was time to bring them to their lineup the new heights and quality based on a survey of unreported problems during the first three months Ranger quality was unbeaten by any major small truck maker and Ranger has V6 power more horsepower than Chevy S10 of the Imports and a wider cab than any small truck for toughness horsepower and unbeaten quality it's Ranger down to earth tough the best built American trucks are built Ford tough the first generation of the Ford Ranger would fly into this world like the zombies from The Walking Dead yes that's where they say the Walkers came from by the way space they say they came from a space virus ridiculous and it was a massive success back in those days farming and manual labor and all the big boy meaty boy stuff was all the rage almost every man in America was some sort of blue collar worker and they needed something that could carry all their tools and speeding tickets which would massively help the sales of trucks this was not only the spawn of the wonderful Ford Ranger but was also what really put the F-series trucks and the Silverado on the map it was called a C10 back then though not the Silverado just an FYI the first gen Ranger was really nothing special to be honest it was offered with a ton of different engine options from a 2-liter inline 4 making only 73 horsepower all the way up to a damn 4 liter V6 making a respectable 140 horsepower which meant that no matter what kind of man you were or how much money you had or what kind of truck you needed there was an option available for you with the ranger just like colors always an option for you right now that's completely free it's called clicking that subscribe button since over 80 percent of you guys forgot to do so no pressure though my sleepless nights and you know none of your concerned anyways the Ford Ranger was built to combat the Chevy S10 and at this point the S10 looked significantly better so Ford would give our old boy a facelift please that's right partner in 1989 the Ford Ranger got his first of many facelifts and it really looked spectacular now at this point in its run time it was also offered with a payload of 1600 pounds which sure isn't like incredible in today's standards but it's still pretty good and back then that was more than the damn F-100 was offering and it was in a truck that was cheaper and better on gas and since Ford already established itself as a true American brand the fans of Ford and the normal citizens alike were eating this truck up selling at right under 300 000 models every single year which is insanely good and was significantly more than its main rival the Chevy S10 which was only selling around 200 000 models per year part of this is because of the name Ford being slapped onto the Ranger and people just going with that no matter what happens because Ford is such a big name in the American car industry but the big reason is simply because Ford made an incredible truck that the world did not know they needed and then they decided to do it again [Music] foreign that's right my friend this truck was not even close to done yet in 1993 after a damn 10-year production run they released to the world the second generation of the Ford Ranger it was the 90s now times were changing and so was people's tasted Vehicles they no longer wanted that boxy styling on cars and instead fully committed to the round and bubbly look can we just take a second to think about how drastically each card changed in the 90s by the way I mean it's like every company one day woke up and decided to start adding some curves to their vehicles finally to Supra went from The Mark III to the mark IV the Z went from the z31 to the z32 the Mustang went from the fox body to the sn95 and the damn M3 went from the E30 to the E36 it was a great time they were all changing and getting curvatures and they were going through puberty and it was awesome but back to the ranger the new ranger was now offered with way less engines but each engine was significantly better the 4 liter V6 now made a respect for 160 horsepower and the truck was still being offered as 4x4 or rear wheel drive only along with a bunch of different body options now including the icon neck flare side body style that I personally think looks horrible but a lot of people seem to love it for some reason a couple more things the second gen added to the first gen was in the STX models it no longer had a bench seat it was given a cassette player and AM FM radio it now had cloth upholstery it was given wonderful power steering too which is obviously on literally every car today but that's that's cool to me to like see exactly when like power steering became a normal thing because like I obviously don't like driving without power steering at all I feel like Captain Jack Sparrow the second generation of the Ranger only continued to grow in sales numbers reaching a wild 340 000 sales in 1995 alone so although I personally don't think the second generation Ranger looks that great everyone else seemed to love it but since Ford knew they could do so much better they did it again in 1998 they would release the third generation Ranger which still to this day is used every single day by millions of people worldwide [Applause] [Music] the new Ford Ranger the only compact pickup built Ford tough this new Ford Ranger was damn near perfect at this point to put into perspective how good this Ranger was I'm going to tell you a story gather around the campfire make some Room by The Hearth because I once had a friend who was a massive car guy he always had Miatas Mustangs BMWs and one day he decided to buy a Ford Ranger for a daily and he says still to this day four years after buying the truck and countless sports cars in between that it is still his favorite vehicle he has ever owned which I don't know about you but that tells me this is one damn good truck in terms of the power it was once again increased the truck now made 190 horsepower in the top engine option which was still the 4 liter V6 and the payload was now sitting a little bit lower than the start at 1300 pounds which is not that great but remember that this truck was built to be a daily driver with enough oomph to get the job done when it needed to in 1300 pounds is more than enough to get the job done anyway in terms of looks it looks a whole lot better to me than the previous generations and I really think they nailed it in terms of styling some people are obviously going to say that it looks boring but isn't that kind of the whole point nobody is looking for attention and looking to grab Every Girl's numbers when they're driving around in a damn Ford Ranger so it's not supposed to be flashy everything about this truck was kind of the opposite to be honest it was not meant for the fake it till you make it kind of mindset which may be a downside to some of you but I personally respect the hell out of that I hate when cars and trucks try to be something that they're not and the Ford Ranger knew exactly what it was it was a cheap reliable good on gas truck that had everything you needed to enjoy your driving experience and nothing that you didn't need and then they butchered it oh your highness I'm sure it's not that noticeable Bob the newest iteration of the Ranger family came out in 2019 and to me it completely lost its touch the truck no longer is a vehicle that is super humble and just gets the job done it looks too complex and lost all of its cool bits like the V6 and a manual transmission instead being only offered with a 2-liter turbocharged inline 4 that does make 270 horsepower but it's an inline four and it comes with an automatic transmission only which I mean give me the manual man who knows maybe these will when they come down in price are going to be a little bit as just as good as the last two generations to me and I may just have to give it time to settle but as of right now I personally don't like it too much and I think the majority of the community will agree with me there the 90s and 2000s Ford Rangers are trucks that I truly believe will never be able to be copied the only truck that comes close to what the ranger did was the old Tacomas which are very cool trucks too but just don't have that certain feeling to them there's a reason that the hole is at a Ford Ranger me game got so popular within the car Community they are such a guilty pleasure kind of vehicle for US Car Guys yes we obviously normally appreciate the big horsepower monsters like the M3s and Mustangs and Lambos but when a car is truly just a good vehicle and knows its place US Car Guys can't help but appreciate it it's like the LS400 nowadays the old Rangers are in my opinion one of the best first Vehicles out there for a new driver in high school especially in rural areas it does everything you could need it to do as a car guy in high school or college it will get you to classes on time and will do it reliably it is safe so when you get in your first crash you won't die and leave your family heartbroken it is ridiculously cheap for a model with right around 100 000 miles they'll sit around the 4 000 Mark dollar Mark all day which is incredible considering Ford Rangers can last well past 250 000 miles it also isn't too flashy so you won't feel under pressure when driving around it is incredibly forgiving with mistakes and a wonderful car to learn how to drive on and if all of that doesn't sell you on the truck then it can still be a fun little vehicle since it not only can go off-road and carry just about anything a high schooler will need it to carry but it can also do some fun rear-wheel drive stuff in the Burger King parking lot all of those things come together on the Ford Ranger to form the perfect answer to what makes the Ford Ranger so great [Music] [Music] why does it smell like fireworks but ladies and gentlemen that is the end of today's video on what makes the Ford Ranger so gosh typically darn good I hope you guys enjoyed if you did please be sure to like comment and subscribe to the channel for more content just like this also let me know what other deep types you'd like to see a video on I think the next one is going to be the Subaru Forester I promise you guys I would do the Forester a couple days ago and I didn't do it so I think in a couple days I will be doing the Forester but either way thank you guys so much for watching I appreciate it that's what Dania have a nice night

Channel: Mark Roden

Views: 77,033

Keywords: Jdm, Car, Cars, SmoothStance, Stance, Slammed, Lowered, Low, Bagged, Bags, Static, Coilovers, Fitment, Camber, How to, Tutorial, Install, Fun, Funny, Vlog, Fast, Sports cars, Under, 10k, Cheap, Budget, New, POV, Best, First, Part 1, Cops, Police, Crash, Crashes, Race, Racing, Drift, Drifting, Top 10, List, Ranked, Rank, Ranking, Tier list, 3k, 4K, 5k, Ford, Ranger, Truck, Mini truck, Build, Off road

Id: uNcbkcytRp0

Length: 11min 36sec (696 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 10 2023