98 Ranger XLT extended cab. I've added trailer brake control for livestock hauling and a modern stereo with bluetooth, handsfree calling, and a sealed 10" sub cause I'm a metalhead.

It's got the pushrod V6 that will last forever, in 99 they switched over to those awful self-destructing cassette timed V6s.

It throws no codes. Redid intake manifold and valve gaskets about 18 months ago, but I've got increased Idle RPM and minor oil leak again. So, I have to redo it, looking for a more permanent fix.

My truck does 10x the work most of those oversized pavement princess trucks do. It's a little truck for our little play farm.

I race cars in actual scca and lemons races 15 times a year supported by my family and friends while enjoying a 15 year old Miata that's slower than my wifes Outback.

I am living my literal childhood dream. There are far better ways to try and flex than driving a 20 year old truck you bought for $2000 and driving around an NC Miata.

It's just so amazing how you (and most) make up these imaginary personalities and personas of people based off an article you've read 7 years ago linking to a private report that nobody has actually .

Like, conspiracy theory Joe Rogan levels of trusting that and then creating an imaginary person in your head. Bonkers!

And those people who do buy trucks would often be happy with a much smaller one. They don't exist. No, not even the Maverick. That's "well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it" for trucks.

2 things:

1. The new truck has 4 doors. That's a crew cab.
2. Part of the reason for today's massive trucks is a change in CAFE regs starting in 2012 that bases fuel economy standards on vehicle footprint. It's easier to make a larger footprint than a more efficient vehicle.

So, someone else needs to own and pay for such a vehicle just you can mooch off of them for free?

So where do you apartment dwellers store your trailer?

Nope. He's saying that the weight of the battery pack eats up 2000lbs of towing capacity. Plus the shit frames they are built on to cut weight to help due to the battery packs.

A perfect 5/7

Yeah absolutely. And I believe we have some really stupid laws that help that effect along. Consumers are also to blame as well, but they always are.

Why can't they make the Maverick a 2 door!

The Slate is the currently the only modern option for a mini-truck (if it releases).

I look forward to it. It's roughly the same price as my 95 Ranger, inflation adjusted.

Nice. Mine was Cayman Green, a couple of shades lighter than yours and a 4-banger, but similar otherwise.

I loved the Ford Mazda connection. I wish Ford hadn't sold off their stake in the company. My current car is a Mazda 3 and the (Mazda designed) 4-cylinder in it was also used in later model Rangers before they were discontinued.

It’s easier more profitable to make a larger footprint the consumer buy a larger vehicle than a more efficient vehicle.

Minor fixes, spot on otherwise.

There's 2 F series trucks for every square mile of this country. Do you think they are all out there hauling loads and trailers, off roading and actualling being used for truck stuff, or do you think that the vast majority of them are single occupant highway battering rams built to make small men feel big and important?

Remember, 2 per square mile, and that just one series of trucks, from 1 manufacturer, going back just 10 years.

In the absence of hard statistics, I think a gut check on the sheer scale of trucks being sold in the US will suffice.

Both can tow. The new Ranger can tow more because it's really a mini F-150. Buying a compact pickup to get back seats is dumb.

It doesn't bother me that larger trucks exist, but some of us want compact pickups.

The ranger only tows 8000 lbs iirc. Not enough for me. I'd probably get a large SUV at that point. I think most people I've met with bigger trucks care mostly about towing capacity vs having a bed.

I agree there is a gap in what you want, I just personally think the use case is less common and not what I want haha.

Everyone I know uses them pretty consistently to tow. I know of one or two people who don't use it well. I think a portion of them probably could get away with a ranger.

In the absence of any real data, trying to roughly include my small suburban town just outside of rural (more used and working class users) anecdotally it wouldn't surprise me to see anywhere between 20-35% of owners not having any sort of real use for their truck. I'd wager that most of those owners are new owners as well.

That's not to say there aren't dumb idiots living in downtown NYC being morons. I just don't think it's remotely as crazy as the fuck cars community would have you believe.

My current daily driver, which I won't upload my own photo of because it's literally enough to dox me (by people who know me IRL), is one of these:

It's not an SUV, but air suspension allows it to rise taller than some crossover SUVs, providing decent clearance. And on the road you can lower and stiffen it for better handling (or keep it in the comfort position for normal height and soft suspension). Both axles are always being driven, with front and rear diff locks being electronic, based on the ESP system.

It doesn't do as much work as your truck, but then I don't live on a farm. If I did, I'd have a truck too. It does however do significantly more work than any of those pavement princesses. In particular, it's been used for towing trailers, I've had the entire trunk, with rear seats folded down, filled when I moved most of my furniture. I've gone off road in it because I needed to go to the woods. Everything was muddy afterwards.

I'll use yank units for the fun of it, so it's got around 250k miles on it. It's a remapped 3.0 diesel, so it does over 40 mpg very easily unloaded, and can keep up with pretty much anything on the road because of the ridiculous amount of torque it puts out. I paid less than 2k EUR for it (paid pretty much exactly 2000 USD given current exchange rates actually). With all the torque it has, you could also easily tow way more than the legal limit of such a vehicle - which I've never needed to.

It's also rusty, scratched up, dented, etc. Some of the unnecessary extras don't work (park distance control? lol no, it's shorted out) It's not the best car I've owned, but it's the best one I've had for getting shit done. 3 months and 6000 miles so far, I've spent ~500 to replace some safety-critical neglected parts (brake, suspension) some of which will last the next 100k miles and some hopefully indefinitely (updated to a newer, more reliable ABS module).

It wasn't cheap for the first person who bought it, but neither are modern trucks. It was cheap to buy used though, unlike trucks. Parts are cheaper too, but that's partly because I'm in Europe.