Faults:
ABS was screwing up... would come on every time I would come to a stop. It ended up just needing cleaning.
The transmission makes a awful clunking. On step-off, even with the lightest step-off imaginable, the whole truck shakes. The same thing happens when you come to a stop. Nothing has broken yet, but I don't have much faith it's going to fix itself.
Something is wrong with the starter. Most of the time the truck fires right up without a problem. Other times, it will sit there and try to start without any fire, and other times it won't even turn over. I haven't addressed this yet because it doesn't happen enough.
Drivers side door hinge came loose, resulting in unimaginable effort to close the door right.
The wheels are corroding... ugly as you can imagine.
General Comments:
I bought this truck because my Tacoma was bought back by Toyota for frame rust. I loved that truck, and it isn't going to be easy to ever replace it.
I sit up higher in my Ranger than the Tacoma.
About the only thing I like over my Tacoma is the looks of the interior of this truck. The beige interior surpasses the Tacoma's bland and boring gray interior. Even though my Tacoma's lame interior was well, lame, it was built much better than this one. I never heard a squeak, rattle, or buzz in my 9 years of owning it. I've had this for about 3 months and it sounds like the whole thing could fall apart.
Other than that, I don't like the Rangers flexy chassis. On "washboard" gravel roads and heavily pitted roads, the truck will immediately swing it's rear end out. The only way I can avoid this is if I slow down to maybe 10 mph. It's already sent me into a field once, and it was during the summer. Thank God there was no damage. I'm interested to see how it handles in a Pennsylvania winter. Also, I realize that this truck is NOT a sports car, but come on. The steering is as numb as a prosthetic leg, and it rolls so much I feel like I'm going to tip over if I take a turn at more than 30 mph. My Tacoma cruised around corners like a breeze, and my Tacoma never skirted off the road like my Ranger does.
The 4.0 V6 is decent off the line, but you might as well forget about passing that dawdling Taurus in front of you. The only way you can really pass someone quickly is to turn the overdrive off and hold it to the floor. My 4 cylinder Tacoma could pass quicker than this thing, and that's saying something. Not to mention fuel economy. I realize that this is a truck, but it is a COMPACT truck. One of my co-workers drive a Toyota Tundra with a 4.7L V8 in it and we average the same mile per gallon!! (18 mpg)
Overall, I'm pretty disappointed. This truck only has close to 70k miles. Besides the frame rusting out, my Tacoma ran like a champ, and it had 110k miles on it when it was bought back.
Man I miss my Tacoma...
