1st Nov 2009, 21:18

Most folks who actually OWN 4-cylinder vehicles know they are not "slow" and "underpowered". Several years ago I took my 4-cylinder Ranger on a cross-country camping trip. We were shooting some videos of the Great Plains and in one shot the camera was panned across the instrument panel and you can see the speedometer. It is clearly pegged. We ran that way across most of Texas and Oklahoma.

I now own a 4-cylinder Fusion. You can floor it at 100 mph and it will downshift to 4th and peg the speedometer.

The "slow" and "underpowered" labels generally come from spoiled car magazine writers who regard any car that takes longer than 5 seconds 0-60 as "underpowered".

There are even those who call the awesome V-6 Mustang "slow" because it takes 6.9 seconds 0-60. That is VERY fast for the average vehicle.

2nd Nov 2009, 17:53

I'd have to agree. 4-cylinder engine aren't real slow. They're not torque or power monsters, but they do pretty well. I have a '95 Neon with a SOHC Inline 4. This thing, while it looks slow, is actually quite fast. I've timed myself at a 0-60 time of 9.6 seconds. Not half bad for a 15 year old car with over 83,000 miles on it. Oh, and it's completely stock by the way. I'd take a 4 banger over a V8 any day.

31st Jan 2010, 22:27

I have a 96' Ford Ranger. It has 95k miles. And its the best truck I have ever owned. Only thing we had to change was the timing belt.

1st Nov 2010, 23:08

1996 Ranger - bought with 155K miles. 3.0L V6, Auto, SuperCab. Runs like a top.

Great truck - smooth, good MPG (21-22 highway, 18-20 city), nice driving vehicle for a truck, well built for a 15 year old truck.

How good is that? Any Chevy S10s that are 15 years old that can say that?

11th Dec 2010, 02:58

I own a 1996 Ford Ranger XLT 2.3 liter. Very good on gas, 20 to 26 miles per gallon. Helps if you install a high performance air filter; it's a gas saver and slightly ups your horsepower. "More gear shift time", which in fact it's a manual transmission, so it helps.

I mean it's just a half cab, so the bed is a little light. A little weight in the back won't hurt. Recommend installing a couple extra leaf springs to haul a more of a heavy load, but other than that, it's a great 2WD in any condition.

The only problem I had recently, was that I turned the ignition key, and my ignition casing didn't lock up fully, and it went past its turning point and broke off. But it's an easy fix, just have to take the bottom shell of the steering column off, and push the pin up underneath, and pull the casing out in order to replace it. But I had a slighter bigger problem that the ignition cylinder; the tail part in the middle cracked off when it turned the whole way, so I'm gonna have to dig out the broken piece that's within the column.

Other than that, I've had no problems with the motor itself... Convenient/reliable truck, and very ego friendly semi small truck ;)...

robertmjr85@yahoo.com

17th Feb 2011, 10:32

In 94 I bought a brand spanking new ext cab 2.3 litre 5 speed Ford Ranger. It was in no way underpowered! It ran like a champ for the 100,000 miles I had it for. My truck was one of the good ones! Probably made on a Wednesday!

From new it would smoke the tires in first gear, lay a 4 foot patch in second gear and chirp third every time! After the motor was broken in, I even barked fourth a handful of times...

It was truly a great stock truck and I wish I could buy it all over again! That truck didn't have one easy mile on it the whole time I had it and it never gave up! I don't know whatever happened to it but I'm sure it's still out there somewhere, hopefully getting beat around, at least a little...