It was very good to me. I liked the ride and performance. Did great offroad. For a small truck it was perfect. I really like its stock height, i didnt need to lift it to go offroad and it did suprisingly well.

Not that I'm trying to kill my Ranger...mind you it gets a constant diet of Amoco/BP 93 and Valvoline synthetic every 10,000 miles [all of my cars do], but at the end of October 2007 the odometer clicked 250,000 miles. It has yet to have a catastrophic failure or leave me stranded. There are no rattles, no squeaks, there is no wind noise and very little road noise. It doesn't drip a drop of anything on the garage floor but it is losing some power steering fluid either while it's in motion or gremlins are siphoning it out when I'm not looking as the fluid is slowly disappearing somehow. Like all of my cars, I keep up on their maintenance. I fix things before they break - the usual stuff like belts, hoses, plugs, wires, tires, brakes, shocks, filters, clutch, a weak battery and the like. What blows me away is that after 250,000 trouble-free miles, it's still as silent as a church mouse and steps lively. It's not at all worn out or wheezy. In fact, it feels like the are about 230,000 LESS miles on it than are really there. Ford shares this vehicle with Mazda, who calls theirs the B-Series [B2400, B3000, B4000, etc, to indicate engine displacement in CCs]. I guess a lot of my ongoing success with this truck is due to the 4.0 liter V6 that's under hood, along with the heavy duty towing package that helps elsewhere on the vehicle and the fact that I only have used the aforementioned 93 octane gas and full synthetic oil. The engine never strains to propel the truck, and the strong 5-speed manual is perfectly geared. I live in south-central NC and with this truck I have towed a Jetta from PA to NC, another Jetta from OH to NC, and most recently a Volvo 740 Turbo from Atlanta to here. It has been a car hauler many other times, too. Never did the truck feel overwhelmed by any of that cargo. The engine is a true gem - silent, powerful, tons of torque. It's not shy about gasoline consumption when it's being used to haul a heavy load or if I'm just pretending it's an oddly-shaped Corvette for a few minutes. I initially got 19 highway mpg when I took delivery of it [2nd owner, got it in 1997], but once I switched it to the more-slippery synthetic oil at the first change interval, my hwy mpg shot up to 25 and has stayed there since. That's an 8, sometimes 9 mpg increase just from changing the type of oil. My other cars didn't enjoy that big of an increase when I made the change, usually about 2-5 mpg more, but anything is better than nothing. The interior is spartan but functional. Everything works and the plastic is of a high-enough grade that it doesn't look cheap. The AC is powerful and will freeze you out of the small interior in just a few seconds on even the hottest day. At 5' 11", I wish there was about 1 more rearward click of the seat for me to be truly comfortable, but I can drive it across many states and not feel fatigued. The brakes are incredible, and they stop the truck quickly whether its pulling another car behind it or if I'm the only ballast added to it. They seem to last a very long time, too. The clutch is also long-lived, at least where I'm originally from since the cars there [in the mountains of PA] routinely need a clutch about every 60,000 miles. Where I live now is much flatter and surely that factors in to the life of the going & stopping bits on a vehicle. This Ranger is on its 2nd clutch, and shows no signs of wear yet. The original clutch was replaced at about 125,000 miles. The only complaint I can find about this vehicle is with the small cab and seat, for my height. It's a near-perfect vehicle and I can't muster a complaint otherwise. I've never owned a more-reliable or long-lived vehicle than this one. And I've had a lot of vehicles.

the truck is a good economical vehicle. i can beat the piss out of er and still get 20 mpg. watch out for older rangers with the leaf spring mounting locations. they rot out and rot the frame near the gas tank so keep your truck clean y'all

Good truck going on its 2nd life, this time around it will get a bit more work done to it and it will really become an off road machine. $1,000 worth of stuff in it and it will be completed and looking good. Can't wait.

Great little truck for all terrain and utility.