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Compact Pickup Comparison: Frontier, Ranger, Tacoma, S10, Dakota, B-Series, & Hombre
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Tacoma towhooks are also bolted directly to the frame.
As for "it takes a real man": yep, it does. Thanks a bunch. I have no lift, stock tires, thanks.
However, if you ever bothered to read trail classifications, you'd know that trails differ by level of difficulty:
1. No 4x4 required.
2. 4x4 Recommended most of the time.
3. 4x4, 32s, locker required.
4. 35s and so on and so forth.
This is just an example of how trails in Del Rio are. Now....taking stock truck to 1, 2 and MAYBE 3 is fine. But you can't go where big boys play. It's that simple. No matter how much a "real man" you are, if the rock step is 3 feet tall, there's no way you get a stock Ranger up there. If you think you can, I'd like to see it. Come down to San Antonio and show us all how you can climb 3-foot vertical steps at the waterfall in stock Ranger.
Lift and bigger tires are just tools that let you go places where stock trucks dream of going.
I rode in 98 or 99 XLT Ranger once, from a rental company. Now that was a cheap-looking truck, inside and outside. Inside it had this poisonous yellow plastic and seat material. I guess Ford calls it "Oak".
As for S/C Nissan: did the program have any Nissan commercials in the breaks? It was most definitely sponsored and paid for by Nissan Motors Co! (Which is actually a good thing to check: who paid for it. Microsoft has been guilty of running many "studies" they paid for that tend to lean in their favor).
S/C Nissan is an underpowered heavy truck with styling thats 20 years ahead of its' time. Plastic spaceship, anyone?
LOL
just how far will those crap plastic belted $50 BFG's take you? how many towhooks you got?
oh yeah, most rental companies get the cheapest vehicles they can. ie probably an XL with the cheaper interior materials. just like non-SR5 toyotas, but i bet that ranger you rode in had a clock, eh? LMAO
The BFGs that I have get me far enough. Definitely further than you can get now. I'm planning to get new tires soon.
As for the interior: Even non-SR5 Taco can't compare to the scary interior of that Ranger.
and you call it a truck. yeah, whatever scorpio.
wait until i get my liberty, and we'll see how far you can get then.
As for Liberty: when you actually get one, you can come back and start Liberty vs. Tacoma thread. If you think dash rattle in Tacoma was bad.....heh, just wait what your Liberty will bring you. I don't doubt the Jeep name, but since you take carpoint site for a bible (of course, it's bashing Tacoma), you might want to read what other people have said about Liberty. Not good. Forget the dash rattle....heh.
scorp-go drive a liberty. you'll probably want one. they have power, and don't rattle- opposite of what you're apparently used to (plus they come with dana axles as well). i know there were early production units with some problems, but those were the very first ones built. the one i drove was built in march and was the most solid vehicle i've ever driven.
1. Loose ends on running boards.
2. Long crank time <--I remember you citing this as a bad thing about Tacoma, and how your Ranger started right up.
3. Evaporation Drain tube: water leaks onto the floor...Are you sure you aren't buying a Tacoma, as you have described it in the past?
4. Wait...there's more Wheels/center cap: RUST streaking.
5. Body: flip-up rear cover leaks.
Lets see.....is there anything about rattling dash...no. But here's one
6. Exaust: rattle.
So lets paint a final picture:
According to tbunder:
Tacoma: dash rattle, water leaks around the firewall, long crank times, rusting bed.
Liberty: exaust rattle, drain tube and cover leaks, long crank times, rusting wheels.
So you see? The picture you have painted for Tacoma is the one you'll get with your Liberty. Have fun.
Tacoma, Frontier, Ranger and S10 are compact pickups. F150, Tundra, Silverado, Ram are fullsize.
As far as compacts go:
4-door Tacoma with 4x4 will be $25K at least.
You can get an xtracab Ranger with 2 real doors and 2 half doors (it's not a double/crew cab, it's an extended cab).
Best gas milage: Taco or Ranger. An xtracab 4x4 Tacoma is by far the lightest, 60 lbs lighter than a Ranger.
Best on snow/ice: does not depend on the truck. Depends on the tires and the driver. My Taco handles fine.
Least mechanical problems: recall and TSB info speaks for itself. Ranger's got a long list of everything. Tacoma likes to hide problems and tell customers its their own fault, BUT:
There are only few problems people mention about Tacomas:
1. Rattling dash. I haven't experienced that at all, and it's a $5 fix to begin with.
2. Water getting through the firewall. Again, I haven't seen any of that, nor I think have any of the TTORA guys I've talked to.
You'll hear about "1-star side impact ratings" that Tacoma got in 1998. Thats a load of crap.
Head gasket problems, again, back in 1997.
What do you need the truck for and how much money do you have to spend on it?
I'd just say, go with Toyota. But there are some pros and cons.
Other considerations might be the Tacoma Double Cab (a compact truck but might be big enough for your needs) and the Explorer Sport Trac. My beef with the Sport Trac is it's small bed. It's really more of an SUV than a pickup.
You like to keep saying even the older Ford 4.0 had a slight torque advantage over the Toyota 3.4, yet in every performance test, the Toyota beat the Ford (and everything else). How do you explain that? You seem to be obsessed with brochure bragging rights and not performance.
Why don't you save the time and effort involved in posting your long-winded opinionated crap and just provide us with links showing how the Ranger (or Frontier, LOL) outperform the Tacoma.
That'll be the day!
Today I could have used 1 more tow hook on the front, when I got hung up on a hill and damn nearly rolled over (all the way down).
But I got winched up by 2 Tacos (one on the hook, one on the frame to straighten me up, then both hooked up to the tow hook), and the hook took the abuse of pulling a 3,500 hunk of metal up a hill.
So now I'm gonna go and buy myself another towhook.
scorp, good to see you finally realized what i was preaching was the truth. also scorp, is far as the liberty being better than any other comparable suv in its class. well, in what category? gas mileage and highway ride? the escape wins hands down. in off-roading? well, the liberty nearly took its big bro the gc for four-wheeler's four-wheeler of the year. its quite the machine off-road im reading.
you gotta admit that "plutonius" asked for it. he's nothing but trouble. and do you really think i'm that stupid?
I could have used 2 when I was getting pulled up, but since I didn't have them, both winches were hooked up to the one I have. No, I didn't lose or damage my bumper (so you're wrong on that). No, nothing happened to the tow hook (so you were wrong on that one too).
You'll find some way to preach about how good Liberty is, and as for "do you really think I'm that stupid", I'm not gonna answer that. I didn't think it was you in a first place.
So tbunder, how about some links or something showing that the Ranger outperforms the Tacoma?
pluto- no thanks. i won't take the bait. only thing ill say is look at the sales numbers. for some reason, more than a hundred thousand disagree that the tacoma is the better truck. why is that? like i said, my ranger would have gone anywhere your tacoma will go. period. good tires and a good driver is all it takes. not to mention that more horsepower and torque i had over you in the first place. go badger someone else will ya? looks like you have a new arch-enemy now anyways. scorpio has somehow taken your spot. even though he is somewhat a nicer of a competitor.
Now that I have had it for several months and several thousand miles I had to add to this discussion that I have been very favorable pleased. The interior is by far nicer than the other crews that I tested although the seats do sit rather low.
The MPG on the road has been a nice surprise 20-22 plus and 21.3 on a slow ride 60mph with a full load (full is relative term with a short bed...I had a full size washer and dryer plus the dog crate, and luggage).
The truck seats 2 child seats with room for my wife in the back with the kids and the standard stereo is fine. The standard equipment overall includes just about everything and the price paid was the least of all the crew cabs in this area. NIssans were $22 plus, Toys were $24 plus, etc. The Chevy was $21 and change.
I don't beat the truck off road and have had no challenges yet. ANYONE try the S10 in the mud, snow, etc? That is one of the few areas that even Edmunds thinks the S10 is equal to any in its class.
I would recommend it.
I nearly rolled my truck, but NOT "cuz" I didn't have 2 hooks. I nearly rolled it because I didn't think of the consequences of going up that mud hill.
The only time I needed a second hook was when I was getting winched up, we needed to hook the second winch to something. Since there's no second hook, both got hooked onto the same tow hook.
Now.....no matter how "little" the hook was, it accomodated 2 winch hooks, held on while I was getting pulled up. It didn't rip off the bumper. Did not damage it. The hook did not break. It did not bend. You are bullshitting again, but we are all used to it by now.
As for the factoid statement about numerous things that put Ford over Toyota: Yeah, there's enough Ford dealers, alright. Billy Ford had to go on TV himself to sell the cars, and lure people with incentives just to do that. Just because 1 mil. idiots make McDonalds their restaraunt of daily choice doesn't mean that it's any good. Get the point?
Also I agree with Allknowing on the price issue. If the price is no option I bet more people would opt for the Tacoma. I spent the extra money on a Tacoma and much rathered it than my ranger.
Tbunder also said if you put good tires on a ranger it will outperform a Tacoma off-road, so you are saying the Tacoma is superior off-road stock???
He turned down a request to offroad proposed to him by one of iowa Taco owners.
Ranger may outwheel Taco offroad. And it needs better tires to do that (while Taco stock BFGs do the job fine). I've been going offroad 2-3 times a month on hte weekends since December, I've seen 2 Rangers during that time. One I helped pull out of mud, and another actually offroaded.
As for Billy Ford: It's a commercial, it's not supposed to make sense. Media is designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator, and so statements like "mint condition, 120,000 miles" are what Ford really wants you to hear and register in your head. Everything else is just used to tie those words together.
How many 20, 30, 40, or 50 year old vehicles do you see out there with a Toyota badge on them? Some Fords just don't die. I know that threatens Toyota's higher quality for a higher dollar mantra, but there are a great many Ford trucks that take the abuse and keep on running. Notice, I didn't say all Fords, but there are many that can still be found working the trails, farm, or highways. Even a friends truck that I occasionally use for towing on the weekend is 8 years older than I am.
I'd rather listen to Bill Ford, than Tomoya Toriumi.
446 of 483 hehe........ by tbunder Mar 31, 2002 (09:36 pm)
the ranger is cheap? lol
the tacoma interior looks like a book out of the '80's arcades. cheap straight dash, cheap flimsy doors, small rear window, no quad cab option on ext. cabs, where's the indash cd changer? crappy seats, etc.
the ranger interior is classy and first rate in my book. nothing compares to the features one can get. not to mention it comes with real towhooks, not a little hook under the bumper. LOL
and they call the tacoma a truck? with its pencil sized driveshafts? hilarious.
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#447 of 483 Interior by sc0rpi0 Apr 01, 2002 (08:29 am)
This arguement about quality of interior is completely opinion-based.
"I think Ranger interior is cheap."
"No way! Tacoma interior is cheap."
For all it's worth, Tacoma interior is nice and functional (except the clock). No flashy dash work, nothing. Nice, simple and functional design. tbunder, do you want the interior of a truck to look like you are sitting in an F-18 or something? Would you like a DVD player to go with that too?
No 4-door extended cab? True. Does Ranger offer a full doublecab version? I didn't think so.
Lay off the tow hooks, will you? It's a stupid point.**NO COMMENT HERE, LOL** "Oh, I have this extra bolt, and you don't! Haha, my truck rules!" **well, it would've that day now huh?**
Taco hook does the job, and if you are a "real offroader", you'll not be sticking with stock version of the truck anyway **so you're saying you're not a REAL off-roader?**. A couple of month ago one of the trucks in our party rolled.....we didn't use towhooks to turn it over and pull it out of the hole. We used winches instead. And real steel bumpers (not the ones Ranger and Tacoma have). Your real tow hooks would have been useless there, no matter how many you had. *duh, towhooks are for pulling out, not over.*
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#449 of 483 nah....... by tbunder Apr 01, 2002 (10:35 am)
scorpio- you are wrong. the ford towhooks are bolted directly to the frame and are extremely thick. they would not have been useless. they would have come in very handy. it's obvious you are leery of your one now **ESPECIALLY NOW EH?** and very jealous you don't have real ones. who wouldn't? its just common sense. shoot, even the liberty im looking at has two real ones sticking out from the bumper from the frame.
i love it when you say "lay off the towhooks will you? its a stupid point."
and then you say this:
#466 of 483 Alright, I'd like to take back some of the tow hook stuff by sc0rpi0 Apr 07, 2002 (02:32 pm)
that I've said.
Today I could have used 1 more tow hook on the front, **NAHHHHHH** when I got hung up on a hill and damn nearly rolled over (all the way down).
But I got winched up by 2 Tacos **OF COURSE** (one on the hook, one on the frame to straighten me up, then both hooked up to the tow hook), and the hook took the abuse of pulling a 3,500 hunk of metal up a hill.
So now I'm gonna go and buy myself another towhook. **HMMMMMMMMMMM**
**BUT ISN'T THAT STUPID?**
you say that i like to say stuff, and then not back it up (like what, id like to hear- let's hear it scorp, back up your little statement). YOU'RE the one who said two hooks didn't make any difference (just cuz your cheap toy doesn't come with two, hardly even one for that matter and then actually went wheeling for once and found out just how functional two may be) after i had already said that two should be the standard, as they are on every 4x4 'cept for the cheap tacoma. so i think you need to practice what you preach, and speak from experience next time you make a comment without knowing what you're talking about. why should i have to back up what i say, when i have people like you who will eventually see the light and do it for me? you make me laugh scorpman.
aaah, and i was gonna lay off edmunds. but you just couldn't go w/o mentioning my name with me not even posting could you?
I believe in the 99 or 2000 Tacoma brochure they had a guy in there with a 1984 single cab toyota with 1,000,000 miles on it. Id say thats pretty good. I have never seen a Ford with over 300,000 miles on it.
Tbunder - now you are saying the Tacoma is cheap, you just finished saying how they were overpriced
Ranger's have a second tow hook so more trucks can be used to pull them out of places they can't go. That should stir up some thoughts
Here is the link, read the first post.
http://www.outdoorwire.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=13;t=010199
I -->COULD<-- have used 2 tow hooks, but I got winched out on 1.
Yes, it took 2 Tacomas to winch me up. Wow....Tacoma must suck, it takes 2 to winch it up a muddy 45-50 deg. slope full of ruts. I guess The King Offroad, Jeep Wrangler, sucks even worse, because it took -->4<-- trucks to winch him out. 3 Tacos and a Dodge, 1 Taco and Dodge were acting as anchors.
It seems you are under your own dillusion that my truck got stuck because it did not have second tow hook, and you keep basing your " **well, it would've that day now huh?**" on that. I guess I can't help it if you can't/won't understand what seems to be plain English.
Tow hooks did NOT make a difference when I got hung up. The only place they would have made a difference was when truck was straightened out and pulled up. The original setup of 1 winch on the tow hook and 1 on the frame was NOT due to lack of tow hooks: it was to stabilize the truck, which was sitting at about 60-70 deg angle to the slope of the hill (aka almost perpendicular).
And once again: despite your claims that I would have 1. damaged the bumper 2. bent the hook or frame, nothing like that happened. I guess I was just lucky, because I was bound to have bumper ripped off, since puny little towhook is hidden so far under it.
and then you totally change your mind about it. just admit you were wrong and i was right. two are better than one little hook under the frame. i dont care what you drive, if you dont have the means to pull it out, its useless. ie. you only having one little hook, and now saying you're gonna buy another one. as you say, its plain english. i posted everything you said. its right there. all you have to do is read it. if you didn't think you needed another towhooks, you wouldn't have come on here and said "i take back the towhook stuff." you evidently have a problem admitting you're wrong.
Kind of like when you bragged nonstop when you thought your Ranger had a locker, found out it didn't, then said lockers were worthless just because the Tacoma TRD has them?
Have you changed your mind on your (bogus) claims that Rangers outweigh Tacomas by 600lbs? I would think that extra weight would really hinder the Ranger's "jumping" performance you kept bragging about here at Edmunds. OOOPS, that's right, according to your E-BAY advertisement you never "abused" your truck.
Come on, keep up the posts, this is fun!!!
So, just to reiterate: Yes, I could have used 2 hooks. No, I didn't NEED 2 hooks. I got out with 1.
You make it sound like the tow hook I got is totally useless. Somehow it's not the case, because I can see my truck from the office window, and it definitely does not look like it rolled down the hill. I'm gonna get another hook because older ttora guys told me to after I got pulled out (more like while I was getting pulled out), not because of you.
The only thing I don't like about the position of the Ford's tow hooks is I have seen some Ford trucks with body lifts and after the lift is put on, the tow hooks are now below the bumper and it just looks stupid, I guess the Tacoma's hidden one can be an advantage.
So Ford towhooks are also for a showoff? I'm wondering, though, what point is having a chrome hook, because chrome is just coating. It'd get scraped off pretty fast.
"The Tacoma's rear locker can be be engaged at will by the driver only when needed, then turned off. The rest of the time it's good old LSD, so you get the best of both worlds. I assure you, there's no hopping and tire chirping going around corners in my truck; the locker is turned off. I understand and can appreciate your point, however, on trucks with full-time lockers.
Tblunder, you've proven to be TOO UNKNOWLEDGEABLE to have an intelligent conversation with. You can't even tell what tire sizes you have, the difference between lockers and LSDs, what swaybars do, ETC. "
Let's not forget the design flaw on the Ranger where the door unlocks when open the door from the inside.
tgravo--->I guess the main thing about the clock is that for most people it is in a place not too easily seen by the driver. Also that you pay 80 bucks for something that should be part of the radio to begin with.
"I believe in the 99 or 2000 Tacoma brochure they had a guy in there with a 1984 single cab toyota with 1,000,000 miles on it. Id say thats pretty good. I have never seen a Ford with over 300,000 miles on it."
So it's OK to brag about that in a brochure, but you can't brag about Ford trucks in commercials?
but what you said, DITTO pluto. and i'll add get a life to it as well. and im still wondering if pluto ever got that special lsd/locker rearend in his tacoma? LOL
tgravo- scorpio is right. i do not believe in lifts. i like the stock look. maybe some slightly larger tires like i had on my ranger, maybe some aftermarket shocks, a skidplate or too, a smittybilt bumper thumper like i had on my ZR2. but no lifts please. a crank on the torsion bars (if you have them, ford's and gm's are the only ones left i believe besides dodge i think) to lift the front a little is okay, but it has to be done carefully so each side will ride as high as the other. i like to make it down the beaten path with a relatively stock vehicle. im the same with cars and motorcycles too. all stock as far as one can see. now adding a trd s/c would be ok with me. just stealthy so to speak. i dont think there is nothing wrong with that. look at the new jeep rubicon due out this summer- this has been hailed as the most radical factory built 4x4-EVER. and it doesn't need a huge lift. ill concede that the toyota locker is nice, but my lsd did just fine. a locker can be added very easily as well if you want.
scorp- ill drop this little rant we got going. but its good to know that you're getting another towhook. i'd hate to see your pretty tacoma roll down a hill. plus, you may need two if one breaks off and you don't notice or something.
oh, one more thing about the FX4. the "chrome" towhooks, aren't really chrome. they're stainless steel polished. and they aren't the same design as a regular ranger 4x4. they're open on the top, like the jeeps.