My vote is for the Ford Ranger, particularly the ‘93-2012 year models. They were relatively inexpensive. They were all 1/2 ton trucks. They actually punched above their weight class. I promise, even the 4 cylinder versions could tow way more than they were rated for. Simple to work on. Parts were/are cheap. Fairly…

While it harkens back to a Ranchero, it really looks like the love child between a Late 80s Ranger and an early 90s Escort that had an eye lift done to give it a Fox body Mustang’s eyes. I’d still buy it though if it was sub-$15k new. 

But, to be fair, that Buick 3800 would probably still run after the fire. There’s a reason it spent so much time on Wards 10 best engines list. 

So...the top covers the engine bay in the back. The driver passes out from the exhaust leak (you know it does), and runs into something solid. The fuel tank in front ruptures. A big fireball follows. It sits in a salvage yard as a testament to bad choices. Two years later, sufficiently covered in rust, David Tracy…

When I was a little kid, back in the early 80s, my mom told me I could pump gas for her. I asked which pump and she said the one on the right. I filled the tank. We made it about a mile before the engine died. Gas engines don’t run well on diesel. My grandpa and dad had to siphon the tank and run two tanks of gas…

So...that’s $330,000 per truck, that’s 90% Off the shelf components from a truck that retails for in the ballpark of about $35,000.  There’s no way this thing is made to move a squad around a battlefield because it has no armor whatsoever. Maybe behind the lines in the rear echelon areas. 

While I think the price is too high, I don’t think it’s crack pipe high. This is probably a $3500-4000 car.

so imma going to just leave this here...

Stanley Motor Carriage Company.

Please mount the second set of mirrors like they did on the National Lampoon’s Vacation minivan.

Ford did a “7-Up” special for the Mustang back in the late 80s or early 90s. With it, they offered the 5.0 V8. Too bad Chevy is only putting this on the RS. 

If they’d provided another 15 minutes of video after the wreck, we would have seen David Tracy skittering around grabbing up Jeep parts for all of his current and future projects.

So part of the issue is availability. Like you said, the big three ditched cars and focused on SUVs and pickups. Second, the car companies partially dictate the sell trends by what they choose to produce, how they market it, what sort of rebates they offer, etc.

I too miss the multi-hue aspects of cars. But let’s not forget what started the decline, which was the aggressive de-chroming of cars. Even more rare than a non-white, black, or silver car is a chromed out option.

The truck is sound, and if it had the 4.6 L V8, I’d nice price it. But the 4.2 L V6 was a dog of a motor and an insult to the 4.9 L I6 it replaced. My parents had an ‘02 F150 with the 4.2. It got worse fuel economy than the V8 in a comparable truck. It towed okay, but not great. 

In other car news...the Coronavirus has not impacted the Elios projected release date. If more companies had planned ahead like Elios, they too would have found themselves in a situation where the pandemic wouldn’t affect their insolvency. 

The quickest way to get those pesky pistons out of the block is to add a lot of boost. When the needle on the gauge is all the way to the right, that’s when it releases the pistons on its own. When they’re out of the way, you’ve opened up a lot of flow through the block.

I posted this idea on one of your older posts from last week. Please do an article about repairing a vehicle using only improvised tools. I’m thinking along the lines of rock, butter knife, etc. really show your engineering talents of coming up with a way to create a pair of pliers from something else. Your articles…

I know I’m late to the party on this post, but I just had a David Tracy article idea. Since you’re great at doing “I planned to only do this, but ended up doing six other things” articles, and you’re great at improvising, I have a new series suggestion. How about a “how to fix things with no real tools” series? I’m…

I actually like the notch back better than the hatchback. But even in as pristine of a condition as this one is, it’s still only a $6-8K car.