Do you know if that was 2 or 4 WD?

Rangers are okay, if the work is light. Get 4wd please, so not cheap out on THAT.

I have a F 350, but I haul a lot of livestock and large amounts of wood and gravel and such.


For me, it is part of my life (outside of my regular job).

4WD. If you don't have 4WD, it's just a glorified minivan.

The Ranger isn't a bad little truck. But it's carrying capacity is a bit limited, weight wise, so it's fine for mulch, but I would over load it with concrete or landscaping stones. It's a little light weight in the back for serious off-roading, but if you are doing serious off-roading you should get a vehicle designed for the job, like a Jeep. And I would look newer if you can afford it. Older is fine for streets, but unless you meticulously restore and maintain them, you don't want to go off-roading in an older vehicle. It may look and be in great shape overall, but be 50 miles from blowing a seal thjat leaves you stranded. Also, never go serious off-roading alone, and by that I mean take a buddy vehicle with you. Not a friend in your passenger seat, but another whole vehicle.

Honestly, I'm not sure we need something more than a glorified minivan.

lol The only off-roading I'll be doing is driving mulch through our back yard. : )

I *wouldn't* over load it...

Unless you need the steel bed for something, get a mid-size SUV and bed liner. Same carrying and towing in general, but doubles as a decent ride for hauling friends around. And don't even try the backyard in a minivan. You will break something eventually, especially if you are hauling mulch or planting soil or concrete bags. They aren't designed to haul anything except soccer equipment and groceries. Real SUVs have better suspension and can haul more and take the abuse of hauling stuff over rougher terrain.

How much you looking to spend? An older Jeep Cherokee on cars.com runs from under $1000 to just over $10,000. Of course, you get what you pay for.

I can't (and won't) recommend the Ford Explorer. Mine had more issues with the 4WD in it as well as the computer failing at just 85K and other things. Sure, it had more capability than a Ranger and an Explorer SportTrac gives you the full passenger interior plus a decent bed in place of the fully enclosed box, but I just don't trust them.

I have a buddy with a '98 Ranger and I have also owned a couple of Rangers in the past. They are tough little pickups that work really well from woodcutting to light landscaping and construction. Make sure you get a V6 4WD, or else it's basically a car with a pickup bed. I would also recommend that you get the XLT (or whatever it's called), the one with a half row of fold-out seats. The fold-out seats aren't comfortable, but the space is useful if you need to haul four people short distances or don't like putting groceries in the back. It's a nice body design that gives the truck much more versatility without sacrificing too much bed space. The V6 and the suspension can handle pretty heavy loads for its size. Kicks the shit out of a Ridgeline for sure. I can't speak to its off-road performance, but it should be fine if you have 4WD and throw some sandbags in the back.

I would recommend the Ranger for your situation. Stay away from other light pickups like the S10 and the Ridgeline. Both of them are absolute garbage. The Ranger is a good choice. I'm not a big Ford guy, but I have to admit that it is an excellent product, probably one of their top ten of all time.

Here's the thing: I own a station wagon and my parents have an SUV and a minivan. We have almost everything covered. We can carry people, furniture, etc. just fine.

But, filling one of those cars up with mulch or trees is messy and simply a pain. You can never keep it clean and it's a pain to access. I really want a small, cheap vehicle that we can use for all our outside needs.

I'd like to stay well under $5k.

I've carried large loads of broken concrete up a fairly steep off road hill, with 4WD, on several occasions without any difficulty. But you'll want 4WD to be sure.

Yeah, after thinking about it, I think 4WD makes a lot more sense. Especially if I want to plow their driveway.

If you'll be plowing, you'll definitely want 4WD. Probably a few sandbags too.

How long a drive? I have a plow attachment for my lawn tractor that does my 85' two lane drive just fine.

Do your parents have a lawn tractor? You might just want to look at getting a dump trailer for it. A few hundred is a lot cheaper and you can put a liner in their SUV for hauling the stuff home from Lowes or Home Depot or Menards or wherever.

I dont have a plow here (we dont get much snow) but, I lived in Boston for a LONG time, and if you get snow, I highly suggest getting a plow.

14" plow blade plus chains and wheel weights and I'm good to go for up to a foot of snow with the tractor. Anything over and I just 4x4 Jeep my way through it. It's like an offroad adventure in the middle of winter! :-)

We don't have a tractor. If we already had one, I'd say that would be a good solution, but a tractor is pretty much limited to your own yard, so I don't think it would be worth buying one at this point.

This is what I'm currently considering:

http://www.maplestautocenter.com/1999_Ford_Ranger_Marlboro_MA_151147391.veh

4K isn't bad. Clean carfax. Started as a fleet vehicle so the first 40K+ is well maintained. Have a mechanic check it out especially if it doesn't have a warranty, but looks good to me.

Well, clean carfax other than the trany getting replaced at 40k. Wonder what's up with that.

Fleet car or maybe factory recall/defect. 40K is in warranty range after all.

In any case, I guess that just means it's 40k newer, so can't really complain.

In 11 months, it was driven 35,000 miles, which is quite a lot for a year, over 100 miles a day. Lot of wear on a transmission in a short amount of time.

Dude, stay away from Ford.

At the price range you're talking about, they are all on their last legs. You might get lucky, but I had one that the transmission gave me problems with (only had 90k on it, too). Cost an absolute fortune to replace, almost half the value of the truck. The only brand worse than Ford for long-term reliability is Dodge, but it's hard to even find one of those for less than 5k, as they're all broken by the time they're that old.

Go with a Toyota. If you don't need to haul tons of stuff around, but just need the bed, then you can get a 4-cyl and it will last forever, in addition to being great on gas. I had a 4WD Toyota that I bought for 3500 and it lasted until it had 200k miles on it. Never gave me any problems, and I would buy another one in a heartbeat if I needed a pickup.

Don't listen to Kochevnik on engine. Always go V6 or bigger. L4s are crap engines with no tow capacity. Ever tried towing even a small popup cmaper or bass boat with a Rav-4 or CR-V? You can't. They are only rated for class one hitches and the engine won't handle long distance towing even of that.

Here is the truck I want!

http://news.pickuptrucks.com/2012/06/aevs-jeep-pickup-truck-conquers-moab.html

Stop mucking about and buy yourself a diesel Toyota Hilux - or whatever they are branded in the US :-) Available in 2WD, 4Wd, single cab, xtra cab, dual cab, tray back or J-deck.
Flame me if you will, but they are indestructable.
This opinion is brought to you by the land that brought us the Utility Coupe....that which we now call "The Ute"

Yeah, Draugnar, but it sounds like he doesn't need to do any of that stuff. You're talking about off-roading and towing a camper, and he's talking about hauling around some mulch and a lawn mower, and plowing the driveway in the winter.

A 4WD 4-cyl Toyota will handle that job perfectly, and will be much more efficient while doing it. If he wants to haul a bass boat or a camper, then that's a completely separate discussion.

BrownPaper - no diesels like that in the US... Emissions regulations here, some VW cars now, and larger pickups, otherwise diesel is either generators, farm tractors, or larger vehicles.. Abge, a Ranger, with a V6 (4.0 is best but 3.0 I hear is okay), 4x4, and Auto trans, will far outlast the rest of the truck. I've had a 91 with a 5spd stick, 4x4, 4.0L V6 and the only thing that killed that was I couldn't sit in the seat anymore (the floor rotted out and the seat pan went with it). I then owned a 2001 Ranger with 4.0 V6, 4x4 and an automatic and it was great. 18mpg on highway (not best, but bigger engine). I could take it anywhere as it sat just high enough to clear any areas I needed. I pulled fully loaded 8'x8' dump trailers around ( loaded with dirt, stone, gravel, etc) and it did just fine. Yes, it's a V6 so it'll be sluggish, but it'll do it. I killed that truck by totalling it. It had 145K on it and was still going strong. If you can get a fleet vehicle like you are checking out, that'll be your best bet as it's been very well maintained. I'm a Dodge guy (currently running a 2009 Ram 1500 with a Hemi), and I loved BOTH of my Rangers.