Hackker

IMHO thats one of the reasons why GM and Ford are losing so much market share. Management blames the unions. The unions blame management. Meanwhile companies like Toyota, Honda, and Kia are stealing your customers while you point fingers back and forth. They must love that you can't figure out the root cause... BOTH sides are to blame. Management has made tons of screwups (yeah, lets focus on trucks & SUVs while gas prices skyrocket). And unions have forced costs to stay high by not making any real concessions. Seriously, things like the jobs bank and being unwilling to pay your fair share of medical costs are going to be paid for somehow. And if plants need to be closed, boo-freaking-hoo, Ford should be able to close them.

I test drove the Ridgeline, and while it isn't a bad vehicle (outside of being ugly, spartan, and having crappy fuel economy) I definately wouldn't call it a truck. More like a SUV with a open bed.

When I go car shopping, I usually check out the 3-4 year old models to see how the have held up. One of the things that turned me off with the used SportTracs was how the step bars were always rusted and looked like crap. That shouldn't happen to a 3 year old vehicle.

Last year, I was doing a similar comparison. With kid #2 on the way, I knew that my trust '94 Ranger wasn't big enough and I didn't want the bulk of a full sized truck like the F150 SC. So, basically my short list came down the the Tacoma, Frontier, and Sport Trac. The big negatives that the Sport Trac had were that I knew a new model was coming out, its bed was by far the smallest, and it was the least capable off road of the 3, and its drivetrain warranty was the worst. I ended up going with the Frontier, IMHO its exactly what Ford should have done with the Ranger. I've had it about 14 months and 8k and my one glitch that I had was that the guage cluster had a loose wire that was causing the guages to "jittler" on start up (lose wire = bad connection = guague doing a reset). Otherwise its been running flawless. Had the new SportTrac been out, it would have been a a tough call. Ford definately made a decent amount of improvements to it and its about time they upped their warranty too.

Being ignorant of what other makers are doing is part of the reason why Ford is in trouble. If I didn't need a open bed & 4 full doors, the FJ would have been on my short list for a daily driver. There is a reason why Ford is bleeding market share month after month, other makers are building what people want. Exactly why I bought a Frontier, I loved my last 2 Rangers but needed something with more interior space and Ford decided they didn't want to sell a crew cab version in the US. And now that I've bought my first non-domestic vehicle ever, won't be that hard to get me to buy another one.

I've owned 2 Rangers and after kid #2 I needed something with 4 real doors and enough room in the back. Ranger was too small and the F150 CC was too big. I looked at the SportTrac but the bed was a bit too small and I really didn't want to buy the last year before a major redesign. Frontier was the perfect size so I bought one. If Ford had a updated crew cab Ranger I would have bought one in a heartbeat. But I'm sure that deep inside Ford they think that if they build a slightly bigger Ranger they will lose F150 sales so they feel they can force people to go that route. Or, more likely those people will jump brands.

Sadly, its still 2mpg better in the city than my old '94 Ranger 4x4 was. haha I liked the Baja, but the bed just wasn't big enough for me. The Frontier crew cab was just barely big enough for my needs. If it wasn't for that, I probably would have picked one up. Great bang for buck utility vehicle. B)

Except get decent gas mileage. With my 4x4 Frontier crew cab I get around 14-15 in city driving. While the Baja is rated for 21/27 for the base engine. I'd kill to get 27 hwy in my truck...

When I was truck shopping, Ford had the worst drivetrain warranty of the 3 makers I seriously looked at. Theirs was 3/36, Nissan was 5/50, and Toyota was 6/60. When your slogan is "Built Ford Tough", are people supposed to believe it when the warranty doesn't back it up? I wanted something that I could count on for basically having zero out of pocket repair costs for at least 5 years, which was a big reason why I didn't buy a Ford. Sure, people can say that the engine & tranny will last longer than 36k, but if that was true - why won't Ford back it up? Talk is cheap...

I'll explain this in simple terms for you, since you seemed to have missed my point. I wanted a mid-sized truck with 4 full doors. Ford had nothing that met what I wanted, so I bought my first foreign vehicle ever (in fact my first non-Ford vehicle ever). Now that I've owned a foreign vehicle, when it comes time to replace my current truck there is a very good chance that I'll consider *any* brand of full sized truck. In case you still missed it - Ford lost a loyal customer who just might never come back. Simple enough for you?

Really? Like how they offer the choice of a crew cab version? That single lack of choice is why instead of buying my 3rd Ranger, I bought my first foreign vehicle ever - a Nissan Frontier. The F150 crew cab was too big for what I needed, and with the new Sport Trac was coming out so I didn't want to be stuck with the previous version. I'm sure somewhere in Ford, they have argued that if they make the Ranger bigger they will cause people to buy that vs. the F150. But they totally miss the fact that there are probably even more people who will just skip Ford entirely and buy from someone else. And in the future if I do look for a full sized truck, there is a good chance that I'll consider the Titan or Tundra now too.