Yesterday, my wife texted me in my basement office.

[MineralMan]

She was on a Zoom meeting call, so she couldn't leave her desk. She said, "There's some guy walking around your pickup, looking closely at it."

That was odd. So, I went upstairs and looked out the front window. Sure enough, there was a guy in his 30s peering at my little red 1996 Ford Ranger, examining it from all angles. So, I went outside and said, "Can I help you?"

Now, from a distance, my 25-year-old Ranger looks OK. Up close, not so much. It has red duct tape covering a rust-out near the driver's door, and 3M heavy-duty clear packaging tape holding the driver's side rear quarter window together, because some kid shot at it with a BB or pellet gun. The truck is a beater - no question about it. But it's my truck.

"Is your Ranger for sale?" the guy asked. I said "Nope. It's my beater and we're moving soon, so I need it."

"Damn!" he said. "I'm looking for an old Ranger. I'll give you $1500 for it."

"Sorry," I said. "Not for sale right now. Besides, I just put new brakes on it to go with the new tires. I think I'll wear those out some more."

Then, I suggested he consult Craig's List and Facebook Marketplace. Both are full of old Ford Rangers from the 90s. They were manufactured right here in St. Paul, MN, so they're ubiquitous in the area. He was just about right about how much he'd have to pay for one, but there are probably a couple dozen of them in that price range posted on those two places at any given time.

"OK," he said, "I'll check those places. Thanks."

There's a real advantage to owning a beater pickup. You can park it on the street and not worry too much about anyone stealing it. However, that also signals that it's probably a running, driving vehicle, so you do get the odd person now and then who wants to buy it. When I do decide to sell it, I'll probably put a load of brush in the bed of the truck and a "For Sale" sign on that taped-up side window. The person who buys it can haul the brush to the green waste yard for me.

[Binkie The Clown]

1. I miss my old Ford Ranger.

I never should have traded it in on a Cherokee. That was 20 years ago. Live and learn.

[MineralMan]

3. Yeah. This is my second one. I had an '84 Ranger years ago.

As a beater pickup, they're hard to beat. That's especially true if they have the 2.3 Liter 4-cylinder engine and manual transmission. That powertrain combination is pretty much bulletproof, as long as you change the oil occasionally.

I've owned a lot of beater pickups. Old Rangers are a good choice. Parts are cheap, if you need parts. They're reasonably easy to work on, although not as easy as old trucks from the 1960s, but those are all classics now. If I could have any small pickup, though, I'd buy a 1960s Falcon Ranchero. Trouble is that they're now nostalgia collector vehicles, and there aren't many around, really.

Once our move is done, though, I'll sell it. I need it right now to haul junk away from our current house that can't go into the roll-off dumpster. Electronics, mainly. I'll probably move some bulky stuff to our new place with it, as well. We're also having a big moving sale, so I can deliver large items to people and maybe make a sale when I might not if they have to move them.

If I need another beater truck, though, I'll always be able to find one in a day or two.

[Binkie The Clown]

13. Yeah, it was a workhorse. My kids named it "Ricky Ranger". nt

[Luz]

2. Our Ranger is a 2001 and I wouldn't sell him for twice that.

225k miles on him and more to come 😳😁

[MineralMan]

4. Yeah, I get that.

Mine has 277,700 or so miles on it. Still starts, runs, drives, and stops just fine, especially with the new brakes I had done on the rear. The AC even works. Can't beat that.

[Frustratedlady]

5. That's funny. I also had a guy walk up and offer to buy my red Ford Ranger.

They are popular pick-ups. I wish I still had it, though.

[Wounded Bear]

6. Drove Rangers for 10 years or so. Remember them fondly...

had 2 of them. They take a lot of punishment and keep on going.

Good little trucks. I kinda miss mine.

[Progressive Jones]

7. I loved my Ranger, except...

I live in a Northern town (snow, ice) with a lot of hills.

That rear wheel drive on a light weight vehicle didn't always do so well around here in Winter.

[MineralMan]

8. Mine is parked in the driveway all Winter.

Lousy snow vehicle in its 2WD configuration. But, I don't need it during that time of the year anyhow.

[Progressive Jones]

11. For 10 years it was my everyday, every mile vehicle. nt

[MineralMan]

14. I get that. For me, a pickup is just a tool.

I doubt I put 1000 miles a year on the Ranger. Maybe a little more this year, but maybe not. It's a second vehicle and the household hauler. It's a beater and an emergency backup vehicle. That's its job.

I have driven it a few times during the winter months, but I prefer not to. My wife and I both work at home, so we really only need one car. I keep a pickup because sometimes a guy needs to haul some stuff that would dirty up the nice KIA Soul that is our main vehicle.

I haven't always had a pickup, but when I haven't, I've missed having one. My wife hates driving it, although she drives a stick shift just fine. That's fine with me. The truck usually has brush and yard waste in the bed. When it gets full, I take it to the green waste yard and drag it out of the bed. The local disposal route won't pick that stuff up. If I need to haul something else, I always have to go and dump that stuff out first, but it's free to do that, so I don't mind, really.

Today, my wife has a hair appointment, and I need to go to the post office, so the Ranger will take me there. That's how it gets used.

[Polly Hennessey]

9. I miss my Ford Ranchero.

Cannot tell you how many times I had guys ask me or leave a note asking if I would sell it.

[MineralMan]

10. Yup. I wasn't expecting that for a mid 90s Ranger, though.

[maxsolomon]

12. Same thing happened up here.

Last edited Wed May 5, 2021, 11:08 AM - Edit history (1)

Latino gent stopped his pickup and asked me if I wanted to sell my 25 year old Explorer.

I could see why you'd want it, but nope!

[CrispyQ]

15. I have a 1990 Toyota pickup truck that I've gotten several offers for over the years.

Sometimes in person, sometimes a note left under the wiper blade. The latest offer was right before the pandemic hit. I was shopping & there were some construction workers repaving part of the parking lot. When I came out of the store, two of the men were checking out my little truck & one wanted to buy it.

When I bought this truck, the dealership had an old Toyota truck in the showroom with over 200,000 miles, they claimed on the original engine. The woman who owned it had a paper route from Denver to Colorado Springs, 7x365. She traded it in for a new Toyota.

[multigraincracker]

19. Catalytic Converters are the big item to steal now.

Keep an eye on it. Just takes a minute with a battery saw to cut one out. They like pickups because they are easy to crawl under. Quick $200 for the crook.

[jimfields33]

17. You may want to sell it sooner then later

Once electric cars become common, they won’t buy gas cars anymore since there will be no way to fill up.

[MineralMan]

24. Oh, for pete's sake!

That is a long way off, you know. I mean, really. Do you suppose ICE vehicles are suddenly going to be unusable soon? That's just silly.

[jimfields33]

28. I guess I was kind of hoping as we need it to happen.

[Hortensis]

29. We do, but there'll be a transition period. Too many people

can only afford used cars. That includes us now that we're retired without pensions. So, for some years a workable inventory of affordable used new-tech cars will have to build up. And conversion of old vehicles to electric become more inexpensive. At some point the government will set new requirements that remove most gas vehicles from the road, causing real problems for those who still hadn't transitioned, but oh well.

If it weren't for really wanting to make that transition myself, I'd insist on fixing up my Ford Ranger and keeping it working until it was someday charmingly vintage and electric, for someone else if not me, but...

But. As you say.

[MineralMan]

30. Even if every new car were an EV, beginning in, say, 2031,

which they won't be, there would still be millions of ICE vehicles on the road for a long time after that.

Making completely unrealistic predictions will not hurry things along at all.

Meanwhile, this thread is about beater pickup trucks, not about EVs.

[Hortensis]

18. :) Mine's about the same age, extended cab, bought instead of a car so

I could haul plants around. My main vehicle, if not ours. A bit better condition than yours, I guess because it hasn't lived its life in a salted-road climate. I'd keep it happily as long as it ran, and it might just outlast me, but it's starting to look like something out of the grapes of wrath because my husband (in charge of our vehicles) keeps insisting it's not worth repainting.

It's a great little truck, though, such a smooth quiet ride for its type, and here in GA also there're plenty of people who know that.

[MineralMan]

25. Cool! Useful little trucks, for sure.

As for repainting, well, never mind. Gilding the lily, as it were.

[Hortensis]

27. Lol, +100 for the attitude. A lily "as it were" for sure.

[MineralMan]

31. My father used to work for a Dodge/Plymouth dealer,

back in the 1950s. He was an auto mechanic. One of the regular customers of that dealership came in and bought a brand new, shiny 1958 Dodge pickup, to replace the beat-up older truck he had. A couple of months later, he brought it in for its first service appointment. It was covered with scratches, had a couple of dents in it, and was muddy and dirty. It had maybe 1000 miles on it.

My father asked him, "What the Hell did you do to your brand new truck?"

The guy told him, "Well, it was going to get scratched up anyhow before long, so I took it home the day I bought it and drove it through the orchard several times. Scratched it up good. Might as well get it over with."

It was a farm truck, after all. Farmers have a weird sense of humor.

[Hortensis]

32. :) I suspect I might understand a bit...

I've remodeled a couple of kitchens and hung out on kitchen forums, and it's not uncommon for someone who's spent goshalmighty replicating the dream picture in a magazine to get very upset at a scratch in the new sink, or the prospect of one, and come back all anxious to find out how to keep it new. Unclear on the concept. It's a workroom. It's practically a crime against nature not to scratch it up.

Guessing back then trying to keep a truck too nice when it should have been developing wear worthy of a farmer would have seemed like something city guys would do. And it also sounds like, instead of just waiting for the inevitable, this guy grabbed the opportunity to relive a bit of his teen years. Guys.

[multigraincracker]

20. I use to always have a pick up, now

my beaters are Chevy Vans. I don't have to empty them out when it looks like rain.

[Bayard]

22. One ton Chevy dually here

I bought it brand new in 1997, a thing of beauty. Four door, extended bed, 454 Vortech engine, 5th wheel towing package. Its pretty beat up now (one accident that was never fixed when I drove it across country last towing a horse trailer). But I still love it, even if it only goes a few miles into town now to pick up things at Tractor Supply that won't fit in our other truck. AC/heat doesn't work though.

Its been a total workhorse. And yes, I've had offers for it.

[OriginalGeek]

26. I once had an 84 Chevette that I drove until it died right in my front yard

I put a LOT of miles on that thing - no AC, stick shift, the gas gauge was broken and the radio was on the hump in front of the gear shifter and the speakers were just some pioneer 6x9s in plywood boxes sitting on the back seat but it got me through tech school and the first several years of my marriage before it died.

One day an old fella drove by in a similar Chevette and stopped and saw me sitting on the porch and got out and asked if I'd take 300 cash dollars right there for it. I said "It doesn't run" and he said he didn't care. He collected them. I said "OK add it to your collection" and he handed me 300 cash dollars and I signed over the title and he went and got a pick up to pull it to wherever his little Chevette museum/graveyard/hospital was.