ford ranger

I have just come back today from 2 weeks in the outback, the adelaideto innaminka to Birdsville to adelaide loop with my ranger, we had 4 cars 2 of which were a PX ranger, the other one was a manual king cab towing a camper, me a manual aswell not towing....both went awesome. NO issues . chewed up the tracks no problem. You will be more than happy when you get yours......

Don't know about the mines but mine is going OK, towing a 3.5 T 5'er clocked up 35k and 28k of that was towing.

PeterH

G'day Barry

You can tow Ayers Rock to Darwin with the 3.2 litre 6 speed auto Ranger !

Your best bet is to visit the NewRanger website and get on the forum and you will get all the info you want on the Ranger and see how happy most people are with ALL aspects of the Ranger / BT50 ! Heaps of valuable info there !

I have owned and driven the big Toyotas, Nissans and other big names for 25 plus years and whilst my Ranger is only 18 months old I can say it has so far ( time will tell ) been one of the best 4WD's I have ever owned/driven !!

Off road ability in stock standard form is very very impressive.

I wasn't too sure about getting an auto but now I reckon it was the best decision I have ever made ( apart from divorcing the ex )



All the best

Gazz

Barry,
So far where I worked they are going well. They are used in both surface and underground environments, and are handling it well with very few problems. They are getting close to 12 months old now, so any problems should start showing up. Just to get that into perspective. Some will clock up around 10,000 hours and be in the tip by between 3 and 4 years old.

They have lost 2 engines due to water and no snorkel, which points to either someone going to fast through the puddle or exceeding the fording depths. 2 other problems are dust getting through the air filters and flat batteries.

Both the coal and hard rock mines are having the dust issue, while a bad batch of batteries have been replaced. This in itself has not cured the flat battery problem completely, so they turned off the smart charge system through a program change. Much of this problem is also caused by short running with all the lights on and radios running. Plus the keys are left in the ignition all the time which can delay the electronic systems from going to sleep. I will ring and get an update shortly, on any new problems that may have arisen.

I have a super cab auto and so far has had no problems. It has clocked up around 21000k with 16000K towing. No issues so far. I have had the smart charge turned off, always remove the keys and lock the vehicle to avoid any chance of a flat battery. The vehicle has impeccable manners off road and on hard tracks. The main short coming even with a 50mm lift is the factory stump jump plow towbar.

If you go to the new ranger forum always look for common faults with a few pages of responses. The threads that are short are usually just a few vehicles that have a particular problem for what ever reason.

We ordered 2 xl 3.2 autos last week for a delivery date of October 22. A 3 week turnaround and most of that is at ARB getting canopy and bullbars fitted.
If we wanted any colour than white we are looking at christmas. I didnt ask about xlt delivery times because we arent interested in them.

Hi Barry

I have done 52,000km in my XLT Auto. Much of this is towing and offroad. I have had a flat battery twice which as others suggest seems to be from leaving the keys in the ignition for a few days without starting. I now always remove the keys and no problems. I have just returned from Cape York towing a camper laden with boat etc. Did the job with ease. I still have the standard suspension but have added ARB bulbar and winch, dual batteries etc.

Very happy with mine so far and hope it is good for several hundred thousand more kms.

Cheers, Terry

Barry,

Mine is the xlt auto, 12 months old, done 19,000kms including the 5,000km a Sydney, Flinders, Oodnadatta track, Coober Pedy loop. Also 2 x 2000km trips out to Fords Bridge and Wanaaring, Very happy with it so far. No problems on the dirt and rough stuff. Surprisingly good ride on the bitumen vs our old Rodeo. Pulls like a tractor. Battery flat once as per the other posts - now take keys out of ignition when not using and no problem since.

Be sceptical of people who tell you that the BT50's are cheaper therefore better value. When I bought mine I had intended to buy the BT50 as I was also told they were better value but my research suggested that they were only cheaper because you got less.
When I priced the XLT vs the equivalently equipped BT50 the Mazda was actually $200 dearer.
What they don't tell you is that he Mazda (at least when i bought mine 12 months ago) doesn't come standard with a tow bar, rear parking sensors, or tray sports bar. All standard on the XLT. So apples to apples there pretty similar in price.
Cheers
Peter