Hi everyone! I'm new to the forums and looking for help please. I currently have a 2004 cavalier with 80k miles on it. I found a great little step side 2001 ranger xlt off-road. It has 143k miles on it. I'm thinking of trading in my car for an even trade but not sure if I should. Can anyone offer some advice or pros and cons to help me out? This would be my first ford and I don't know what to expect as far as repair costs and known problems with that model. Thank you!

 

Any advice is welcome.

 

pics of truck? IMO your car has less miles and is newer...id hang onto it

 

I don't have any pics. I stopped again in the day light and crawled under it. The frames in decent shape but the wheel wells are rusted out pretty bad.

I'm holding onto the car for now til I find a nicer ranger. Thank you!

 

Ranger are bricks with 4 wheels, so MPG is never great.
But off-roading in a Cavalier is also not much fun.

Ranger issues are usually not the body and chassis, they are good for 300k
You need to know what engine and trans is in there to get an idea of future issues
So next time get the year and engine size, and then auto or manual trans, trans model can be looked up based on year and engine

 

Ok I see. Thank you! I know that one has a v6 engine and automatic transmission. The cavy isn't much of an off-road machine. Miss my truck and anxious to get another one.

If I can hold out til around August or September I'll have more cash to work with. $7000+ instead of $4000.

 

Just of the top of my head:
2001-2003 4.0l SOHC engines had a bad timing chain setup, once repaired they are fine but engine must be pulled to replace them

2002-2006 3.0l Vulcan had valve seat issues so heads had to be replaced, again, once that was done they were fine.

Many were fixed under warranty, if that was done they would be OK

 

Thank you! I really appreciate the info. I've never been much of a mechanic or anything. Used to repair computers. Trying to learn everything I can about vehicles now. Much to learn still.

 

your right like my ranger blew up 4 days after i bought it

 

Always good to learn new stuff, but you don't need to be a mechanic to own and drive a vehicle.

I like to eat steak but don't know how to raise cattle, kill them and butcher them, I just want to eat the steak........for now, lol.