I've been looking into a small truck for motorcycle hauling. The Ford Ranger obviously ended up as my first choice for its combo of mileage, bed length (even the short bed), and price.

Ideally I'd love to find a Regular Cab w/Long Bed, 2.3 & 5spd, but I'm having a really tough time. Every long bed I seem to find is one of the V6s autos. Is my desired combo exceedingly rare in the more recent Rangers? I'm targeting 2004 or newer currently.

Thanks!

 

Any vehicle with a standard in it is kind of rare these days, I think 99% of the people out there don't know how to drive a standard and here in Canada, you're not even allowed to take your drivers test on a manual anymore.

I happened upon a 3 liter Mazda with a standard and snatched it up PDQ, all were automatics.
There's a standard for sale at my local Mazda dealer and it's been there for at least a month _ no one seems to want it, but the price is kind of steep at just under 8,000.00$

Keep checking any local sales where (usually older guys) who grew up with a standard may want to sell their truck because they can't drive anymore.

EDIT:
I just was curios so I took a quick look around and I only found 1 in your area with a standard, but it's an extended cab with a 4 liter. (and kind of expensive !)

https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/l-Used...ting=208887051

 

Yea unfortunately id say your desired combo is somewhat rare. Your basically describing a fleet truck, fleet trucks tend to get beat to death and scrapped rather than sold. My 09 is a bare bones regular cab long bed 2.3 but even that is an automatic. If you want a manual trans for the reliability/driving style Id say you may need to look at the other engine options, if your only after the manual for the fuel efficiency, the difference in the auto is barely worth noting.

 

Welcome to the forum

The long beds(7ft long) were not that common, but still made until 2012, last year of the Rangers
Yes, all were regular cab

The standard bed size was 6ft and used on both Regular cab and extended cab, 1993 to 2012 6ft beds were interchangeable.

Long bed Rangers have different frames, rear axle is 6" farther back, so you can't swap 7ft bed to 6ft bed Ranger, wheel wells wouldn't match up.

In the late 1990's manual transmissions became optional so you paid extra for manual transmissions, which is why they were less common.
Except for Fleet Rangers, they still came with manual trans and manual windows as standard equipment, i.e. bare bones Rangers
But not sure how many long beds were made for Fleet sales, most were regular cab 6ft beds, but did have 4cyl engines, and most were White, lol.

Regular cabs were the only type with 4cyl engines, or V6
Extended cab only came with V6 engines, 1998 and up

Also 4x4 only came with V6, and there are 4x4 Long beds, but they would be V6 only


All in all if I were you I would look for 2004 and up regular cab 6ft bed with 2.3l engine and manual transmission, they should be easier to find than long bed version
The 2001-2003 2.3l duratec engines had extra "features" that lowered power and cost extra to repair.

Then add a bed extender, so you get that extra foot you want for hauling ???
Extender can be removed when you are not hauling stuff

Lots of versions of these: AMP Research Bed Extender - Bestop Bed Extender - Westin Truck Bed XTender

 

I have a 1993 ford ranger 2.3lt. Regular cab with the long bed manual transmission and they are rare had to have my toolbox specially made for this truck cause they don't make them anymore mine has a lift kit on it as well I was trying to sell it and was surprised at how many people were interested in it said it was a extremely rare pick up truck and was worth more then I was asking so i decided to keep it I absolutely love this truck

 

RED Ranger

Yup, long bed Rangers were not in high demand when they were being made, so hard to find one now, so good to hold on to one