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Nissan Titan

July 26th, 2007 by Shenron

The Nissan Titan is Nissan’s most recent foray into the truck manufacturing field, having been based on the Nissan F-Alpha platform and such.  Thus for the Nissan it is not an actual full out war-waging competitor to the biggest manufacturers of trucks (Ford, Chevy, Dodge) but rather an alternate to them.  It has been in production since 2004 and there have been no additional models since this ones introduction making this the first era of the Nissan Titan truck.  The vehicle is somewhat more technical in nature with its 32 valve 5.6 V8 that has a wonderfully powerful 305 horses and 379 torque rating.  There is a minor upgrade to be noted - because this year they added on an updated version of the engine for 317 horses and 385 feet per pound of torque. Like almost all standard trucks it comes with a front mounted engine and is capable of ear wheel or four wheel drive and has a five speed automatic, along with choices of either a crew cab or an extended cab, along with bed sized to match.

Nissan intended the Nissan titan Truck to be more than just a truck, with its good towing capacity and rather large interior space it can also be considered a family vehicle with a huge array of add-ons and other goodies within to keep loud obnoxious children happy, such as its DVD player and sun roof on some models.  It also comes with a navigation system, satellite radio from either XM or Sirius (or both now that a merger is likely to occur between them) along with a read sonar system for backing up and power adjustable pedals.  As for safety features with the truck it has been given very high marks, meaning in an accident it is likely you will be safe.

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Ford Explorer Sport Trac

July 24th, 2007 by Shenron

The Ford Explorer Sport Trac is a SUV and a Truck at the same time which was first produced in 2001.  It is based on the Ford Explorer SUV and is considered the midway vehicle between the Ford Ranger compact truck and the Ford F-Series full size and super duty truck, with its current classification as a mid-sized pickup truck.  The design in a classic layout with a front engine - however what is different is that it comes in front wheel drive or all wheel drive, uncommon for a truck.  The engine of the first era, combined with its design based on the Ford Explorer made it a formidable truck that could compete with the best.  The engine offered was the Cologne 4.0L 210 horse, the only engine available for the vehicle.  However in 2005 they revamped and redesigned.

Unlike the first era from 01 to 05 with its five speed auto or five speed manual, the next era of Ford Explorer Sport Trac vehicles boasted a six speed automatic, but still kept the five speed manual transmission.  With this new redesign it is still based upon and will probably forever be based on) the Ford Explorer SUV, making the Sport Trac linked for life.  What is new with the current run right now are the engines, with the addition of the 4.6L Modular V8 which gives it 292 horses.  Because the Ford Explorer design is now larger so is the Sport Trac, and with that comes additional strength at the cost of performance, but with this engine the effects are mitigated to just fuel consumption.  Overall as a mid-size pickup truck or SUV the vehicle is an interesting cross that has proven thus far to be a worthy adversary that has sold enough units to allow for its continued production and existence in the truck market today.  Although it lacks the power that you would find in the Ford F-Series for overall hauling power and towing capacity it is still stringer than the fledgling Ford Ranger and will continue to be seen in the future.

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The Ford Ranger II

July 24th, 2007 by Shenron

Well, as was previously covered, by 1988 the Ford Ranger had become a moderately successful compact pickup truck with a decent hauling capacity for its size and finally the introduction of an engine that was respectable in the 2.9 Cologne V6.  In 1989 however, ford redesigned and released a face-lifted nip and tuck job on the Ford Ranger, changing how the headlights appeared and giving it a much needed new set of engines.  All 2.0 engines were dropped, and the 2.3 was boosted by 14 horses, the automatics were dropped except for the four speed and the newer better bigger and meaner 4.0L Cologne V6 was handed down by the car gods to the Ranger - giving it 160 horses, followed by a 145 horse replacement for the 2.9L Cologne - the Vulcan V6 3.0.  After this in just a few short years the 1993 Ranger hit the market with a smoother design and more modern look, subtracting many of the manual transmissions leaving just one five speed, and also dropping the 2.9L all together.

Then came the present design, face-lifted and overhauled, in production since 1998, making it almost ten years old today.  However there are rumors that this will indeed be the final era of the Ford Ranger compact, making the truck being produced today a possible non-appearance tomorrow.  Over the past decade this truck has received many tweaks and design changes that are minor but keep it going, such as in 2004 with the new seats for safety and some minor grille and tail light updates.  Today it includes options for a 143 horse 2.3L four strike, a 148 3.0 V6, and a lovely and very powerful for its class 207 Horse V6.  Both transmissions are 5 speed with overdrive.  Today the Ford Ranger is the only compact truck left on the market, with everyone else going to mid-sized vehicles, and because it has not received any major updates it is clear that the future for the Ranger is a very dim one.

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The Ford Ranger I

July 24th, 2007 by Shenron

The Ford Ranger is Ford’s first and current line of compact pickup trucks developed after the end of the Ford Ranchero, and is considered to be one of the better compacts on the market.  It began in 1983, four years after the half-a-truck half-a-car Ranchero went out with the dinosaurs, and afterwards the Ford Courier (Mazda B-Series, which is the Ford Ranchero in many other countries) was used for just a short while.  There are actually two kinds of Ford Rangers sold, but the one we will be looking at is the North American Ford Ranger, the other is called the Mazda B-Series which goes by Ford Ranger in 130 other countries.  The truck comes in the common front engine rear wheel or all wheel drive standard models with all of the common additions you could expect from a car.  The first era began in 1983 with its introduction, which focused on efficiency and quality, leading it to have many different transmissions to chose from, with several five speed manuals, a four speed manual, and also two automatics: and three and four speed.

The Ranger was capable of hauling many light loads and small payloads at this time with the engines being the 72 horse 2.0L, and an 86 horse 2.3L - which seems somewhat underpowered today.  There was also the 2.2 Diesel which gave it 59 horses - compare that with the Ford model A truck of the 1920’s and 30’s to see that it had 40 horses back then.  There was, fortunately, a V6 2.8 that gave the truck 115 horses.  After this Ford added one more engine, the same type as the other 2.8L Cologne V6, except just a tiny itsy bit bigger, making it a 2.9 L capable of 140 horses.  This engine gave the truck the power it needed to be a much better competitor in the compact truck market and helped it gain some early success in the truck industry.

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Ford Ranchero

July 24th, 2007 by Shenron

Well in 1957 Ford decided to make a hybrid between a normal car and a pickup truck, to follow the emerging trend at the time.  So the Ford Ranchero was born, and had quite a few variations in its production run from 1957 until 1979 -when it went the way of the dinosaurs.  The Ranchero was the first compact car truck of its kind after the Second World War, and was soon imitated by GM because it was a success in the beginning.  The first Ranchero’s were based on the Ford Fairlane, the two door ranch wagon. They made available different packages, ranging for a Spartan package that had just everything a truck would need, to a loaded package with all the accessories you could ask for, and all of them came with every engine available to the Fairlane.  By far probably the best engine for it was the 5.8L Thunderbird Special, which gave it a good balance of power and performance.  In 1960 Ford overhauled the Ranchero making it much smaller and based it on the Ford Falcon, which gave it new transmission options and engines it could choose from.  It could come in either the three or four speed manual, or the three speed automatic, and had four engine options from the two Thriftmaster Sixes to the two Windsor V8’s.

In 1967 Ford took the Ranchero and slapped it back onto the Ford Fairlane, and gave it a 3.3 Straight-6 up to a 6.4L Big Block V8 at 315 horses; however this year was the only year it remained.  After the Fairlane was replaced by the Torino the Ranchero became larger than even in 1968, and it saw the choices between the V6’s and V8’s with the largest being that 428 Cobra Jet.  In 1972 the entire line was radically changed, replacing the sleek savvy look with some kind of giant boxy heavy design, and included a large 6.6 small-block engine that would make it very powerful.  The final production line began in 1977; with the ending of the Torino in 1976 Ford gave the Ranchero a new platform to base it on, so they chose the Ford Thunderbird, and the Ford LDT II. Engines were of all spectrums ranging back up to the 6.6 V8 again, and thus the truck in a car was very powerful with a decent hauling capacity.

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