In 1997, I bought the best vehicle that I ever owned, a 1995 Ford Ranger XLT SuperCab. You may wonder why this truck was my favorite. Some reasons apply to the truck physically, while others are more personal emotional attachments.
The Ranger brand was made by Ford to give truck drivers a cheap fuel efficient alternative to the bigger trucks in production at the time. Many businesses purchased the trucks for use in security, pest control, and construction site light haulers. Now, FoxNews reports that Ford has stopped production of the Ranger as the costs have fallen on the popular F Series trucks and with new technology the fuel efficiency has more closely matched that of the Ranger.
My Ford Ranger was the first vehicle purchased and paid off with my own money. When purchased, this truck had 43,000 miles on it and the day I lost it, it had over 250,000 miles on it. Not once in that time did it have an oil leak. It had no water leaks. It ran strong until the end. Because it ran so well, I was driving it too fast in the Nashville Flood of 2010 and totaled it in a hydroplane skid.
A lot of my best memories happened in that truck. I took this truck on my first solo road trip straight out of high school. I drove through the back roads of Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Missouri. It was the truck I had when I met my wife. We would go out to the parking area near the airport and watch the planes land at night. We would drive to the park and watch the water and ducks while we talked and shared our deepest hearts. Later she would learn to drive the stick shift just because her ex told her that she could not.
Finally, it was the truck that somehow protected my life as I hydroplaned in standing water in May 2010. The truck ended up rolled over on the driver’s side, and yet, I was able to walk away thanks to the sturdy steel construction of the trucks built back then. In today’s age of lightweight plastics and aluminum, the side would have surely collapsed and increased my injuries many fold. It ran great and was sturdy built, but best of all it shared my life for many years.