2004 Ford Ranger Article at Automotive.com

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2004 Ford Ranger

Below is an enthusiast article written by the automotive experts at Mini Truckin'.

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IntelliChoice Value Rating

The chart above shows the purchase price versus ownership cost for each car from a specific vehicle class. The cars with better than average ownership cost/purchase price correlations are the best values, and these best value cars are represented by the dots below the curve. (i.e. the cars that have a lower ownership cost compared to its purchase price.) Those cars, which are worse than average or poor values, appear above the curve.

One way to view the graph is to draw a vertical line through any purchase price. You may see several dots that fall on this line - each of which is a car with a similar purchase price. However, notice the difference in ownership costs of each car represented by the vertical position of the dot. Two cars with the same purchase price can have thousands of dollars difference in ownership costs. This is what separates "good value" cars from "poor value" cars.

What is a good car value?

A "good car value" is one whose cost to own and operate is less than expected. The lower the cost to own and operate a car compared to what is expected, the better the value of that car.

But how do we know a car's "expected cost"?

For each car in the class, IntelliChoice plots the car's purchase price against the total five-year cost to own and operate it as determined by IntelliChoice research. Each dot on the above chart represents a specific car. Generally, we find that as the purchase price of the car increases, the cost to own and operate that car increases. This is why the dots on the graph tend to rise upward and to the right. This phenomenon also makes intuitive sense - as the purchase price rises, financing costs tend to rise, as do insurance, depreciation, taxes, and most other car ownership costs.

This is an important concept. It's normal for car ownership costs to rise as purchase price rises. Therefore, we can't just establish one "average" ownership cost number for each class, since cars in the class have different purchase prices. (This is why the "Relative" shown on each chart is different for cars in the same car class.)

Using statistical techniques, IntelliChoice "connects the dots" to form a curve that defines, for this car class, the relationship between the car's purchase price and car's ownership costs. This curve is our "expected cost" curve. The curve defines, for any car in the class, the five-year ownership cost that we would expect to see at each possible purchase price. If every car in the class were an average value, then all the dots would fall exactly on the curve. However, it's rare that any dot is exactly on the curve. Some dots are a little higher or lower, and some are a lot higher or lower. The dots that are a little lower are better than average car values, while the dots that are a lot lower are excellent car values (A dot that is a lot lower than the curve has ownership costs much lower than expected for a car of its purchase price). Conversely, a dot a little higher than the curve is a poorer than average car value, while a dot that is much higher than the curve is a poor car value.

Value is a relative term, not an absolute term. It is performing better than the logical expectation.

So is a Mercedes-Benz E320 expensive to own and operate? Certainly in an absolute sense. Most other cars cost less. But, when its cost to own and operate is plotted against cars with comparable invoice prices, the E320 costs less. So the E320 is not expensive to own and operate - it is a good car value. The Mercedes does not have low ownership costs, but it has low ownership costs for its invoice price.

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Article From Mini Truckin' Magazine

2004 Ford Ranger - Double Bouble

By Mike Alexander, Josh Fleetwood / photographer: Josh Fleetwood
/ Article provided by: Mini Truckin' Magazine

When Steve Maxwell of Rancho Cucamonga, California, bought this brand-new '04 Ford Ranger, it was going to be his daily-driver to get him around town while he finished building his body-dropped '95 Astro van. Well, one rainy day, Steve decided to go play in a flooded street in the new Ranger. The water was a little deeper than he had expected, so with the high rpms on the engine, and the low height of the intake, the truck-that was not even out of warranty-was doomed. Now what? Rebuild the engine? Naaaawwww! This just gave Steve an excuse to build another truck.

Steve began to ponder how he would proceed with building the Ranger. He contemplated just body-dropping the truck on 20s and cruisin' it. But, then he realized it would be hard to stand out at the shows these days. So, after talking to his friend and boss, Jeff Davy of Devious Customs in Riverside, Steve decided to build one of the biggest and baddest lifted minis to hit the scene in years, and Jeff left the shop at Steve's disposal to get it done.

To get things started, Steve pulled the small-block Chevy and transmission out of his Astro, since he had his new project. New frame and crossmembers were built, so the V-8 would sit easily in its new home. Next, the body of the truck was removed, cab mounts were made, and three quick days later, the truck was on its way. Now that the truck had its powerplant taken care of, it was time to put the truck up in the air. Steve started off with a set of Chevy axles and welded cages, to hook up the front and back wishbone four-links, and then he added the plates for the triple bellow Contitech airbags and four Air-Zenith compressors were used to supply the air needs, to lift the truck to the sky. With the suspension dialed in, Steve wrapped 20x10-inch American Eagle wheels in 52-inch Michelin tires, which quickly dwarfed the wheels. With the wheels and tires mounted, Steve was looking at a total of 39 inches of lift , which left the rockers 5-1/2-feet higher than he had originally planned. This made for one of the tallest minitrucks in the world. With a little help from Brett "Daddy" Oakes to redo the truck wiring harness, the Monster came alive and made its first trip down the road.

Now that the insane suspension and motor side of Steve's Ranger was taken car of, it was time to turn to the cosmetic side of this beast. Jos Rodriguez and Adam Portello of Street Inspired Customs were called upon to save everything on the truck and spray the House of Kolor paint. Just a few days after the truck came out of the body shop, Steve packed up the Ranger because of a new job opportunity. He then headed out to Oklahoma for the third time in his life.

With only the interior left unfinished, Steve turned to some of his long-time Okie friends, Daniel and TLB at Pugz and Skagz Kustoms in Moore, Oklahoma. Everything was ripped out of the Ranger's cab and fiberglassed to hold all of the JBL audio equipment, which was powered by Kinetik's Cap Killer batteries to power the 4,000-watt sound system. Everything was painted to match the outside of the truck, and a set of bucket seats, wrapped in leather and suede, was installed to fill the guts of this beast. With more than 1,400 hours put into the build of this truck, the daily-driver is no more. The only word to describe this Ranger now is: Beast.

How often do first-time projects turn out the way people initially intend? Tyler Scallorn of Arlington, Texas, will be the first to tell you that if y0u don't stick with it, you will not end up with what you want. During the past five years, Tyler's Ranger has been 'bagged four times, had three sets of wheels, a few different interiors, and countless roll pans. All of this was to get his truck finally done precisely the way he had wanted it.

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