Good to hear people are liking the rangers, I drove one of the first-year models for a long weekend and that thing was nice enough handling but it was a rattle-trap, every little piece of plastic trim inside was loose and making noise, and this was a brand new truck. Sounds like thats improved!
Re: the midsize/compact, my recollection is the dodge dakota was the first truck I ever heard called a “midsize”, it was positioned in between the half ton “full size” light trucks and the smaller trucks like toyotas and rangers, this must have been in the late 80’s or early 90’s. I think later on the small trucks started getting exterior redesigns to “feel” bigger and started positioning themselves as “midsized”, although I dont know that functionally they were any different.
My wife and i had a 92 and a 94 toyota truck. One died in a crash, the other we traded in after about 250k. Those were very utilitarian but seemed to run forever, it was rust that got them (new england). A friend I climbed with in colorado had one with over 700k miles on it. We traded in at that point for an 05 and an 06 tacoma. The 05 lasted till 220k or so, but it had head gasket work done steering rack replaced couple sets of leaf springs and a bunch of other stuff. We had to have it towed away, that was in 2019. The 06 also went through about 4 sets of leaf springs, the differential locked up and had to be replaced, a ujoint in the steering column replaced, the frame replaced under the rust recall, and the brake lines all rusted theough and needed replaced. I traded it in for a 17 colorado diesel—the tacomas at that time felt pretty plastic to me and the seats were crazy uncomfortable. The diesel towed great (4000lb boat) including hills, etc, plenty of power, great fuel economy, but it was really, really small inside and the 4wd had an electrical gremlin causing me to get stuck all over the place. Had it fixed under warranty several times, and finally got sick of getting stuck and traded it in for a 19 silverado LD. Preferred the ride and handling over the tundras I drove. Its been good so far, tows like a v8 half ton truck is aupposed to, handles better in the snow than the light small trucks do, and I love the room. Afyer 3 years my Lifetime average fuel economy including towing I’m at 17mpg and change, and hiway trips without a lot of hills I usually average 21and change mpg, so its actually pretty efficient for the heft. Suppose I’ll be forced to get something more efficient at some point, but I’d have a VERY hard time going back to a small truck.
