1990 Ford Ranger XLT Extended Cab review from North America

It had a bad mass air flow sensor when I bought it, but that was a 20-minute, $65 fix.

One of the hinges on the tailgate broke off. I jury-rigged a replacement.

The driver's seat has holes worn in it, but I don't count that against a truck with over 180,000 miles on it.

The factory AM/FM/cassette had a display that didn't light up or show what station you were on, but I would have replaced it regardless since I wanted a CD player.

One of the fold-out jump seats in the back of the cab is stuck out. Neither WD-40 nor wrenches has been able to get the thing to fold up again.

The chime to tell you that you left your lights on or the keys in the ignition is very soft. I didn't think it worked at all (or didn't have one) until I heard it when parking late one night when it was quiet outside.

My previous car was totaled in a wreck, so I needed new transportation soon. I was sort of looking for a truck, and this Ranger was cheap and available, so I grabbed it.

Gas mileage isn't the greatest. I get about 16 city/20 highway. It's an old truck with a largeish engine, so what do you expect?

It does burn some oil, as well as leak some from the valve covers. I could get this fixed, but I just dump in oil as needed.

One annoyance is the 60/40 split bench seat. It is nearly impossible to find seat covers for that seat configuration. All I've been able to find is a way to order custom covers, but I refuse to pay $300+ on seat covers for a truck that only cost me $1700.

Nothing has broken yet. The truck starts every day and hasn't let me down yet. I drive gently and check the fluids religiously. It's old, not glamorous, but rock-solid as far as reliability is concerned. All the things posted in the above section are minor annoyances at the worst. Really, anything I can complain about is part of having an old, high-mileage vehicle as a daily driver.