2004 Ford Ranger XLT review from North America

Front tires needed to be rebalanced after I bought the truck. The tires were put on brand new before I bought the truck, and the warranty covered it for free.

Slight pull to the left at highway speeds, fixed free along with the tires.

I love this truck! It had 66000 miles on it when I bought it, but it rides and drives like new.

The 4.0L engine provides plenty of power. Even with the automatic transmission, acceleration is very good. It'll respond quickly in a tight situation and doesn't breath hard on the highway. The horsepower and torque numbers are so close to most small V8 engines in full size pickups, and it gets a lot better gas mileage. 17 to 18mpg around town and a nice 21mpg highway. Those numbers help out especially with the price of gas. However a lead foot will make those numbers drop, but that should be expected.

This truck handles great and rides nice for a pickup. The step side bed has plenty of room and isn't so long you can't maneuver into a regular parking space. Visibility out the rear side windows is excellent.

The extended cab has enough room for small objects, but the rear seats are very small and I usually don't let anybody ride back there mainly due to the lack of 4 doors, but I didn't buy this truck to haul people around. If that's your objective, buy a minivan not a truck.

The seats are comfortable, the air conditioning gets cold fast and works well, and power everything is a nice feature.

The sound system is one of the best stock systems I've heard, I replaced the rear speakers with Jensen 6x8's, they fit right in the stock mounting location. There was nothing wrong with the stock speakers, they were just a little weak. The stock CD player doesn't skip and works great.