1997 Ford Ranger XL review from North America

The dome light does not work, however, I fixed this problem myself by wiring a switch into the door hooked up to a light that I installed myself in the firewall to see the floor at night when I open the door. I have yet to rewire the dome light.

The gas pedal stuck sometimes, but some starting fluid to the throttle body fixed that problem.

I love this truck. I don't think I could ever go back to a car ever again.

I changed some things on the truck to help the performance, and has helped greatly. By replacing the air intake muffler with a strait pipe and taking off the air intake baffle on the inside of the fender. This greatly improved the power to the engine. It also improved my fuel efficiency as well.

This truck is unique, it uses 8 spark plugs. Instead of having one spark plug for each cylinder, this engine has two because of the cone shaped pistons. This is a great idea for fuel efficiency!

PROS:

Economically easy on the wallet, (I have the base model version with manual transmission, no air conditioning, and no power steering.)

Fuel efficient. Gets at least 26 mpg highway and city.

Very easy to work on.

CONS:

The spark plugs are very difficult to change. You almost have to remove the fuel injection to get to the spark plugs. The 8 spark plugs are also a con. This is nice for performance, but a pain for a mechanic.

The seats are awfully uncomfortable. I have the vinyl bench seat which will be replaced with some bucket seats from a junkyard.

The oil filter is mounted on the side of the block causing oil to drip down the side of the block after removing it.

Is NOT very fast.

Overall, this truck has been wonderful and haven't had an ounce of problems with it.