This week we’re vacationing at the family cabin on an island; the nearest town is Gibsons. Mid-week, we hit town to pick up groceries and hardware. Unfortunately, it’s a really demanding walk from the waterfront to the mall, particularly with a load to carry, and there’s little public transit. Fortunately, there’s Coast Car Co-op, a competent and friendly little five-car outfit. We booked a couple of hours and the closest vehicle was a 2009 Ford Ranger, described as a “compact pickup” or “minitruck”. It made me think.
Think back fifteen years · I got in the Ranger and tried to adjust the seat, but that was as far back as it went. It didn’t go up or down. There were no cameras to help me back up. There was nowhere to plug my phone in. It had a gearshift on the steering column that moved a little red needle in a PRNDL tucked under the speedometer. There was no storage except for the truck bed. It wasn’t very fast. The radio was just a radio. It was smaller than almost anything on the road. I had to manipulate a a physical “key” thing to make it go. To open and close the window, you have to turn a crank. I bet there were hardly any CPUs under the hood.
And, it was… perfectly OK.
The rear-view mirrors were big and showed me what I needed. It was dead easy to park, I could see all four of its corners. There was enough space in the back to carry all our stuff with plenty room to spare. You wouldn’t want to drive fast in a small tourist town with lots of steep hills, blind corners, and distracted pedestrians. It wasn’t tracking my trips and selling the info. The seats were comfy enough.
Car companies: Dare to do less · I couldn’t possibly walk away from our time in the Ranger without thinking about the absolutely insane amounts of money and resources and carbon loading we could save by building smaller, simpler, cheaper, dumber, automobiles.
Comment feed for ongoing:
From: Dewald (Jul 12 2024, at 22:39)
I couldn’t agree more. See basically Suzuki’s entire (automotive) product line for many examples. We have a Swift and Jimny - one 12 years old and the other almost new. Both work perfectly, offers all the necessary features, but not more, are cheap, and are extremely reliable. Fun to drive as well!
[link]
From: Pierre Paour (Jul 13 2024, at 09:06)
I'm currently having a similar experience: renting a Renault Trafic van whose only concession to modernity is a single USB port, and it's fine. Driving around Britain on the wrong side of sometimes single track roads is fine, because I can see my tires (tyres). I do need help in tight parking situations, which is always, because it's a long vehicle. And I do miss Android Auto, because GPS directions looking at a small screen wedged in a cupholder is a bit dodgy.
[link]
From: Dustin (Jul 13 2024, at 23:48)
I agree with you. And I think our governments are part of the problem here, mandating so much of what cars must have these days
[link]
From: Jarek (Jul 14 2024, at 12:02)
Dustin... which government is mandating two-row pickup trucks and hoods that are taller than a third grader?
[link]
From: Robert Sayre (Jul 14 2024, at 16:02)
I drove a Peugeot 208 recently. It had Apple CarPlay, no backup camera, and a stickshift. It was fine.
I grew up driving sticks, because that was better in snow/ice than the automatics at the time (my dad said: "breaks mean you failed").
Mainly, gas cars are horrible. I also drove an automatic Mercedes, and it was awful. I think stick or EV are ok.
[link]
From: Dave Pawson (Jul 16 2024, at 00:03)
Bet it took a minute to work (remember? ) all that Tim :-)
Like other comments, agree the makers are missing a trick with vehicles such as this. Horror of horrors, the owner might just be able to maintain it themselves!
KISS principle working with autos?
[link]
From: Doug K (Jul 17 2024, at 13:31)
my car is a 2004 Ford Sport Trac, basically a double cab Ranger.
It is as you say just fine, gets me down the road with minimum fuss and bother.
In particular I love driving it offroad, gleefully accelerate onto dirt roads.. a bit falls off ? well we're still going, so clearly that bit wasn't really necessary, onward ho !
When I get into rental cars where there's no key and everything is a button push, there are some moments of disorientation and considerable grumbling.
[link]
From: Gar Fisher (Jul 18 2024, at 09:33)
I have a 1999 Mazda B3000 (a re-badged Ford Ranger) that I bought new, 3l V6 with 5 speed manual. It just keeps going. Given my propensity for cycling to and from work, I suspect it will have many more years. It was the last year with a cassette deck, partner sometimes borrows it to listen to mix tapes!
[link]