Hooniverse Truck Thursday – 1998 Ford Ranger 4.0 XLT

Hey, what do you know. This time my Truck Thursday post doesn’t feature a Land Cruiser or any other Japanese-made 4×4, but bona fide American Truck goodness: a 1998 Ford Ranger XLT. Yeah, in our neck of the woods a US-built Ranger is a large truck, even if in its home country it can be considered a slim lite option. Am I right?

Make the jump to see more pics of the Ranger.

The nameplate Ranger is familiar here, but US-built Rangers aren’t common. The Ranger that has been available here officially is the smaller Thailand-made development of a Mazda chassis, sold since the ’90s and with the Mazda base dating till the late ’80s. This light blue US Ranger is most likely a private import. I can’t see any Euro changes on it that would stick out (apart from the fender blinkers?), so maybe someone’s brought it along when moving here.

The Ranger wears Nokian Hakkapeliitta rubber on handsome chrome wheels. It also bears a couple of bullethole stickers; I like the wheels more than those.

I’m liking the old-style Ford model badge font on the Ranger badges, too. The engine here is the four-litre Cologne V6, producing something to the tone of 160 hp.

Yes, that is the ’81 Civic featured earlier in the background. The Ranger was shot on the same day.

And behind the Ranger is also the smurf blue Zafira OPC posted earlier. Another thing that’s next to it…

…is a Sebring. Yeah, we’re not safe even here. “Ugly piece of sh*t like the Sebring, which looks like an Edsel f*cked a Pinto”, as quoted by Jon Stewart.

But back to the Ranger. With a Bodygard bed liner and the gutsiest tow bar I’ve posted yet, is it a truck you would want to be seen in? Not everybody’s got one here…

 

[Images: Copyright 2012 Hooniverse/Antti Kautonen]

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