Lota stuff here, feel free to read/reply to as little or much as ya want. Any help at all is appreciated. CC email if you can (see sig) cuz I gotta decide in like 2 days!
I'm going to buy a 4x4, extended cab, V6 pickup for under $6000. I've got it down to Nissan Kingcabs, Ford Ranger Supercabs, and Toyota Xtracabs. However, I don't know whether to go automatic or 5spd. What do people think is better for towing, and more importantly offroading - nothing serious, mostly just exploring around. I'd like to be able to tow another car on rare occasions, maybe put an big overcab camper on sometimes for trips. I get conflicting info on it. Some say the 5spd will pull more and is better for offroad, others say the opposite. I don't know what to think. I'm also wondering where transmission coolers come in. Do they allow you to pull more, or just keep the trans from overheating and/or being damaged on grades and such. My other car weighs between 3900 and 4200lbs, depending on what I'm supposed to look at - GVW or GVA (or something like that, stamped on the doorjamb).
Another quandary is that I drove a 89 Nissan automatic yesterday and noticed it was gutless. It was a V6, 2.9L. I dunno if they're all like that, or if something was wrong with it. Reason I wonder is because I've also test driven Ford Ranger V6's, and they were ok. Didn't matter whether they were 5spd or auto, they seemed about the same power. Does Nissan make suck automatics? Hows Toyota? Didn't drive a truck yet, but my dad's 90-something Camry had a HORRID automatic. Had terrible shift points and was always shifting back and forth between 3rd and 4th on even a slight grade, and was totally guttless.
Last, maybe most important, I found out on Edmunds that they didn't start the side-impact door beams, at least on Rangers, till 94. Saw a heinous special way back on just how screwed you are if you get hit on the driver side without them. However, I've had a couple people say that even though years before that didn't have a tubular beam per-se, they still were reinforced and can be just as good. Anybody know if there's any truth to that, and/or which years models it's true for?
-- _____________________________________________________ For email response, or CC, please mailto: snipped-for-privacy@bigfoot.com. Yeah, it's really a real address :) .............................................................................. !!! POSTED @ News Paladin !!! Private and Anonymous! VERY FAST- NO DOWNLOAD LIMITS Try us for FREE at