A few weeks ago, I had just gotten to work.  Early shift, it was dark and raining.  I parked the Mighty Purple Power Ranger, and when I set the parking brake, the cable broke.  With the brake set.  So there I am under the truck, getting it unstuck so i can go home that night.  On the way home, it dawned me that a new set of tires would cost about half of what the truck was worth.  Bought it new, been driving it for nearly 17 years without a hitch, but it was really time for a new one.  Brought it up with Pat and nearly had a coronary when she said I was right. 

After I got home from the emergency room, we spent the obligatory day and a a half at the dealer and came home with a 2019 Toyota Tacoma SR5 V6 double cab in bright silver.  Got a pretty decent discount through the company purchase program, plus the rebate and the cash I got when my daughter's boyfriend nearly beat the door down asking if I'd sell him the Ranger.  It's a beautiful truck, should carry me around for another 17 years or so.  By that time, they'll be trying to automate me out of it. 

Now all I have to do is figure out how to turn on the radio. 

Cool, the new Rangers are not exactly warming me up.   

Last fall I went with my mother as we got talked into buying a new Escape with insurance money from her hitting a cow with her Santa fe.  I tried to tell her to go with something used but pretty new, but at the time zero interest and factory incentives made it cheaper per month to buy new. Can't say I really enjoy car shopping much, sticker shock alone makes me too incoherent to talk.

Time for a road trip then, put some out-west miles on it....

BTW, Jaime, you know the drill: Didn't. Happen. Without. Pictures.

Honcho, the new Rangers didn't do much for me either, mainly because there were no engine options.  It comes with a small displacement four banger with a turbo, which might be ok, but it's still a small engine in a heavy vehicle.  The Toy has a 250hp V-6, which is funny to me because it's almost 100hp more than the 400 V8 that was in my Trans Am!

I'll post some pics tonight when I get home.

Yeah, Mom has the turbo charged 2.0 i4 in her escape,  and it runs pretty well pushing something like 245hp, but the 2.3 in the ranger is about 270hp and I imagine any serious pulling would suffer.  Probably fine for tooling around town though.   One thing I hate on the new ones is the auto start and stop, it will shut off at a stop light, then start when you take your foot off the brake, you can disable it, but only until you start it again and its automatically  engaged, drives me nuts.

Golf cart technology?

Pretty much, I had sort of got used to it with the 05 Hybrid Escape we had for a couple years.  But that was electric until about 20 mph or so anyway usually.  I don't know what kind of starter they have but seems that's going to be problematic when miles start to accumulate in city driving.  I guess they were proud of it since they put it in everything now.  That also had a little 4 banger, and struggled just going up hill or against the wind on the highway at times.  Seems like you were always rapped up to 4 grand or more in the thing.  We sold it and bought a V6 version to avoid problems.

I wasn't crazy about that start stop thing either.  There's a switch on the dash in the Ranger to turn it off, but it resets whenever you shut the engine down, so you have to use it every time you fire it up.  YouTube is full of videos on how to bypass that.  The Escapes we have here at work all have that feature and it drives everyone nuts.  I'm not too fond of the push button start, either.  At least the Taco came with keys!

Yeah, push button start. Terrins Journey has thas that. If the car is too close to a WiFi router it tends to forget it's function. The office and all the computer gear is next to the garage. She can't park in the garage...

Our boy has a '02 Prius. Drive battery failed. Twice. Why he couldn't be less "sensible" and own a '64 Bel Aire like his old man, I'll never figure....

The new ride in the driveway at the house just after I got it home.  I've added a set of step bars since then, and there is a grille guard and a bed cover in the works...

Stetto, this truck is a mix of old school and new stuff.  It still has drum rear brakes and hydraulic power steering, but has bluetooth, radar cruise control, lane departure warning and a few other things I haven't figured out yet.  There is a box of sensors mounted just below the rear view mirror on the windshield  The sales dude told me if I ever had to replace the windshield, there would be a three hour recalibration required to reset them all.  Progress?  But I am glad it still has a key.

The Mighty Purple Power Ranger.  I almost cried when I took the keys off the ring.  I never had to use the spare set....

What's all that green stuff on the ground?? 😲

Texas snsnsnnnn........snnnnooo........snnnnnnnn......well, you know.   

Jaime, I have  a Bakflip F1 on my Ram, it's pretty nice, though if the wind blows hard enough it WILL let snow in. I know what a concern that is for you.

That's a good looking ride, Ese. The pink windshield tassels should go good with that slate gray...

Stetto, I have an Extang soft cover on mine.  I considered a hard cover, but getting it on and off if I needed to haul something wasn't worth the effort or the cost.  This one unsnaps and rolls up in just a few minutes.

Tassels?  Hell no!  Dingleballs around the windows, a serape on the dash and a little doggie in the back with the head that bobs up and down and eyes that light up when you hit the brakes....

"I don't care if it rains or freezes
Long as I got my plastic Jesus
Sittin' on the dashboard of my car!
But the Virgin Mary's got to go
"Cuz the magnet screws up my radio
Sittin' on the dashboard of my car...."