Thread: Which pickup truck should I choose and why?

BB as I posted before with the vigo is my truck it has been with me for 7 year, to waiting for the new model, next the year late.
My TGF boy has grown up & the Vigo being extra cab , we needed a bigger cab.
Also I am on the road a lot Malaysia near to Singapore to Chang Mai & Koh Chang, so the TGF need a car.
We already have the truck & it has been good for 7 year, what would you buy.
The Vigo is better handling on & of the road than the Fortuner, but some time we like to take it easy.

BB the Forturer that I have is 2wd as it is the only model has manual gear & only 2.5 litre.
It did was thinking that the power would not be there, but it has the power as it is lighter,
than the Vigo.
The Vigo. Sit flat on the road, the Fortuner has boby roll & I through some 22'' rims on 60,000+.
That was a bad move, I think 20" would be better.

The Subi would be OK but this thread about trucks, we need time for the Ford & for the new Vigo

Keep in mind, if it hasn't already been mentioned, that you will pay more for yearly registration in Thailand if it is a 4 door pickup. I have the Smartcab and it suits me fine.

^but not as much as a car. I agree that the new vigo should be the one...

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

I agree that the new vigo should be the one...

Which shade of metallic nothingness would you buy?

I'm sure it will be available in exciting
non-metallic white....

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

Originally Posted by TonyBKK

I know looks are subjective, but personally I kind of prefer the look of the Mazda.

I think there's an optional extra for a white stick holder!

that's gunner be the deal clincher for me.

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

The Fortuner is an issue because of the bloody wankers that drive them,

Have to agree with that betty, ive been wanking furiously since i bought mine

Originally Posted by Ratchaburi

The Vigo. Sit flat on the road, the Fortuner has boby roll & I through some 22'' rims on 60,000+. That was a bad move, I think 20" would be better

yep, i done the same, focked up there i think

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

Which shade of metallic nothingness would you buy?

Repsol orange paint job - should look cool.

BLD, compensate with carrots...

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

Which shade of metallic nothingness would you buy?

not being a wearer of high heels , earrings and handbag the colour is not very important in the scheme of things

Toyota again. Cannot go wrong:

555 good Video of the Toyota, would green yu but have to spread the love.

Originally Posted by Necron99

^ no he said it on the first page of this thread.
Said the gearbox has a trashed bearing and ford won't look at it, say all rangers sound like they have a trashed bearing.

Ranger and Bt share a lot of components, but not all. I think it is more that they share the same engineering specs so can run out of a standardized plant.

Ford and mazda transmissions and engines are exactly the same, any common problem ford have Mazda will have as well
I have heard people complaining about driving fords through water
In the handbook it says the high ride model should be driven at a maximum speed of 4MPH/7 kph through water up to a certain depth of water, its in the handbook
Had a Ranger for 15 months, runs great and on a country run driving sensibly averages 7.8 litres per 100 klm traveling between 95 to 120 KPH on the open road

Originally Posted by nedkellylives

Had a Ranger for 15 months, runs great and on a country run driving sensibly averages 7.8 litres per 100 klm traveling between 95 to 120 KPH on the open road

I've had one for about 26 months. Never again.

Rusting around the load bay, electrical problems, fuel supply problems, brake problems, front suspension problems, sloppy service at the dealership (history book not filled in correctly, license plate fell off on the way home from a service, 3 days after the service the fuel pump fell off which was pretty nasty). It is getting dumped next month.

Choices next are a Toyota (no promotions, but I guess they don't need to given their rock-solid rep) or a Nissan which has some quite good deals going on.

Anybody have any input on a Nissan?

Nissan: nice truck.
BUT: I own two Vigos....

Originally Posted by quimbian corholla

3 days after the service the fuel pump fell off which was pretty nasty).

As in the injector pump that is heavily bolted to the side of the engine ?

^
Is that the same as a waiter spitting in your soup because you were nasty to them?

Originally Posted by Fondles

As in the injector pump that is heavily bolted to the side of the engine ?

I was told fuel pump, but it's quite possible something got lost in translation and I'm not knowledgeable enough to be sure exactly. I posted about it before in your flooded Ranger thread.

If the thing was 50,000 km overdue for a service and bits started falling off I'd kind of understand, but this was 3 days after a regular service at the correct interval.

To me that suggests that either they took it off and didn't put it back on properly or that they just didn't notice it was loose before returning the car to us. Either way it stinks.

Originally Posted by taxexile

Ford Ranger 2012 - Car Review | Honest John

Quality issues with uk rangers.

Rangers sold in the UK are probably manufactured in South Africa
No quality issues with our Thai manufactured one

Originally Posted by nedkellylives

Originally Posted by taxexile

Ford Ranger 2012 - Car Review | Honest John

Quality issues with uk rangers.

Rangers sold in the UK are probably manufactured in South Africa
No quality issues with our Thai manufactured one

I think the UK ones are coming out of Argentina.

Originally Posted by Fondles

Originally Posted by nedkellylives

Originally Posted by taxexile

Ford Ranger 2012 - Car Review | Honest John

Quality issues with uk rangers.

Rangers sold in the UK are probably manufactured in South Africa
No quality issues with our Thai manufactured one

I think the UK ones are coming out of Argentina.

You could be right they are manufactured in Thailand, South Africa and South America, they would be sent from the closest and cheapest shipping port to the UK

I think the UK ones are coming out of Argentina.

south american, and north american coutries drive on the right, so i would imagine argentinian production is set up to produce lhd vehicles.

south africa and thailand produce rhd vehicles as well s lhd.

according to the following article it would seem that uk rangers are produced in south africa.

The Global Ford Ranger - Behind The Scenes
TUESDAY 6 DECEMBER 2011
FORD RANGER Van picture A beast is born - the finished product. FORD RANGER Van picture FORD RANGER Van picture FORD RANGER Van picture FORD RANGER Van picture FORD RANGER Van picture
Ahead of the UK launch of the new Ford Ranger, Ford has commenced production of the new pickup at their Silverton Production Facility in South Africa. Ford have been manufacturing vehicles here for nearly 50 years on a relatively small scale, but a recent £300 million investment has revolutionised the site, allowing for triple production and much higher standards of practice. Liam Campbell visited the factory to see its progress.

The 1.7 million sq. ft facility at Silverton was opened in 1967, and began exporting pickups to the UK as early as the 1970’s with the Ford Cortina modelled P100. This time last year, the Silverton assembly plant produced around 30,000 vehicles based on four models of which very few were exported; the Ford Ranger, the Mazda 323, the Ford Focus and the Ford Bantam. This compares with next year’s target of over 100,000 units of the relatively same design, of which 75% will be exported to 148 countries worldwide.

The Ford Bantam is an unfamiliar name anywhere outside South Africa, but are a common sight over there. To European eyes, it looks like a Fiesta pickup truck, and it has been produced at Silverton since the mid 70’s, but sadly, the last Bantam will shortly roll off the production line.

The same can be said for the previous Ford Ranger, which has also come to the end of its production life. Within the last five years, over 100,000 Ford Rangers had been manufactured at the plant. An impressive figure until compared with the projected run of 110,000 units per year following this R3.4 billion renovation project for this new Ranger production facility. Around 20% of the vehicles coming off the production line will be branded as a Mazda BT-50.

The decision to include the South African factory, alongside Thailand and Argentina, as one of the three global locations to manufacture the new Ranger also provided a major boost for the local economy in a country where a quarter of all people are unemployed.

But this was to be no easy task. There were insufficient workers, a lack of skills, the size of the facility was inadequate and much of the machinery had long passed its expiry dates. That meant Ford had to import experienced engineers, managers, and supervisors from across the globe to give guidance on how to bring the dated factory into line with current production methods in North America, Australia and Europe.

John Tatge, Chief Nameplate Engineer, had previously worked on the Chicago assembly plant for the Ford Mustang: “For Silverton to become one of the three Ranger production facilities in the world, it needed to drastically change the way it operated. The plant has, at one time or another in the past two years, been completely refurbished. Obviously, we couldn’t do this all at once because we are still producing vehicles so we had to stage the process over a couple of years which in the end will allow for a much higher standard of procedures to improve efficiency, safety standards and the end product.”

To make the plant more efficient, the supply base was halved for the new Ranger, ensuring a higher level of quality whilst also keeping the costs down. Since 2009, over 60 high profile visits to suppliers across South Africa have been made to make sure they can cope with volume, but this has also helped to improve the quality of product by 68% - measured by Ford’s own monitoring system.

Ford have also invested significantly in the local workforce. Peter Lawson, Vice President of Operations at Silverton, oversaw many of the training courses in which workers were enrolled: “We initiated a project called ‘Lean Manufacturing Training’ and this involved a number of blueprints to attribute more skill into the workforce, and to get them motivated for the massive operation that we’re about to undertake. In one scheme, we flew over 200 team leaders to India to enable them to understand how things work and what is expected.”

“This is then consolidated via numerous exams and further training so that we can replicate the Ford’s top class working environment in India, back in South Africa.”

“The first thing we learned was that communication needed to improve”, explained one of Silverton’s Line Supervisors, “because the production line thrives on sequences, and previously when different departments wouldn’t talk too much and this would cause all sorts of confusions and errors further down the line. After each day we have a debrief which highlights all the key challenges, what went wrong and how we can prevent this for when we hit full production.”

Both of the Ranger’s new engines destined for Europe are actually manufactured 1,100 kms away at the 45,000 square foot Struandale plant in Port Elizabeth. Here, along with the 2.2 and 3.2 TDCi engines, a couple of 1.3 and 1.6 Rocam petrol engines are produced that are used for CNG and Flex fuel. Last year, the plant churned out 55,000 diesel engines, but an increase in yield is required in order to meet Silverton’s demands of 75,000 units which will also supply the Ford plant in Argentina.

Around 80% of the new pickups manufactured at Silverton will be Rangers, with the remaining 20% sold as badge engineered Mazda BT-50’s, which increases the Ranger’s domination at the plant compared the to the previous 60:40 majority. Only the Pacheco plant in Argentina out of the three new Ranger producing facilities will concentrate fully on the Ford branded product, with AutoAlliance in Thailand splitting the venture 50:50.

It just goes to show, there is no such thing as a European car any more, manufacturers are building vehicles with global appeal on a global scale. Some folk may not like the lack of individuality. But that’s progress!