A friend of mine bought one of these in the early 90s…and I was surprised to find while browsing Ford’s site today that aside from some minor front end changes, it’s the same truck. (Except now it comes in red and not that weird dark pink Ford painted everything in the 90′s.)

1994 Ford Ranger

2010 Ford Ranger

I pulled up and went inside to tell them what the problem was. A mechanic had me pull my car around to the front and while I stood there expecting a time estimate, he pulled the nail out of the tire and patched it. I was back at my office with my newly repaired tire within 20 minutes, and only out 12 bucks.

The next time I need an oil change I’m definitely going there instead of the place that lectured me about how I needed my Toyota aligned… when I drive a Mazda.

I drove a dark grey metallic model. It was a wonderful color, although I don’t want another dark car. The interior was either black or dark grey, with leather seats. The interior looked a bit dated. There are cubby holes everywhere including a big one on the lid of the center console which you can’t store anything in since you’d dump it all every time you needed in the console. Not sure why it’s not just a padded top; maybe to discourage people from letting their children sit there. I asked about all the cubby holes and the salesmen told me it’s partly because they don’t put tape players in them anymore (that only explained away one of holes).

The driver’s seat has full power adjustments, including lumbar support and side bolsters that grow and shrink. It was pretty cool although I never did get it perfectly comfortable. The driver’s seat had position memory so if I had found the perfect spot I could have kept it. The headrest was a bit far forward for my taste (I don’t like to lean on them but couldn’t help it with this one) but I never looked to see if that was adjustable.

I had a little trouble getting the truck out of the parking spot but it wasn’t too bad. We headed out onto a feeder road and then down some nice backroads in Bryan. The truck has 300 horsepower, tons more than my Miata (142). I expected it to be a bit quicker than it was because of the power, but it also weighs quite a bit more than my Miata so it wasn’t quite as quick as I hoped. It wasn’t slow, though; I didn’t find myself urging it on or anything like that (come on baby! You can do it!). Eventually I moved my seat up and that helped because I could actually reach the gas pedal. It drove fine, nothing to write home about, but nothing bad about it, either. Chris suggested we find a rough paved road to take it down because we’d read that it had sort of a rough ride. On the smooth pavement it was fine, but once we hit the rough stuff the ride deteriorated quickly. Chris was sitting in the back and complained quite a bit, and it wasn’t much fun up front either. We felt every little crack and bump in the road and were very happy to quit testing that part of the ride. The salesmen brought up the point that it will ride much better when towing or hauling, but the majority of the time we would have the truck empty so that didn’t appease us.

Some of the roads we took in Bryan have very narrow lanes and I had some trouble staying in them. I also thought that others cars were too close to me in the neighboring lanes, but that’s because I’m used to the Miata; I’d grow accustomed to that eventually.

Once we got back on the lot I tried parking first next to someone and then in between the other trucks. What a mess! They park their rows of trucks sort of close to each other, but not unreasonably so. When I first started driving the truck I was overcompensating the steering, thinking the truck would take more room to turn (which backfired because the truck doesn’t turn tightly at all). When I tried to park I wasn’t overcompensating, but still didn’t set up right to get into the spot. I backed up and tried it again a few times but finally gave up and got out before I took the rear fender off the truck to the right. I was about an inch from it. Chris was heckling me from the back seat so I told him to give it a shot and see if he could do any better. He of course hopped in, got it out of the mess I had gotten it into (I was scared to even back it up at that point) and parked it with no problem (although not completely straight…HA!).

Meanwhile I checked out the backseat. The backseat is a full sized seat with tons of room. It’s better than some sedans I’ve been in! The seat was very comfortable and slightly reclined unlike the seats they used to put in these things. It was comfortable enough for a fairly long roadtrip, I think. I could make the ride to California no problem (that has become our measurement for road trips since we drove there in October). The seats fold flat and allow a LOT of storage in the back, for all those rainy Texas days. Probably a good place for big dogs too, if you don’t want them on the leather.

All in all I was impressed with the truck. I’ve hated Chevys since my mom’s 1987 Astro fell to pieces (that thing was NOT well made, but in Chevy’s defense 1987 was the first year of the Astro), but I’d definitely consider this truck if I was in the market. It was easy to drive, comfortable, had fairly responsive acceleration (especially once I moved the seat up and really romped on the pedal), and it looks great. I didn’t like the new front end at first, but it’s growing on me.

When Dennis, my son, and I walked in, we happened to run into the salesperson that helped us get the mower while waiting in line to return the mower. She said we’d need to empty it of gas before we could return it. What? How? She said the tool rental department could empty it for us, and we could do it after returning the mower. I was already annoyed that I was out the cash for the gas that was stuck in the mower – and the thought of giving it to Home Depot was not making me happier. But mostly I just wanted rid of the piece of junk, so we got in the returns line.

The cashier heard that entire exchange, including the part about returning it and then emptying it, and then said to us “you have to empty it before you can return it.” I was starting to get irritated at that point. I mean, why do I have to empty it? Aren’t they going to check it anyway? She said we could at least stay in the store but she didn’t offer to hold the bag so we toted Adam, the mower, and the bag, instructions and side discharge piece with us all the way across the store to tool rental. There we were met with another line that we had to wait in. I about lost it when I saw the line. The guy that helped us was nicer than everyone else and once he saw me struggling with my son and the mower, he took it and wheeled it for me. He explained it has to be unloaded because they ship it back to the manufacturer and it costs them more if it has flammable fuel in it. The oil has a higher ignition point so it doesn’t matter (plus it’d all drained out all over the mower, but I digress…).

He wheeled it all the way back through the store, so quickly we practically had to jog to keep up with him. I made sure to thank him and then we went back to returns. Now that it was empty the return process went smoothly, but I was so pissed at that point that I wanted to talk to a manager anyway. They summoned the manager on duty who stood there looking like a fool while I expressed my frustration with how stupid it was to have a customer empty the mower themselves. How did they know I actually did it and didn’t just wander around the store? They didn’t. So I assume they have to check the mowers anyway, so why force the customers to do this? I told him I had planned on exchanging it for the same model, but instead thanks to the women working the register, I was going to Sears instead. He just kept standing there, looking stupid, and repeating “I’m sorry” but never offering anything else. Ugh. As my son would put it: “Home Depot needs to go to timeout.”

Later that day, once my temper had recovered, we went to Sears and bought a new (and more expensive) mower. The Sears employees were great and went above and beyond to make us happy. Home Depot lost more than a mower sale on Saturday.

It seems a weird thing to tout: “Now you can pay even less attention than you were before!”

Right click on desktop
Choose Properties
Click the Appearance tab
Click Effects button
Check the box next to “Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts”
Choose “ClearType” from the second drop-down menu.
Click Ok
Click Apply

If ClearType wasn’t selected, you should instantly notice a difference in how fonts display in browsers and in Explorer. I don’t know why that isn’t the default setting in XP, and it’s one of the first things I change any time I have a fresh install of XP.

So I went test driving, my favorite hobby. I was convinced I’d love the Audi A3, so I drove it first. Wow… Underwhelmed doesn’t even begin to approach how I felt about the A3. I moved up to an A4, but they didn’t have an Avant in a color I wanted, and my top choice of red would have to be custom ordered. The A4 sedan is nice, but really didn’t do much for me.

I moved to Volkswagen next where I drove the Jetta TDI (diesel). I loved it and would have purchased it right then and there, but the Jetta lease special didn’t cover TDIs and the dealer wanted way more than I wanted to pay for it.

Frustrated, I thought “meh, the Mini is fine” but a friend convinced me to go drive a Mazda3. My first reaction was “wow that is hideous” but the more I wandered around the Mazda lot the more the 3 started to appeal to me. I mean, it looks like it’s smiling – how could I not smile back? I drove the Mazdaspeed3 first and absolutely loved it, but really wanted to spend less, so I opted for a regular Mazda3 hatchback (I didn’t even drive the sedan). I love hatchbacks and always have, especially as a single homeowner who occasionally likes to buy large items like toilets. It’s just convenient, and it stands out a little in a crowd. I loved the bright blue but the dealer I was at didn’t have a hatchback, and I was a little afraid I’d tire of the color, so I went for pearl white. I’ve never owned a white car before and tend to associate them with work vehicles, but I love that they hide dirt well and don’t show scratches as badly as dark cars. The white is really pretty and I don’t regret that one bit.

I’ve had the Mazda for a little over a month and so far, no regrets. It’s easy to drive (it’s an automatic), it holds everything I need, and it’s a relief to have rear doors when getting my son in and out of the carseat. He still refers to Minis as “Mommy’s car” but also calls any Mazda3 that too, so he doesn’t seem to upset about the loss of the Mini.

Yes, my parenting inexperience reared it’s ugly head right there, and I know you other parents are snorting at my naivete. As he’s gotten older he has learned to crawl into the seat, but he’s also learned to crawl past that seat and into the trunk, or over the console into the front seat, or his favorite spot: in the rear passenger seat next to his carseat. That means I have to climb back there after him and attempt to wrangle 35 squirming pounds of boy into a car seat that’s practically bigger than the car. *Bonk* goes my head on the roof. *Bonk* goes my head on the doorsill. Whew, I’m exhausted just thinking about it. After just a few months of this I’m starting to eye four door cars very, very wistfully.

According to Edmunds I did an excellent job negotiating on the Mini, so who know… Perhaps it will be worth trading in.

I had wondered before how the government plans on paying for it: It’s a great deal for the people getting the rebates, but I hate the idea of those rebates coming out of my taxes. Now I wonder if the entire thing is a huge mistake.

MSNBC article