1986 Ford Ranger on Bring a Trailer Is the Definition of an Honest Pickup

Car and Driver

a day ago

Compact pickups used to be everywhere, but the survival rate of this hardworking breed is low.
This Ford Ranger somehow escaped the fate of its brethren.
Its combination of a manual transmission and a V-6 engine is desirable, even though you wouldn't call this a sport truck.
A compact pickup truck is kind of like a lawn mower: It's a tool for a job, not something you expect to show up in a museum. It might not be subject to the same abuse as a full-size pickup on fleet duty, but it's expected to pull its weight. A few might have a gentle first owner with a penchant for around-the-house DIY, but after a decade or so, a second or third owner will beat the absolute tar out of them.
Bring a Trailer
Thus, an original-condition survivor is a bit of a rarity. Here's one such unicorn: a 1986 Ford Ranger regular cab with just 31K miles on the odometer, and it's up for sale on Bring a Trailer (which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos). Ordered with a five-speed manual and a V6, it was an unusual spec from the factory and has only become rarer as its fellows have been used up and sent to the scrapyard.
1986 is a good year for a Ranger. It's the first generation of the truck but also the first year you could get it with fuel injection, making it a little more pleasant to drive. This example has only the basics: power steering and power brakes, but no air conditioning. It's a truck. Just roll down the window.
Bring a Trailer
Originally a mid-level trim for the F-Series, the Ranger was launched as a standalone compact pickup truck in the early 1980s. It replaced the Courier, a Mazda-built badge-engineered mini-pickup that was a response to the success of Toyota and Datsun small pickups.
Ford will happily sell you a Ranger today, but it's a much larger, more sophisticated, and more expensive offering. Its humble progenitor was not built for off-road capability, like the high-flying Ranger Raptor, but rather to ferry home a load of bark mulch or lumber, or get loaded up with landscaping tools. Including, yes, a lawnmower or two.
Bring a Trailer
Under the hood is a 2.9-liter V-6 making 140 horsepower, which was also available in the contemporary Bronco II. The five-speed manual wakes things up a bit, but this is a pretty grunty little six, good for 170 pound-feet of torque below 3000 rpm. Disc brakes up front add a further level of daily drivability.
Bring a Trailer
This is not a potential off-road rig like a contemporary Marty McFly–style Toyota pickup, nor is it the basis for a minitruck-style showpiece like a Nissan/Datsun might be. It's an honest survivor, a relic from a time when genuinely compact pickup trucks were plentiful and cheap.
Settle into that vinyl bench seat, load up the bed with a cooler and maybe a folding chair, and cruise on over to the lake with the windows rolled down. Most Rangers of this era were worked to death. This one deserves a bit of a summer vacation.
The auction ends on August 6.
Brendan McAleer
Contributing Editor
Brendan McAleer is a freelance writer and photographer based in North Vancouver, B.C., Canada. He grew up splitting his knuckles on British automobiles, came of age in the golden era of Japanese sport-compact performance, and began writing about cars and people in 2008. His particular interest is the intersection between humanity and machinery, whether it is the racing career of Walter Cronkite or Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki's half-century obsession with the Citroën 2CV. He has taught both of his young daughters how to shift a manual transmission and is grateful for the excuse they provide to be perpetually buying Hot Wheels. Read full bio