Not much on this one...I bought it for $80 to haul junk around in with the demise of my 4x4 Ranger. Needs a few minor repairs, which I may never get around too, since I've decided I no longer need it. But, it was $80.

OK, so I initially picked up this Ranger to replace the Mazda, because while the Mazda was a great little truck, let's face it...it couldn't tow much more than a ham sandwich, especially not with the homemade hitch I put on it. And I'm no welder, so you can probably imagine what it looked like. In the words of my cousin "Whoa, Mike! I dunno..."

Anyway, my fabrication skills notwithstanding, this Ranger had a perky little 4.0L V6, which was great... (Notice the past tense.)

I did some work on it (repair journal to follow soon), and proudly took it on holidays, only to have it promptly over-heat and strand me on the way home.

So being a Ford OHV engine, the heads are prone to cracking at this age, and that's exactly what happened. It's rough life helped not one iota, so now it sits in pieces awaiting re-assembly.

Mind you the four-wheel drive? Best...Invention...Ever!

Yet another Integra...I must like them or something. Considering what I sold the last one for, and how much I paid for this one, I came out ahead. It is exactly the same as the last one, except the engine is in much better shape. And it's grey, not red.

Not much else to say here, it gets me from A to B, and gives me no trouble while doing it. It is great on gas, handles nicely, is fun to drive and more reliable than a daily bowel movement.

I needed another vehicle to hold me over after I sold my car. This Mazda truck seemed like the perfect placeholder. It's nothing special, a regular cab, regular box, 4x2 with no power steering. But it hauled things, and got me to school and work, and it was good on gas. And perhaps most importantly, it towed my Sea-Doo. It was a good little truck, and I probably wouldn't have sold it, if I could have justified keeping it.

I bought this car in Summer 2004 for about $5500. From a car dealership, which was my first big mistake. I say this because retail on this car at the time for the condition it was in would probably have been more like $4700-$4900CDN. But oh well. It was red and shiny and I wanted it.

Mistake #2 was not checking some critical items before I closed the deal, like the oil, and the oilpan, and the blue smoke coming from the exhaust. Not long after I bought it, I discovered that it liked to eat oil almost as much as it liked gas. It would burn through a quart or more of oil between fill-ups!! Wonderful.

I assumed valve seals, so I bought some, but before I could install them, after a spirited trip down the highway one day the damn thing started idleing like a '54 Ford truck and getting about the same gas mileage. Great. I checked for everything I could think of; ignition system problems, broken vacuum line, timing belt jumping a tooth...nothing. A compression test showed zero pressure on cyls 2 and 4. Great. So I parked it for the winter and drove my beater, and this summer (2006) I cracked it open.

To find this. Two of the exhaust valves, in cylinders 2 and 4 had been cooked. So there was my compression loss. I spent the next month, ordering parts and waiting for them to arrive. I tore it apart in a day, had the head back from the machine shop in 3 days, and waited 6 weeks for all the parts I needed to put it back together.

So, a full top-end gasket kit, new valve guides and seals, a timing belt and tensioner, new exhaust valves and a freshly machined head later, I got my ~180 psi compression across all four cylinders back, and promptly stuck a 'for sale' sign on it. And sold it. Thank God.

Oh, and the kicker? After all that work, it still burned oil. Oh well. That's why it's called the pain in the ass.

Probably the ugliest Ford Ranger this side of Saskatchewan. I changed out the instrument cluster from it's original 5 digit odometre without a tach to a 6 digit odometre with tach cluster. Because of this, I have no idea what the actual mileage on this truck is. Mathmatically speaking, assuming an average of 20,000km a year, I would estimate it had nearly a half-million kilometres on it. Sold it to a co-worker, and he still drives it. Built Ford tough, all right.

What can I say about this car? It's been good to me. It's never needed more than the usual fixes. New clutch at 210000km. New starter (from the original factory one) at 230000km. New axle at 250000km. The usual brake jobs, oil changes, spark plugs and so on. (Haven't changed the air filter since I got it...oops!) Fried 5th gear at 260000km, but it still got better gas mileage than my '91 ever did. The only thing I ever took it to the garage for was new tires. I did all the other work myself, I know this car inside and out, I could probably disassemble one and put it back together by myself without a manual. I delivered pizza in it, drove to University, drove to college, spun it into the ditch three or four times, raced lame-ass domestic ricers in their Neons and took it to places such as Calgary, Cold Lake, Saskatoon and Jasper with nary a problem.

It has probably been my best car to date. I've put over 150,000km on it since I got it for $900. It's a shame that it has terminal rust cancer, otherwise I might have done a serious rebuild on it. Oh well. I still own it, and it's parked on my parents acerage with the rear brakes completely seized up, but I would like to strip it down and turn it into a race car.

A nice little hatchback that served me well until one Mr. David Price (Home phone # 481-7431) of Edmonton pancaked my rear end with his 2000 Ford Explorer (Licence plate 'AP RHYS') while I was waiting to turn left off 111 Ave in Edmonton. Technically I suppose it wasn't his Explorer, because it was a lease. Oh, and he lives at 9760-176 Street, Apt. 105, if you are interested. It was a rather comical experience, because in spite of the fact that he rear-ended me, he tried to blame me for it, then he took off to the police station to report me as soon as I was done getting his information. He also said he would 'sue me' since my pink card was expired, and therefore, I must not have insurance. I admit, I did have an old pink card, but I assure you, my insurance was very much up to date.

Anyway, it was written off, I got some whiplash, but I did also get a nice check from his insurance company for it.

A hand-me down from my dad that he purchased new in 1986. Sold it to my friend for $500. He drove it into the ground. This car also has the distinction of being the only automatic I've ever owned.