What was your first Ford daily driver?

Bsenecal

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Hi Josh,

Ah the memories! Back story on the Bronco II.... Consumer Reports decided the Bronco II was tippy and proceeded to create the data to fit their answer and they managed to flip one on its side (Protective out riggers were used to protect the driver. They weigh about 150lbs, biased outside the wheel base.) Light Truck Engineering responded with press releases to point out CR force fitting the data to the answer. However we had to ensure stability and regain customer confidence. So one of the actions was to release the transfer skid plate 100% to slightly relocate the center of gravity downward for example. We tried mightly to flip one on its side without out riggers expecting to just throw the Bronco II away if we could flip it. Alas...we were unable to flip the vehicle on its side....CR never backed down from the Avoid classification, but sales were pretty steady. I always view it as a fun little vehicle... Where does this all end? Well....CR forced all manufacturers to test with out rigger brackets on the vehicles to ensure the imbalance caused by these brackets does not "upset the apple cart"... So you the customer bares the added cost to protect for something that will never be part of a vehicle...out rigger brackets...

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired
Thanks for the insight Phil, it's great having you on this forum. I agree that the vehicle was great. The 2.9 had pretty good power reasonable mileage and it could turn around on a dime. When mine rusted out I sold it to a neighbor who used it as a camp car for his lodge in the Adirondacks.
Brian
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Wasatch Wranger

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Hi Josh,

Ah the memories! Back story on the Bronco II.... Consumer Reports decided the Bronco II was tippy and proceeded to create the data to fit their answer and they managed to flip one on its side (Protective out riggers were used to protect the driver. They weigh about 150lbs, biased outside the wheel base.) Light Truck Engineering responded with press releases to point out CR force fitting the data to the answer. However we had to ensure stability and regain customer confidence. So one of the actions was to release the transfer skid plate 100% to slightly relocate the center of gravity downward for example. We tried mightly to flip one on its side without out riggers expecting to just throw the Bronco II away if we could flip it. Alas...we were unable to flip the vehicle on its side....CR never backed down from the Avoid classification, but sales were pretty steady. I always view it as a fun little vehicle... Where does this all end? Well....CR forced all manufacturers to test with out rigger brackets on the vehicles to ensure the imbalance caused by these brackets does not "upset the apple cart"... So you the customer bares the added cost to protect for something that will never be part of a vehicle...out rigger brackets...

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired


Well, I was 16 and did some very stupid things and managed not to flip it so I believe you!
 

JTDay

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This was my first vehicle. My parents bought it for me when I was 14 and I want to say they paid around 5 grand for it. We sold it for a '56 chevy pickup that my dad spent a lot of money on restoring and it became more of a "family" car at that point. They gave me 10 grand for it about 10 years ago essentially allowing me to sell the equity I had in it. I do think back on how much more I like the styling of the Ford now.

20200705_121057.jpg


My first true daily driver was a 1992 nissan 240sx with a sr20 swap, race car suspension (STIFF coilovers, solid bushings, spherical mounts everywhere, the dreaded welded differential) that I bought for 5500 bucks when I was 18 before the drift tax happened. It was fun but obviously welded diffs are dangerous.

Attach10997_20171101_122924.jpg
 

20Ranger4wd

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First daily driver Ford was my first car. 1988 foxbody Thunderbird with a 5.0. (Non HO) It wasn’t that fast, but could do sweet one legger burnouts all day long. Even now I still have a desire to get another 87-88 T-Bird someday and put the engine that’s in my Mustang in it and build a 351W for the Mustang. Even better would be finding a Turbo Coupe missing the engine... I love the TC looks, and foxbody Mustang parts fit all over those things.
 


Trigganometry

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My first was a 61 comet 4 banger. A real babe magnet ? Everyone else was tooling around in muscle cars. Then I got a Triumph Spitfire convertible. Good times. Longest owned vehicle bought new and drove for 23 years. That was a Ranger
 

gasmanjohn

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I learned to drive on my dad's 92 F-250 and 90 Mark VII LSC. Whichever one was on the end of the driveway was mine for the day until I got my own... an 86 Grand Marquis for $500.

I learned stick on my stepdad's 88 Bronco II.

Since the mid 80s there's always been at least one Ford in the family.
 

Sashimi_Moto

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1996 E150 conversion van - electronic folding bed, mood lighting, captain chairs and TV/VCR.

It was used to tow around the race car and I would sleep in it instead of getting a hotel but then I got RIF'd so I sold my street car to float me financially until I was employed again (S2000) and for a time the Van was my daily. Neighbors liked to make jokes about it.

I sold it to a very old man that was dying of cancer and always wanted a conversion van where he could do one last road trip and had plenty of room for his friends and wheel chair. It was about 3 months later that I saw it sitting in front his house with a For Sale sign in the window. I think he got his road trip done and that was that.
 

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I've mentioned this car earlier in the thread but recently came across a Polaroid of my '74 Mustang II Mach 1 that was my DD n college. It was a fun car to drive.
My Mustang II.jpeg
i
 

Snow3d

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'88 Taurus. Brown on brown. It was a great car with the exception of the interior door handles constantly breaking. 20 years later I ended up with an '87 brown on brown as a winter vehicle. Rattle canned the thing flat black, robocop style.
 

Spiritfish

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'61 Falcon...inline six, 3 on the tree, oxidized white paint that earned it it's name, "The Donut" cause if you leaned on it you were left with what looked like powdered sugar on your butt! A friend traded that car to me for a cowboy hat in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. I drove it home to California and got close to 50mpg by drafting tractor trailer rigs on the freeway. Borrowed the photo cause I didn't have a camera back then.

61FALCON.jpg
 

Blmpkn

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1994 Toyota corolla was my first car.

First ford was a 2007 p71 crown vic, flexplate broke almost immediately lol, good first impression ford! Fixed it, put a full kooks exhaust on it, and then traded it for a beater 98 ranger because I wanted to buy a dirtbike haha.
 
 



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