1997 Ford Ranger Xlt Extended Cab Pickup 2-door 4.0l on 2040-cars

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Pickup sales may hit 2M units for first time since 2007

Even as fuel prices creep back up, trucks are still a hot item among new-vehicle shoppers. To see how popular pickup trucks still are, you don't have to look any further than how much effort automakers put into the continual one-upmanship of their trucks. Backing this fact up, USA Today is reporting that the segment could top two million sales this year - a total not matched since 2007, though still far from the pre-recession, three-million-unit levels.
Through August, the Ford F-Series continues to be the segment leader with almost 500,000 units sold, but the Chevy Silverado (328,269), Ram 1500 (234,642), GMC Sierra (122,232) and Toyota Tacoma (110,293) are all seeing at least 20-percent sales increases, helping to account for around 1.44 million truck sales so far this year - not including possible outliers like the Suzuki Equator and Chevy Avalanche.
This year alone, General Motors has completely redesigned its fullsize trucks, Ram and Toyota have significantly updated their offerings, the next-gen Ford F-150 will be out next year and Nissan is promising an all-new Titan around the same time with an eventual Cummins diesel under the hood. It would seem, then, that truck sales are poised to continue their upward trend.

Ford blimp crashes inside Portland Trail Blazers arena

Portland basketball fans got a free, very safe recreation of the Hindenburg disaster when a Ford airship crashed into the stands during a game between the Trail Blazers and Indiana Pacers. Reportedly no one was hurt, but arena staff trying to push the inflatable vehicle through a hole it was too big for, made for some fantastic video and photos. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Check out two clips of the incident, below. The first gives an idea of just how hard it was to fit the blimp through the exit of the arena, and the second is a time-lapse look from someone right next to the action. All these clips need is Yakety Sax as background music for some true Internet gold. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. News Source: Twitter, 3lilpigs81, Turner Team, Inc via YouTube [1], [2], Deadspin Auto News Humor Ford portland blimp dirigible

Mercury rises around sexy Cougar pack

With a slightly larger body and a more luxurious interior, the Mercury Cougar doesn't carry quite as much cachet among pony car enthusiasts as the venerable Ford Mustang. But don't try to make that argument around Cougar super-fan Mike Brown. Since starting his Cougar collecting in 1988, Brown has become an absolute expert on the model, and he claims to have owned 400 of the Mercury pony cars in that time. Ten of them are in his collection today, not to mention a heap of spare parts in the garage. Check out some of the rarer members of Brown's fleet and allow him to tell you about them in this interesting interview from Electric Federal.