[V6-12v] A review coming?

[Roger M. Woodbury]

 Yesterday was interesting.  I had to make a trip to the "big city" and back
and I had thought that the 20Valve Avant project would be completed enough
to make the trip....car registered and insured; new driveshaft center
bearing, rear suspension done, front struts in place, timing belt done...and
now that pesky instrument cluster problem....(Oh, yeah.  That battery drain
problem...oh, you mean that the dolt who installed the relays for the
headlights wired one backward so that it made a constant drain........duh!
Not ME!).  Anyway, the cluster wasn't done, so I had planned to take "The
Runt".

Now "The Runt" as its plate proudly proclaims, is an interesting little
truck.  It is a 1992 Ford F150 Flareside XLT 4X4.  The truck grew up in New
Mexico and then moved to Florida.  The owner then traded it in on something
else, and the truck appeared on eBay, with around 105,000 miles. I saw it
two years ago, and thought it would make an excellent plow truck for the
little road leading to home, and the three neighbors little dirt driveways
that I plow. Turns out to be a really good truck for its purpose and never
having had a Maine winter until I gave it its first, the truck was clean and
like new when it arrived here.

This winter it has been my daily driver.  The truck, although so short and
goofy with the little narrow box and box cover that it earned the nickname,
"The Runt", rides extremely well, and is really very quiet and smooth.  The
transmission purely sucks, as it is a 3 speed automatic with overdrive, and
takes some getting used to, and in addition, for the wonderful 13-15 miles
per gallon that the thing delivers in regular use (sans plow on the nose!),
the 302 cubic inch V8 with K&N filter and duals through a Flowmaster, makes
more sound than fury:  it's a bit underpowered.  Still and all, for about
five grand it's a pretty nifty little truck.  

So, since the 20Valve was inop, and my wife needed her 100CS Avant, I was
down to The Runt for my 360 mile day trip.  That is until the starter motor
died on Saturday morning.  The next option was to take the "big truck", aka,
The Black Bitch, which is a Chevvie 3500 X-cab, dually 4X4, which is not my
favorite long distance vehicle unless it is loaded, which is its reason for
being.....

So, I rented a car for the day.  Since I had a little very light cargo, I
took the Ford Escape that Mr. Hertz had sitting there looking like it needed
to go to Portland and back.  

I have decided to write a review of my experience in this latest version of
Ford's "Better Idea" for the SUV.  The last SUV that I drove was a very
clean 1996 Bronco that I bought from a guy who was "upside down" in
payments, and gave me a deal I couldn't walk away from, so I was interested
in this more or less "latest iteration" of the SUV.  

My review, and perhaps a whole series of similar reviews will appear in "The
New 928 Journal", which is the ezine of The 928 Owners Club.  The review and
other new things will be appearing sometime late this month, and into May.
The link is www.928oc.org.  

The article will be a sort of comparison between this very slick, new SUV
iteration, and the old stuff that I normally drive.  My conclusions may be a
bit of a surprise, although they will, of course, be mine alone!

Roger