Ranger Yuck

I have a 1988 Ford Ranger. I have owned it since it was new. Unless Ford had improved them since I bought mine, I will never own another one. This truck has lived up to the old quip Found on Road Dead. When the truck turned 90 thousand miles the engine spun a rod bearing. It took me 4 months to find parts to rebuild the engine. Most were available, but the oil pump was never released to the after market by Ford till 3 1/2 months after it broke down. At the time of the rebuild I had the 5 speed transmission gone through also. Now mind you, I bought the parts and had a friend do the work for me at a very reasonable rate. Before it was over, I spent over $3000 just in parts. As you see, you can't just replace a bad rod bearing. The crank needed to be replaced, rod had to be reworked, gasket kits, etc. You get the point. I had the truck scheduled for trade in just 2 months after it broke down. Since I had so much money in the repairs I figured I needed to get another year or 2 out of it. 3 months after the engine job, I pulled out of my drive one night on my way to the store. With in 100 ft, there was a bang, bang, bang. Mind you this was under 20 mph. Oh boy, it was the ring gear in the rear end. I lost 8 teeth. So off to the used car parts place. $200 later I get one from the Deep South of the US. The next thing to go was the 4x4 front end. There was another $1500 in parts and labor. In addition I have replaced the heater core 4 times due to rub through leeks. The radiator once. Now it is broke down again because of a leaking fuel tank and a fuel pump that decided to quit working. I have never gotten over 15 miles per gallon for mileage, and every 10 thousand miles I could plan replacing the tires till I went to 60 thousand mile tires. Those were only good for 30 thousand miles. I'm not one to burn rubber and I kept it aligned once a yr. needed or not. I figure I have bought this truck 3 times. Once the original purchase price, 2nd the finance charges, 3rd all the repairs I put into it. I'm sure not all Rangers are like mine, but think about what I've had to go through when you think about buying one. One last thing, now I have 110,000 thousand on it and just waiting for the day when I can say that I got my money out of it. Fat chance but I dream a lot. One of these days I'll be able to put a bullet through the radiator and put it out of its misery.