Driving the 1955 Ford ETO Ranger: A Unique Experience

As I sat behind the wheel of the 1955 Ford ETO Ranger, I couldn't help but feel like I was time traveling. The car's design and features were so distinct from modern vehicles that it felt like a relic from another era. One of the first things that struck me was the huge steering wheel, which made me feel like I was driving a yacht. The lack of power steering meant that I had to really crank it to turn the wheels, making it more challenging than driving a car with modern assistive technology.

The Ranger's transmission was another unique feature that required some getting used to. Instead of a modern electronic shift system, this car relied on manual gear shifting using a lever connected to the clutch pedal. Each gear change required me to pull in, release, and then shift again, creating a rhythmic motion that felt like a dance. I found myself becoming more comfortable with the process as I went along, but it was still a challenge to coordinate the movements smoothly.

One of the most impressive aspects of the ETO Ranger was its ruggedness and brute force. The car was designed for cruising and having a good time, not for high-performance driving. However, this meant that it required more effort from me as the driver to get moving. I had to be gentle but firm with the clutch pedal, using a combination of slow releases and short presses to coax the car forward. It was almost meditative in its own way, requiring me to connect with the car's engine and transmission.

The interior of the ETO Ranger was surprisingly modern for its time. The dashboard was clean and minimalist, with only essential gauges and controls visible. However, it lacked some modern conveniences that I've grown accustomed to in my daily driving routine. There were no center consoles or electronic accessories to speak of, which made me realize just how much our reliance on technology has increased over the years.

One aspect of the ETO Ranger that really stood out was its radio system. The car came equipped with a radio, but it was not connected to any modern electronics. Instead, it relied on basic tuning dials and knobs to select stations. While this might seem primitive by today's standards, I found it oddly charming. It added to the overall nostalgic feel of driving an old car like the ETO Ranger.

Despite its quirks and challenges, the ETO Ranger was a joy to drive. The smooth V8 engine purred along smoothly, providing a comfortable ride that belied its rugged design. As I navigated through the city streets, I felt a sense of appreciation for the engineering that went into creating this car. It might not have been perfect, but it had a unique charm that made me want to drive it again and again.

The ETO Ranger's biggest problem was its sales performance. Ford spent billions of dollars developing this car, but only managed to sell around 44,000 units in its lifetime. This makes it one of the biggest automotive failures in history, which is a sobering reminder that even the most well-intentioned projects can go awry.

As I came to a stop at a red light, I realized just how much my driving style had changed from modern cars. I found myself relying on momentum and subtle adjustments to steer the car, rather than relying on power assist systems or electronic stability control. It was a humbling experience that made me appreciate the old-school approach of manual transmission and driver engagement.

In conclusion, driving the 1955 Ford ETO Ranger was an exhilarating experience that left me with mixed emotions. On one hand, I was impressed by its unique features and rugged design. On the other hand, I couldn't help but feel a sense of disappointment at its commercial failure. Despite this, I would highly recommend giving classic cars like the ETO Ranger a try – it's an experience you won't soon forget.

A Word from the Author

I want to extend my deepest gratitude to Jordan for allowing me to drive and review the 1955 Ford ETO Ranger. It was an honor to have access to this beautiful piece of machinery, and I appreciate their generosity in sharing it with me. If you ever get the chance to drive a classic car like the ETO Ranger, don't hesitate – take it! It's a unique experience that will leave you with memories to last a lifetime.

As for my driving skills, I must admit that I'm still working on mastering the art of manual transmission and shifting gears smoothly. It was a challenge at times, but with practice and patience, I'm confident that I'll become more proficient in no time. Whether you're a seasoned classic car enthusiast or just starting out, I encourage you to give driving an old car like the ETO Ranger a try – it's a journey you won't soon forget!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat do what do don't mean to I got so today we're in a 1959 edzel Ranger it's a really big classic car I'm just going to get used to this big thing because I feel like I'm driving a yacht all right so today ladies and gentlemen we are in a 1959 edzel Ranger and this car was by a brand named etel which was in a way between the brands Ford and Mercury with Lincoln being on top so they basically created this brand to compete with other General Motors vehicles and unfortunately after a while they didn't succeed the thing is about the Edo is that they made about 44,000 of them but one year in 1960 they only sold 2,000 of them so after that they were like well it looks like this is going to flop and thus it did I mean here I am in this car and yet I've never seen one before in my entire life I've been to plenty car shows in my lifetime but I've never seen this one and I think that's because everybody does the normal Restorations of chevel and Mustangs everything else so when you see this car you're like what is that thing you can't even really the grill doesn't even really know what to do it doesn't know what it wants to be but in a way that's what makes it special I mean look at the interior for God's sake the cool thing about classic car Interiors is that they're so intricate to the point it's almost art you have all this beautiful Chrome you have all this beautiful color which match the outside of the car and it's kind of overwhelming and it's one log bench seat front and back so it's it's pretty nuts so we don't have a seat Bel either so I hear that's safe now three in the tree is a shifting technique I am nowhere near used to your first starts all the way down here your second goes all the way up here and then you go back down to third which is is the most abnormal feeling ever because you'd be like why didn't they just do it a sequential way with one two and three but they didn't the another thing is is the brakes there are none basically when you slow down you have to take so much room because first you're a big heavy boat I think last time I read about this car it was basically 4,000 lb around there and along with that the brakes are well they're old so you just have to be situationally aware of what you're driving driving this is by no means a performance car it's one of those cars where you go around the town and it just looks pretty it's a gorgeous car and it's very sad that it was in a way an automotive failure that it didn't have a big comeback so the motor in this car is a V8 it's a 292 and it makes around 200 horsepower at 4,000 RPM as we go around this Bend and honestly that wasn't as bad as I expected come on come on big old girl see the Apex that that was legendary you know that old saying that American cars can't corner I think I'm starting to find where that is oh my Lord Classics have been pretty absent on this YouTube channel and the only other old car in the channel I've really done is the hearse which was interesting and also the old Thunderbird but now we're in something from the 50s and even with just those 10year jumps this is a whole different world even this vomer when you climb up it it it's like struggling to stay alive it looks like so I'm not going to lie I've screwed up this shifting like four times now and there's no way to indicate it there's nothing telling you that you're doing it wrong and so you have to guess each Motion One motion you pull in then up then another motion you pull straight down then another time you go to neutral by accident then it's just yeah it's interesting about how pure this car is there's no electronics in it really there's a radio but oh my gosh Brakes come on stop another thing you noce about this car is the steering and about the steering you feel like you're driving a yacht and you have this huge huge steering wheel in front of you the only other true classic car I've ever driven was briefly a 1965 Mustang in poblo Colorado at the end of my rally and that was my first time I had the experience of feeling a car with a big steering wheel and not much steering response so you have to really crank it to go sharply there's no power steering so when you're trying to turn from a dead stop it's probably not going to happen so it's better to get a little bit of momentum and start turning in and then you can make your move come on come on boat come on I feel like I'm time traveling as I go through a parking lot because everything else on the road just looks so generic and normal and yet they were able to style cars so so much with personality back in the ' 50s especially where there was so much competition for new cars after World War II especially that everybody wanted to be the next big thing the thing is is with this weird H pattern this thing's rocking is that you want to be nice to it when you have to do the pull in movements but you just can't it's Brute Force very much like the car it's a big heavy car and it just wants to be well throst around in a way not in the way of performance driving but you just have to get it going it's like a it's like a stubborn car it just is like no I don't feel like moving so you're going to have to really motivate me so I know this might sound like I'm being really gripy and I don't like the car which is not true it's just it's such a different mindset and it's it's almost fun trying to figure out all this stuff it's like a puzzle trying to figure out all this stuff and it's it just shows how much we've progressed in the automotive world but at the same time we've I feel like we've lost some of this personality it's kind of sad but I mean there's no center console when I was setting up my camera right here I was like oh wait I don't have to switch side I just scoot over so you can all Pile in which is probably one of the most unsafe things you can possibly do but it still has that charm here's the thing about the ETO Ranger it's a beautiful car it drives fairly well for what it was and what it was meant for cruising and having a good time with everybody but let me ask you this do you think this car was worth spending $1 billion for a billion Ford spent a billion dollars developing this car because they believed that it was the bees they believe that it was going to be the showstopper forever and it wasn't how much they sold versus how much they developed it even though they sold 44,000 of these still not enough no not even close so when you think about it statistically this could be the biggest Automotive failure in history shows that all car companies make mistakes and sometimes the cars that we don't even think about being hits become the big hits and sometimes the ones that we think are going to be amazing aren't so amazing oh boy coming up to a light slowing down okay I I don't have a Cho I'm yeah I'm just going for it momentum oh no so I'm a neutral halfway towards me pull down that's first gear second gear you go up then out then all the way up then to go to third you go straight down pass neutral it took me a while listen do it then out then up oh my gosh I did it right and third that's how it's done should you ever drive a classic car absolutely it's one hell of a time time but when you're doing situations like I'm about to do turn turn turn turn turn turn turn you just have to be aware so anyways guys I want to thank every single one of you for watching this quick little review I hope all of you enjoyed it as everything rattles around me I had a great time driving this Edo Ranger it's a shame it did as bad as it did I want to thank Jordan so much for the offer and letting me drive this beautiful piece of Machinery so I will see you guys next time and take it easy have a good one awhat do what do don't mean to I got so today we're in a 1959 edzel Ranger it's a really big classic car I'm just going to get used to this big thing because I feel like I'm driving a yacht all right so today ladies and gentlemen we are in a 1959 edzel Ranger and this car was by a brand named etel which was in a way between the brands Ford and Mercury with Lincoln being on top so they basically created this brand to compete with other General Motors vehicles and unfortunately after a while they didn't succeed the thing is about the Edo is that they made about 44,000 of them but one year in 1960 they only sold 2,000 of them so after that they were like well it looks like this is going to flop and thus it did I mean here I am in this car and yet I've never seen one before in my entire life I've been to plenty car shows in my lifetime but I've never seen this one and I think that's because everybody does the normal Restorations of chevel and Mustangs everything else so when you see this car you're like what is that thing you can't even really the grill doesn't even really know what to do it doesn't know what it wants to be but in a way that's what makes it special I mean look at the interior for God's sake the cool thing about classic car Interiors is that they're so intricate to the point it's almost art you have all this beautiful Chrome you have all this beautiful color which match the outside of the car and it's kind of overwhelming and it's one log bench seat front and back so it's it's pretty nuts so we don't have a seat Bel either so I hear that's safe now three in the tree is a shifting technique I am nowhere near used to your first starts all the way down here your second goes all the way up here and then you go back down to third which is is the most abnormal feeling ever because you'd be like why didn't they just do it a sequential way with one two and three but they didn't the another thing is is the brakes there are none basically when you slow down you have to take so much room because first you're a big heavy boat I think last time I read about this car it was basically 4,000 lb around there and along with that the brakes are well they're old so you just have to be situationally aware of what you're driving driving this is by no means a performance car it's one of those cars where you go around the town and it just looks pretty it's a gorgeous car and it's very sad that it was in a way an automotive failure that it didn't have a big comeback so the motor in this car is a V8 it's a 292 and it makes around 200 horsepower at 4,000 RPM as we go around this Bend and honestly that wasn't as bad as I expected come on come on big old girl see the Apex that that was legendary you know that old saying that American cars can't corner I think I'm starting to find where that is oh my Lord Classics have been pretty absent on this YouTube channel and the only other old car in the channel I've really done is the hearse which was interesting and also the old Thunderbird but now we're in something from the 50s and even with just those 10year jumps this is a whole different world even this vomer when you climb up it it it's like struggling to stay alive it looks like so I'm not going to lie I've screwed up this shifting like four times now and there's no way to indicate it there's nothing telling you that you're doing it wrong and so you have to guess each Motion One motion you pull in then up then another motion you pull straight down then another time you go to neutral by accident then it's just yeah it's interesting about how pure this car is there's no electronics in it really there's a radio but oh my gosh Brakes come on stop another thing you noce about this car is the steering and about the steering you feel like you're driving a yacht and you have this huge huge steering wheel in front of you the only other true classic car I've ever driven was briefly a 1965 Mustang in poblo Colorado at the end of my rally and that was my first time I had the experience of feeling a car with a big steering wheel and not much steering response so you have to really crank it to go sharply there's no power steering so when you're trying to turn from a dead stop it's probably not going to happen so it's better to get a little bit of momentum and start turning in and then you can make your move come on come on boat come on I feel like I'm time traveling as I go through a parking lot because everything else on the road just looks so generic and normal and yet they were able to style cars so so much with personality back in the ' 50s especially where there was so much competition for new cars after World War II especially that everybody wanted to be the next big thing the thing is is with this weird H pattern this thing's rocking is that you want to be nice to it when you have to do the pull in movements but you just can't it's Brute Force very much like the car it's a big heavy car and it just wants to be well throst around in a way not in the way of performance driving but you just have to get it going it's like a it's like a stubborn car it just is like no I don't feel like moving so you're going to have to really motivate me so I know this might sound like I'm being really gripy and I don't like the car which is not true it's just it's such a different mindset and it's it's almost fun trying to figure out all this stuff it's like a puzzle trying to figure out all this stuff and it's it just shows how much we've progressed in the automotive world but at the same time we've I feel like we've lost some of this personality it's kind of sad but I mean there's no center console when I was setting up my camera right here I was like oh wait I don't have to switch side I just scoot over so you can all Pile in which is probably one of the most unsafe things you can possibly do but it still has that charm here's the thing about the ETO Ranger it's a beautiful car it drives fairly well for what it was and what it was meant for cruising and having a good time with everybody but let me ask you this do you think this car was worth spending $1 billion for a billion Ford spent a billion dollars developing this car because they believed that it was the bees they believe that it was going to be the showstopper forever and it wasn't how much they sold versus how much they developed it even though they sold 44,000 of these still not enough no not even close so when you think about it statistically this could be the biggest Automotive failure in history shows that all car companies make mistakes and sometimes the cars that we don't even think about being hits become the big hits and sometimes the ones that we think are going to be amazing aren't so amazing oh boy coming up to a light slowing down okay I I don't have a Cho I'm yeah I'm just going for it momentum oh no so I'm a neutral halfway towards me pull down that's first gear second gear you go up then out then all the way up then to go to third you go straight down pass neutral it took me a while listen do it then out then up oh my gosh I did it right and third that's how it's done should you ever drive a classic car absolutely it's one hell of a time time but when you're doing situations like I'm about to do turn turn turn turn turn turn turn you just have to be aware so anyways guys I want to thank every single one of you for watching this quick little review I hope all of you enjoyed it as everything rattles around me I had a great time driving this Edo Ranger it's a shame it did as bad as it did I want to thank Jordan so much for the offer and letting me drive this beautiful piece of Machinery so I will see you guys next time and take it easy have a good one a\n"