Took a 2011 Sport 2wd out for a test drive at the dealer today. 50,000 km, auto tranny. While accelerating up the on-ramp to the freeway it kicked down as you would expect. However, once the rpm's got high enough for it to upshift again, a second after the upshift the tranny gave a big kick, almost like the torque converter doing a hard lockup. It did that to varying degrees for the next 4 of 5 attempts. I'm thinking this is not at all normal, the dealer says their mechanic took it for a drive and it's all good, but I'd like to know what you forum experts have to say.

Pass on it. I went through something similar with my Ranger. Transmission did some strange stuff on the test drive. Dealer mechanic said it was fine.

Long story short, it wasn't fine.

My last ranger was a 2011 4x4 4.0 auto, I had 33's on it and never had that issue at all. Keep in mind that I beat the hell out of that truck. It's not normal and it's not fine. Pass on it and find a different one.

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2003 Ranger XL, 4.0 SOHC, manual, t-bar adjust, pretty much stock......for now.

Thanks for the feedback. I'll keep looking. The problem here in Canada is that the supply is very bad with prices ridiculously high.

This is true. I see dealers posting trucks for close to what mine cost new with close to 100,000 km on them - and 5+ years old of course because they all are now.

Manufacturer dealers are the worst - Ford dealers and other automaker dealers. Small lots and private sellers here seem to have more reasonable prices. I got my '09 almost 2 years ago now for $9000 with under 40 000 km. The same truck in similar condition is probably closer to $10,000 now but a dealer would ask closer to 14,000 - 18,000 if it has 4x4 and A/C.

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'09 Ranger, Reg cab short box, 2.3, manual, RWD