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1989 Ford Ranger, V6 and automatic transmission, the transmission was a Mitsubishi unit that was waaay too light duty for a truck.

First time the transmission "automatically" let go I'd been moving materials to put in a yard, but not overloading it. It was still under warranty so back it went to the dealer and 5 pages of parts were replaced. That lasted anther couple years and it let go driving up a Mountain pass with nothing but my son and I and a couple backpacks in it (no, we don't weigh that much).

A very expensive tow bill and long visit to a local transmission shop where the mechanic said- Ah another one of these, I know just how to fix them and "upgrade" a few components-

I kept it another year and sold it with full disclosure of it's prior issues and suggested not putting much of a load in it, ever.

The brakes were crappy too, panic stops were leisurely at best.

I swore off Fords after that and have had a couple of Dodge trucks since.

I currently own a 2013 I picked up used in 2015 and have had a fantastic experience with it, very anti-POS, no transmission issues, great brakes, a good strong motor and very comfortable even on long trips