I think that the Ranger unfortunately doesn't provide a whole lot of incentive to stay in it for more than a few levels. It does however serve well as a stepping stone to several p-classes, already taking two levels of fighter but still need one of the combat feats ranger provides? Take ranger and get some extra skill points too, want to take a p-class that has some high skill requirements and a BAB requirement? Take a level of ranger (this works with swashbuckler too). I really think the easiest way to fix the ranger is dump the ranger spellcasting or raise the power level of the ranger spell list. As it is now the scout class in complete adventurer at least provides a very good alternative to the ranger.
