Ford Ranger pickup review

It wasn’t so long ago that pick-up trucks were very much the poor relation of the automotive family. While car drivers swanned about with their complex, clever suspensions, smooth, powerful engines and fancy interiors, pickup drivers made do with bench seats, wind-up windows, cave-man comfort levels and a ride that meant the top of your head regularly made contact with the cab roof.

Judging by the kit-count and sophistication levels on Ford’s new Ranger, that era is quickly coming to a close. The performance, equipment provision and general feel of the Ranger bring it pretty close to what you might expect in a premium SUV.

These latest trucks are also much more sophisticated than their predecessors. Traditional trucks were about brawn rather than brain but Ford (and the other makers) will tell you they now have both. So now when you pull up next to the £35,000 Discovery/Touareg/X5 plushmobile at the traffic lights, you can bask in the quiet knowledge that you have almost as much comfort, kit and ability as them.

These trucks will still do a job of work, of course. In fact, the latest Ranger tows more, carries more and will probably tackle somewhat tougher terrain than its simpler predecessors.

Is there a downside to all this? Well, just the obvious one, which is that if you want lots of goodies in your truck, you’ll need to write a bigger cheque.

Prices start comfortingly low. There’s a 2wd 125hp singlecab for £15,515 (on the road but without VAT) and the lowliest 4wd 125hp singlecab comes in at £16,515. At the other end of the scale sits a doublecab 200hp auto model with more goodies than Santa’s grotto and a price-tag of £25,040.

The Ranger has an interesting provenance too. It was designed in Australia (where every second vehicle is a so-called ute) but is built in South Africa. It will be sold to more than 150 countries, says the company, though not to the US, where buyers still prefer the barn-sized Ford F150.

It’s not just British waistlines that expand each year – pickups are still getting porkier too. So while the new Ranger’s width is steady at 1.85m, its length has grown a little to 5.36m. That makes it a bit longer than its pickup rivals and a lot longer than, say, a LR Discovery, which comes in at a surprisingly short-arse 4.83m.

This does mean you’ll need to choose your parking space in the local town rather carefully, but the extra length means you can carry more stuff. Which is good news for anyone who has bought a doublecab for the first time but is missing all that space they had with their old singlecab pickup.

The other striking thing about the Ranger is the sheer height of the bonnet. Stand next to a 1990s pickup and the bonnet comes up to waist level; do the same next to a new Ranger and it’s almost at chest height. The windscreen is also sharply raked, making the whole thing look much more SUV-like.

The new Ranger is actually a pretty smart bit of kit, what with its aggressive horizontal chromed bars on the radiator grille, wheelarches big enough to hold a party in, sculpted doors and huge wraparound lights front and back.

It even has a couple of Freelander-style chrome decorations between the front doors and the wheel arches. They seem to have no purpose whatsoever, but they look good…

Nissan’s 190hp Navara Tekna (currently the biggest pickup engine output in the UK) probably thought it would stay on top of the pack for a while. But Ford has slipped past it with a barnstorming 200hp.

That’s the power output on the rippling-muscle, mine’s-bigger- than-yours 3.2-litre version of the Ranger, but there are lowlier versions.

The engine that’s likely to account for the bulk of sales is the perfectly-adequate 150hp unit. There’s also a 125hp version for those who don’t need to tow heavy stock trailers or are getting increasingly fed up with shelling out £90 every time they go near the petrol station.

Most models get a six-speed manual as standard, but there are autos on a couple of the doublecab models. Ford says very few work buyers opt for them, however, the auto model we tried was well set up and ideal for those spending a lot of time on the road.

Four spec levels are offered – XL, XLT, Limited and Wildtrak. Even the lowly XL gets most of the kit, though fripperies like satnav, leather seats, dual-zone air-con and the rear reversing camera are standard only on higher-caste models.

Ford certainly does seem to have upped the ante when it comes to interiors. The seats are about as comfortable as you’ll find in any 4×4 and the driving position is pretty much ideal.

The dash is a completely modern, highly-styled, car-type affair. In fact it probably marks the beginning of the end of the traditional pick-up dash – that gloriously utilitarian item generally that favoured cheap or outdated components from the corporate parts bin.

In contrast, the new Ranger dash is a lovely thing, with more buttons than a haberdashers and beautifully crafted dials and switches with little LCD displays in them. It’s not a subtle dash and there’s a still a hint of bling, but it’s all confidently done.

In fact the quality of the materials throughout the truck is good and kit is plentiful. There are enough bottle and cup holders to keep a pack of Tango-guzzling teenagers happy and the big centre compartment with its own air-con duct allows you to keep sandwiches and drinks cool.

More importantly, there is room (and seatbelt provision) for three adults in the back. Plus, the increase in length of the truck is probably the reason why knee-room for rear seat passengers is very good.

Two decent-sized compartments under the rear seats give a place to store small tools and other equipment.

Even though most Rangers will be bought for leisure use, Ford hasn’t forgotten farmers and others who need these vehicles to do a job of work. So the 1.56m long x 1.54m wide load area on the doublecab models is a bit bigger than the load areas of its rivals.

Maximum payload depends on which model you opt for. The singlecab 4×4 model is the biggest hauler, with 1,309kg up its sleeve, but the doublecab models manage between 1,117-1,152kg.

Towing capacities are good too, with the 4wd models all able to pull an impressive 3,350kg.

There’s lots of impressive stuff here. The seat and driving position are pretty much spot on and the view all round is good. Power from the 2.2 litre 150hp models is absolutely fine and won’t embarrass you on a motorway or A-Road.

We tried the 3.2-litre 200hp model, too, expecting it to be a bit pokier than its smaller-engined stablemate but nothing special. In fact the bigger-engined Ranger is a real racehorse and makes the 2.2-litre version seem a bit like a pony in comparison.

It’ll cost you a bit more to buy in the first place (and its thirst will no doubt be greater) but if you do a lot of towing and you want to be king of the road, this is the one to go for. Its tax disc is a bit cheaper, too, so you can tell the accountant that you’re making the sensible choice…

Pick-ups normally creak and groan like an old bloke in the corner of a pub, but the Ranger was admirably taut and quiet. Engine noise was better suppressed than its predecessor but we were a little disappointed that the Ranger still didn’t have anything like the hush of a big 4×4.

The ride was pretty firm too, but that may have been because the trucks we had were all unladen.

The simple bit is the rotary switch that selects 2wd, 4wd high and 4wd low. Thereafter it gets a bit more complicated. Ford has ditched the traditional limited slip diff on the new Ranger in favour of traction control and what it calls ESP. It’s not dissimilar to the kit that you’d find on SUVs, with the system monitoring the traction at each wheel and then either applying or releasing each wheel brake to get the best traction.

It’s brainier than that, actually, because there are angle sensors on the wheels and on the steering wheel. So the vehicle knows where you want to go and where the car wants to go (not always the same thing) and can try to marry the two up.

It also means that the Ranger can perform all manner of tricks to get you out of trouble. Most of these you probably won’t need, but here’s the gist of it. Oh, and you can switch the system off, too…

• Hill descent control. Already seen on quite a few 4x4s, it applies the brakes until the vehicle reaches a set speed of descent. However the Ranger’s system allows the driver to manually increase or decrease the speed.

• Hill launch assist. This holds the brakes on for two seconds and then gradually releases the brake pressure as you accelerate, even when you’re fully laden. Could avoid some unseemly scrabbling…

• Trailer sway assist. This is designed to stop the sort of trailer snaking caused by side winds, ruts or an unbalanced load. When it happens, the Ranger detects what’s going on and reduces engine torque as well as progressively applying the brakes.

• Roll-over mitigation. Sounds like something to do with tax, but it actually involves the equally upsetting scenario of turning the truck over. The ESP system monitors the truck’s speed, lateral acceleration, yaw and steering angle. If it thinks something ghastly is about to happen, it will intervene to bring you back to the straight and narrow.If all the above sounds a bit worrying, you can take some comfort from that fact that the Ranger has several airbags, not to mention an alarm system as standard