It’s not often a car company over-delivers on its pre-launch publicity, but that’s just what Ford did in all the hype building up to the Adelaide launch of the final production version of the Ford Ranger. We expected it to be good, but not THAT good.
John Oxley reports

The new Ranger is a product of Ford’s global design policy, and although the project was led by Ford Australia, much of the engineering work was done elsewhere, and some of the parts, including the engines and gearboxes, were sourced from Ford’s British parts bin, notably from the Ford Transit – which ironically, was also the drivetrain donor for the latest Land Rover Defender.
But that apart, the new Ranger is totally divorced from the previous Mazda-based product, and American Gary Boes, vehicle line director, product engineering, for Ford Asia Pacific and Africa, quipped that “only a handful of parts - enough to fit in your pocket” were carried across.
And in every regard it’s better, as well as being bigger, more comfortable, and more capable, especially off-road.
It’s also a lot stronger, with a chassis that’s twice as stiff as that of the outgoing model. Styling is dead modern, and clearly Ford, while the interior uses aluminium trim and well thought-out controls and materials.
If there’s a short line to describe the new vehicle it’s got to be “attention to detail”.
Not only did the Ford engineers minutely examine the market-leading Toyota Hilux, but they were also one of the first buyers of the Volkswagen Amarok, which was launched during the Ranger’s development. After seeing the German vehicle they were able to confirm that the Ranger’s design was spot-on with emerging trends.
Attention to detail is seen throughout the vehicle, from the nicely designed interior to such things as stain and water-resistant seat coverings, a glove box able to store a laptop, six internal tie-downs in the wellside each capable of withstanding a 750kg loading, a power point in the wellside, even cup holders built-in to the (XLT up) wellside liner so the crew has somewhere to put coffee while working outside.
The Ranger looks tough, and so it’s no surprise that the top-line engine, a 3.2-litre inline 5-cylinder turbo-diesel, is just full of grunt, whether it’s poodling along in sixth gear at 60 km/h (yes, it’ll do that), through to climbing extremely steep slippery hills (I did it in “Drive”) to towing no less than 3350kg loads, far and away the best in class.
It’s got 147kW, and produces its maximum 470Nm of torque from as low as 1500rpm and up to 2500, a really great plateau. The engineers took this Transit motor (it does service in the bus and long wheelbase variants) and tweaked it even more by adding the latest high pressure fuel injection.
The Ranger comes with either manual or automatic 6-speed gearboxes, and both endow the vehicle with extra-low ratios for off-road or towing, coupled with high ratios in a nice spread for economy and cruising.
Off-road work is aided by its 237mm ground clearance and 800mm wading ability, and that attention to detail extends to differential breathers mounted high up inside the cab. And if you want to fit a snorkel, well the engineers have made that easy too, with a ready-made hole under the right-hand wheel arch trim panel.

Switching from 2WD to 4WD uses a simple dial switch on the centre console (on the fly between 2WD and 4WD high), and there’s the option of an electrically-selected mechanical rear diff lock, with an electronic (brake controlled) locking diff as standard.
In fact the Ranger is bristling with electronics, but quite frankly we found its low gearing and torquey engine made them unnecessary, with the descent from the top of that afore-mentioned hill smoother in first gear than using the hill descent control – although the hill holder feature is always useful.
Yes, it’s also got stability control, traction control, and an ABS braking system that compensates for off-road driving, but its basic mechanical specification is enough on its own to satisfy the demands of an experienced driver. There’s also a system to stop trailer sway, there’s rollover mitigation, plus no fewer than six airbags.
Another eye-opener was the ride quality and the on-road handling. Not quite up to a modern saloon car, but way ahead of most of the opposition. No jolts, no wheel-lifting, and no tyre squeal even when pressing on. And the steering, with rack and pinion, is nicely balanced and very positive.
In addition to the 3.2 motor a 2.2-litre 110kW/375Nm turbo-diesel (also from the Transit) will be on offer, while a 122kW/226Nm 2.5 litre petrol can be had on special order – if there’s enough demand.
The range tops out with a Wildtrak version with luxury features that include sat-nav, a reversing camera, power seats and part-leather upholstery, through well-equipped XLT and XL versions. It will be available in double cab and Supercab, and single cab, wellside and cab chassis, and in 2WD as well as 4WD.
Top features include Bluetooth with voice control, cruise control with steering-wheel-mounted controls, and air-con as standard on all variants, plus 17-inch alloy wheels and rear park sensors from XLT up.
It’s roomy both inside and outside the cab. The Super Cab has the biggest box volume in its class at 1.45 cu m while the Double Cab is among the best with 1.21 cu m.
At 5,359mm long and 1,850mm wide it’s 91mm longer and 15mm wider than a Hilux.
Supplies start arriving from Thailand (XL and XLT first) in October, followed by the Supercab, with single cabs from January.