The Ford Ranger neatly blends ruggedness with car-like refinement and usability – but is it still a sensible purchase second hand?
Pick-up truck drivers are a particularly tough crowd to please, so the fact that Ford’s Ranger has for years now been the best-selling such vehicle in the UK is no small reassurance that it’s the pick of the bunch.Pick-ups have always been popular with farmers and builders in the UK, but it wasn’t until the early 2010s that they became a more widely popular choice thanks to the attractive benefit-in-kind rules regarding light commercial vehicles (LCVs).Many company car drivers were taken by the idea of riding about in a well-equipped, leather-trimmed truck while paying much less tax.And the P375-generation Ranger’s promised combination of a robust, utilitarian appearance, sophisticated on-road manners and a truly habitable, car-like interior sent it to the top of their shortlists.This Ranger had an unusually long shelf life: it arrived in 2011, was given a major facelift in 2015, then had a less dramatic one in 2019. It arrived with a choice of turbo diesel engines – two 2.2-litre four-cylinders and a 3.2-litre five-cylinder – all badged TDCi. With 197bhp, the last of those is our pick, as the lesser versions are pretty ponderous.This was dropped in 2019 in favour of a 2.0-litre twin-turbo diesel four with 210bhp (badged EcoBlue). Mated to a 10-speed automatic gearbox, it was fitted to the wild Ranger Raptor, a more hardcore model that featured uprated suspension and bigger wheels shod with chunkier tyres.This 210bhp engine failed to match the performance billing of the Raptor, however, while the new ’box felt as if it had one too many ratios to handle. Furthermore, it could tow only 2500kg, because it didn’t qualify as an LCV.But while the Raptor was a bit of a confused concoction, the 2.0 EcoBlue worked just fine as a workhorse in regular Ranger variants. It was more efficient than its predecessor and had enough poke for towing. It could have been more refined under hard acceleration, though.The Ranger was initially able to tow up to 3350kg, and a few tweaks to its set-up in 2013 increased its braked towing capacity to 3500kg, matching the Nissan Navara of the same period and outdoing the then new Toyota Hilux by a whole 550kg.Where the Ranger truly excels, though, is in its blending of rugged, go-anywhere dependability with car-like refinement and usability – a quality best exhibited by our favoured trim level, Wildtrak.This range-topper got all the bells and whistles. Post-facelift models received Ford’s Sync 2 touchscreen infotainment system (the same as in the Mondeo), a reversing camera, adaptive cruise control and lane keeping assistance, as well as bigger alloy wheels, sat-nav and leather seats.No wonder that it claimed 80% of UK Ranger sales.The line-up covered a broad spectrum, though, with variants to cater to all use cases, from single-cab (two-door, two-seat) to double-cab and super-cab (four-door, five-seat).The trim hierarchy started with the conservatively specced XL. This was the only one offered with the single cab and featured 16in steel wheels, hard-wearing cloth seats and black plastic trim.Buyers could add body-coloured bumpers, but nobody likes a show-off… XLT and Limited were fancier, but Wildtrak is the go-to trim for most used buyers – just like the Ranger should be your go-to used pick-up.
