The Blue Oval’s market-leading pick-up truck gets a major reworking
You might think of a pick-up truck as a purely utilitarian vehicle, a tool simply to haul hay bales, sheep and building materials. But it appears that for many UK buyers, their Ford Rangers are much more than that.Take this for a stat: in the UK, 80% of Rangers of the last generation were ordered in Wildtrak spec. To those less familiar with Ranger trim levels, that’s the bells-and-whistles version with nice alloy wheels, leather upholstery, soft-touch interior materials and all sorts of other car-like features.It’s a trend that seems to have come from the US. The Ford F-150 has been the best-selling vehicle there for years, and quite obviously not all of them are farm trucks. A lot of them are lifestyle vehicles as well, suited to towing boats, transporting camping gear and the like.For 2023, Ford is introducing a new generation of its European pick-up, so with the genre’s evolved remit in mind, we are testing a Ranger Wildtrak with the mid-range 2.0-litre twin-turbocharged diesel engine to see how well it works on the road as well as off it.Range at a glanceThe new Ranger line-up is pretty extensive, with chassis cab, single cab and double cab options. The 2.0-litre four-cylinder diesel comes with three power outputs, and there is one V6 diesel. The V6 petrol only comes in Raptor guise. If you want any of the more powerful engines, you will need to go for the double cab.VersionPowerFord Ranger 2.0 EcoBlue 170PS Chassis Cab168bhpFord Ranger 2.0 EcoBlue 170PS Single Cab168bhpFord Ranger 2.0 EcoBlue 170PS Double Cab168bhpFord Ranger 2.0 EcoBlue 205PS Double Cab*202bhpFord Ranger 3.0 EcoBlue 240PS Double Cab237bhpFord Ranger 2.0 EcoBlue 210PS Double Cab Raptor207bhpFord Ranger 3.0 Ecoboost Double Cab Raptor282bhp*Version testedTRANSMISSIONS10-spd automatic (Except 170PS) 6-spd manual (170PS only)Additional reporting by George Barrow
