Ford Ranger road test
Compared to other pick-ups available to private buyers who might want to use the Ranger as a family car, the Ford acquits itself reasonably well. The soft-ish suspension wallows and lurches its way along the road, soaking up most bumps but with little in the way of sophistication or astute control. The fashion for buying pick-ups as family transport has waned now, largely as a result of there no longer being any Benefit in Kind tax advantages. Accordingly, the Ranger makes most sense for business users who can claim back the VAT, which makes the Ford Ranger one of the best value pick-ups on the market.
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The most popular engine with buyers, reckons Ford, is the 140bhp 2.5-litre turbodiesel coupled to the five-speed manual gearbox. There is an auto available, but it blunts the already mediocre performance so is best avoided. A 3.0-litre turbodiesel with 153bhp is also on the price list but we could spot little discernible advantage in oomph and the larger engine is less refined than the already borderline 2.5-litre unit. As a commercial vehicle that will appeal to some private buyers, the Ranger doesn’t have the get up and go or transmission finesse to compete with the likes of the Land Rover Freelander. However, the Ford has bags of low-down pull (243lb ft at 1800rpm) to haul the Ranger up any slope, carry one tonne in the load bed and tow up to three tonnes, so it certainly cuts it as a workhorse.
Read the full Ford Ranger road test
RoadTestReports.co.uk provides road tests reports written by members of the Guild of Motoring Writers. These reports are complemented by car reviews submitted by the members of the public who drive the vehicles day in day out.
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