Tale of two Ranger bakkies

TORQUE V TALK: TREMOR FLEXES, XLT FLOWS – SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN LIES THE TRUTH

- Brendan Seery

Picture: Shaun Holland

(Shaun Holland)

Choosing between these two Ford Ranger bakkies is not a simple black-and-white decision... and I'm not referring to the colours. They represent two similar, but also differing approaches to the genre.

The white one is the macho Tremor version, which has been our long-term test vehicle for a few months.

At a shade over R1 million - yes, you read that correctly - there is very little this off-road biased Ranger doesn't offer those who like to get away for dirty weekends the literal ones, not the figurative kind.

It has Ford's latest four-wheel-drive system, which features a permanent all-wheel-drive mode which gives you ultimate security in slippery conditions, whether on Baboon's Pass or the N1 highway. In that sense, it is more like the new Land Rover Defender.

That doesn't mean it has gone soft - the "old school", selectable four-wheel-drive is still there, featuring a low range set of gears to allow you to harness the 500Nm of torque from the 2.0-litre twin-turbo diesel engine.