Ford Ranger

The Blue Oval’s market-leading pick-up truck gets a major reworking

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MODEL TESTED 2.0L TD ECOBLUE 205PS WILDTRAK

Price £48,265 Power 202bhp Torque 369lb ft 0-60mph 9.8sec 30-70mph 9.9sec Fuel economy 28.9mpg CO2 emissions 234g/km 70-0mph 55.1m

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 midrange 2.0-litre twin-turbocharged diesel engine to see how well it works on the road as well as off it.

DESIGN AND ENGINEERING