Ford Ranger review

The luxury version of Ford’s pick-up is packed with technology and even has leather seats – plus is as much of a workhorse as any big American truck.

Of course he blew his budget on the boat without thinking about transporting the thing using his towbar-free family hatchback.

Luckily, I was knocking around in Ford’s latest Ranger Wildtrak.

It’s the Blue Oval’s 3.2- litre turbo-diesel pick-up, with enough low-down torque to tow the QE2.

At £35k, the top-of-the-range Ranger isn’t exactly cheap, but Ford has followed the ways of many modern pick-up manufacturers and kitted it out with every conceivable luxury that make long trips to waterside towns more enjoyable.

There’s DAB radio and a full SYNC 3 infotainment system, with 8ins touch screen display. The steering wheel is wrapped in leather and the front seats are heated.

Adaptive cruise control smooths out of motorway journeys, and a bunch of sensors, cameras and audible prompts make sure you don’t look like a plum when it comes to parking the thing.

It drives pretty well too, with this spacious double cab version feeling planted at higher speeds, and offering a relatively relaxed ride over crappy road surfaces.

There’s also plenty of power available from the beefy 3.2-litre diesel, with 470Nm of torque helping box off 0-62mph in an impressive 10.6 seconds.

This particular model was mated to the six-speed automatic transmission, which makes things nice and easy in stop/start traffic, but it did get a little confused under heavy acceleration.

It’s also quite thirsty compared with your average SUV, so don’t expect much more than around 25mpg under normal driving conditions.

But it’s a handsome beast and this Wildtrak spec proves that it’s possible to live with a pick-up truck that’s capable of towing 3.5 tons without compromising on comfort.

Source: https://www.thesun.co.uk