Ford right this moment unveiled an all-new model of its midsize pickup, the 2024 Ranger. Ford’s center light-duty truck will get a good-looking new physique, a second engine possibility, and an off-road Raptor version with 405 horsepower and suspension constructed to take high-speed punishment.
The Ranger is the one truck Ford designs abroad. The remainder of the world noticed the design in 2021. The truck Individuals are lastly getting seems to be similar to the Australian design unveiled two years in the past however with new engine choices and a extra highly effective Raptor.
Ranger will begin at $34,160, and Ranger Raptor will begin at $56,960, together with $1,595 for vacation spot and supply.
Good-looking Look That Lets The Efficiency Do the Speaking
If there’s a pattern in truck design this 12 months, it’s over-the-top metallic musculature. Current midsize truck designs just like the Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon (and the Toyota Tacoma that may debut subsequent week, if leaks are correct) emphasize busy designs, large grilles, and accordion folds of bodywork. It’s so frequent it’s beginning to look cartoonish.
Ford designers properly held again a bit on the most recent Ranger.
The grille will get the bracket LED lights now ubiquitous in Ford’s truck lineup and a bar of chrome to carry the blue oval brand. The hood does have some character traces, however they’re subtler than the look of the brand new GM midsize vans.
A brand new concave line low on the doorways and mattress renews the look in profile.
All advised, it seems to be extra like a truck than a truck dressed up like a superhero for Halloween. That’s refreshing.
Inside, designers have been equally restrained. A portrait-mounted central touchscreen is the one factor that dangers wanting outsized. It’s obtainable in 10.1 or 12.4 inches and runs Ford’s Sync 4A infotainment system. Actual buttons and dials beneath imply you may make frequent changes with out tapping by menus.
The driving force will get a display screen within the conventional gauge cluster — 8 or 12.4 inches. Whole cabin area has elevated, with extra headroom, legroom, and shoulder room than the earlier 12 months’s mannequin.
Most trim ranges get a mechanical shifter. However top-end Lariat fashions and the Raptor get a smaller digital shifter.
No Cab, Mattress Choices
Ford retains giving Ranger consumers fewer configuration choices, they usually’ve run out of decisions to chop. The 2024 Ranger will come solely as a 4-door crew cab with a 5-foot mattress.
Jeep made the identical name with its latest Gladiator, and Chevy did the identical with its Colorado. However Toyota guarantees a number of cab and mattress choices with the Tacoma it’s going to unveil subsequent week. Truck builders ought to most likely discover sometime that the Tacoma outsells the remainder of the category by an enormous margin and retains giving consumers decisions.
The mattress could also be quick, but it surely’s wider. A wider wheelbase retains the wheelhouses far sufficient aside that, Ford says, a 4-foot sheet of drywall will lay flat between them. The tailgate is damped to open softly and consists of useful built-ins like clamp factors and a yardstick. The mattress incorporates 12-volt energy retailers and a bottle opener.
New Efficiency Choices
Below the hood, although, Ford will give consumers decisions.
The usual engine is similar 2.3-liter, 270-horsepower 4-cylinder mannequin because the 2023 truck. It’s simply aggressive with the remainder of the category, confirmed, and provides first rate gas financial system, so we’re glad to see it return. It makes 310 pound-feet of torque.
XLT and Lariat trims get a twin-turbo V6 making 315 horsepower and 400 lb-ft of torque. These numbers narrowly beat what Chevy provides within the new Colorado.
Each engines ship energy by a 10-speed computerized transmission. Each 2- and 4-wheel-drive techniques are provided, and the 4-wheel system is shift-on-the-fly. It lacks a locking rear differential, although.
Payload figures have elevated from the earlier technology — now as much as 1,805 kilos relying on the drivetrain. The tow ranking stays 7,500 kilos with the elective towing package deal.
Raptor Particulars
Whereas the fundamental truck is roughly the identical because the one provided abroad, the American Raptor is a separate beast.
Below the hood sits the identical twin-turbo 3.0-liter V6 discovered within the Bronco Raptor, good for 405 horsepower and 430 lb-ft of torque. An anti-lag system retains the turbos spooled up for 3 seconds after you elevate off the pedal.
Locking differentials to the entrance and rear and a 67.88:1 crawl ratio ought to make it agile on rock.
However Raptor fashions are all in regards to the suspension. Broad entrance fender flares (barely) cover coil-overs with 2.5-inch adaptive Fox Reside Valve shocks. The rear will get the identical shocks with piggyback reservoirs — an enormous step up from the leaf springs of the usual Ranger. The shock towers have been beefed up, as have the suspension mounts and body rails.
It rides on 33-inch BFGoodrich All-Terrain KO3s (not the 37-inch fashions of the Bronco Raptor) and may settle for beadlocks. A ten.7-inch floor clearance quantity matches the Colorado ZR2. A 26.4-degree departure angle bests the ZR2 and the Jeep Gladiator Mojave. However a 33-degree method angle trails them each.
Drive modes embody Regular, Tow/Haul, Sport, Slippery, Off-Highway, Rock Crawl, and Baja.