Ford Ranger vs Volkswagen Caddy 5

What's the difference?

The standard Ford Ranger is a comfortable ute and a capable 4WD, and while the Tremor treatment doesn’t offer any real enhancement in terms of on-road comfort or handling, it certainly improves an already impressive 4WD’s off-road efficacy.

The Tremor is a sensibly upgraded package with real 4WD boosts across the board – full-time 4WD, heavy-duty suspension, more ground clearance, and decent all-terrain tyres – which make a meaningful difference.

Sure, it’s no Raptor, but it offers enough in terms of dirt-driving advantages over the regular Ranger to give the Tremor plenty of appeal – and it will likely rattle the cages of rivals like the HiLux Rogue and Navara Warrior.

The VW Caddy Cargo feels sporty and is undeniably fun to drive with its lively engine and responsive handling. But that doesn’t detract from its light workhorse capabilities.

Given the choice, we’d prefer the TDI320 turbo-diesel’s superior torque, payload and fuel economy, but for $2000 less this turbo-petrol version with enhanced safety still has plenty of appeal for small van buyers.

The Tremor stands out from regular Rangers because of its taller stance, 30mm wider footprint (on chunky General Grabber AT3 all-terrain tyres), and greater ground clearance (second only to the Raptor).

It has a honeycomb grille up front, a bash plate, 17-inch alloys, pronounced cast-aluminium side-steps and a sports bar.

The Tremor also has a raised Tremor badge on the tailgate, Tremor stickers here and there on the outside, and black Ford oval badges at the front and rear are nice touches.

If nothing else, its exterior at least gives the impression that the Tremor is capable of serious 4WDing.

The interior has those aforementioned rubber mats and Tremor-branded stitching to set the Tremor apart from standard Rangers.

Overall, it compares well in the looks department with rivals such as the HiLux Rogue or Nissan Navara Warrior, who both also share an understated gnarliness about their appearance.

Our SWB test vehicle has a 2755mm wheelbase and compact 4500mm length.

Its front-wheel drive chassis, which shares some architecture with the iconic Golf sedan, rides on simple but robust MacPherson strut front suspension, a coil-spring beam rear axle and four-wheel disc brakes.

With electric power-assisted steering, it has an 11.4-metre turning circle (larger than we expected) and load access is through asymmetric rear barn-doors and a kerbside sliding door.

The dash has a clean and minimalist look given that most functions including heating/cooling are controlled via the central touchscreen, which, like a phone, can be fiddly and therefore distracting while driving.

However, it does at least retain traditional rotary dials for audio volume and radio tuning.

The moulded composite bulkhead between cabin and cargo bay, with its mesh-protected central window, is effective as a cargo barrier and in minimising noise from the load area.

However, it appears Volkswagen has also fitted noise-absorbing fixtures over the rear wheel housings, which combined with the bulkhead, create civilised cabin acoustics.

Even so, tyre noise can still be intrusive at highway speeds on coarse bitumen surfaces.

The Tremor cabin is simply a Ranger interior with a few brand-specific touches, so it’s a roomy and comfortable space and scores well in terms of overall practicality.

The multimedia system is a decent size with clear and crisp colours and is easy enough to operate – but you need to repeatedly stab your finger onto the screen in order to work your way through menus and sub-menus to figure it all out. My tip: get your head around all of its functionality – some of it counter-intuitive – while the vehicle is stationary. Also, the fact that some controls are on-screen and some are off-screen creates more than a little bit of confusion.

Driver and front passenger have easy access to storage options, such as centre console, cupholders, door pockets and a pocket-dump shelf, and charging points (wireless charger, USB and USB-C sockets).

There’s plenty of space for the driver and the passengers, front and back, and the seats are supportive and comfortable and only marginally less so in the back row. There’s enough room back there to hopefully avoid any whinging – I sat behind my driving position and had loads of space.

Second-row passengers get a fold-down centre arm-rest, door pockets, map pockets, air-con vents and controls.

The Tremor’s tub measures 1464mm long (at the floor; 1217mm between the wheel-arches), 1520mm wide and 525mm deep. Opening width at the tailgate is 1393mm.

The tub is standard Ranger stuff – with a sturdy-looking liner, four fixed-in-place tie-down points, a 12-volt outlet, and LED lighting – but it also has two sliding tie-down points mounted high on each inner sidewall of the tub and that adds some flexibility to the cargo area.

Noteworthy is the fact that the Tremor has a built-in step on both exterior sides of the tub towards the rear, providing a safe place in which to put your foot when you want to gain a higher position in order to pack or adjust something in the cargo area, or even climb into the tub.

The Caddy’s 1433kg tare weight and 2150kg GVM result in a 717kg payload rating.

Up to 100kg can be legally carried on the roof, where external anchorage points covered by protective caps are provided for installing roof racks or rails.

It’s also rated to tow up to 1500kg of braked trailer but VW does not publish a GCM (Gross Combination Mass) rating, so we don’t know how much it can legally carry and tow at the same time.

The versatile cargo bay, which offers 3.1 cubic metres of load volume, is 1797mm long, 1614mm wide and 1272mm high. With 1230mm between the wheel housings, it can carry either a single 1165mm-square Aussie pallet, one 1000 x 1200mm Euro 3 pallet or two smaller 800 x 1200mm Euro pallets.

All can be loaded through the rear barn-doors, with 180-degree opening for easy forklift access. The sliding side-door’s opening is only 695mm, partly due to intrusion of the bulkhead, so kerbside access is only for smaller items.

There are six load anchorage points and even though the cargo bay’s walls and doors are lined to mid-height, there’s no protective floor covering, which we would recommend to avoid unsightly dents and scratches. There’s also bright LED lighting and another handy 12-volt outlet.

Driver and passenger have plenty of cabin storage with large bottle holders and bins in each door, dashboard bins, a large glove box, full-width overhead storage shelf and a centre console offering four open storage nooks and dual small-bottle/cupholders.

The Cargo range offers eight variants (10 if you include the Crewvan) with a choice of petrol or diesel engines, manual or auto transmissions and two wheelbase lengths comprising Standard (SWB) and Maxi (LWB).

Our test vehicle is the Cargo SWB, equipped with a 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine and seven-speed dual-clutch automatic for a list price of $39,990.

Externally you get a no-frills workhorse designed for hard work, with ample dark grey plastic in the usual places where bumps, scrapes and wear occur, including the bumpers, door handles and door mirrors.

However, at least there are silver plastic wheel covers (easy to replace if damaged) to add some bling to its robust 16-inch steel wheels and 205/60R16 tyres, with a full-size spare.

There’s also work-focused rubber flooring in the cabin as you’d expect, which is in stark contrast to numerous creature comforts you might not expect like keyless start, height/reach adjustable leather-rimmed steering wheel, adjustable lumbar support on both bucket seats, heated door mirrors, a reversing camera, rear parking sensors and separate cabin/cargo bay locking.

There’s also standard wireless smartphone charging, two 12-volt accessory outlets and a pair of USB-C ports, plus a four-speaker multimedia system with 8.25-inch colour touchscreen and multiple connectivity including Apple and Android devices.

However, in stark contrast to this tech, there’s no AM radio band. Go figure.

The Tremor has a 2.0-litre four-cylinder twin-turbo diesel engine – producing 150kW at 3750rpm and 500Nm at 1750-2000rpm – and that’s matched to a 10-speed automatic transmission.

It and the Wildtrak X are the only non-V6 Ranger variants that get the more advanced full-time 4WD system. This set-up has selectable two-wheel drive (2H), four-wheel drive high-range (4H), four-wheel drive low-range (4L) and four-wheel drive automatic (4A = 4Auto) that sends drive to the front and rear axles as needed, and which can be safely used on high-traction surfaces, such as bitumen.

The Tremor has a variety of selectable drive modes – including Normal, Eco, Tow/Haul, Slippery, Mud/Ruts, and Sand – and a locking rear diff.

The spirited and economical 1.5-litre four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine produces its maximum 84kW across a 1500rpm-wide power band between 4500-6000pm.

Torque enjoys similar band width as its 220Nm is served at full strength between 1750-3000rpm, which showcases this little engine’s impressive flexibility.

The seven-speed dual-clutch automatic offers three drive modes comprising Drive, Sport and Tiptronic; the latter for manual-shifting using the steering wheel-mounted paddles. There’s also an electronically-controlled automatic locking diff.

The Ranger Tremor has an official fuel consumption of 8.7L/100km (on a combined cycle, with stop-start engaged) or 9.3L/100km (on a combined cycle) if you have Ford disable that system at no extra cost.

I recorded 10.4L/100km on this test. I did plenty of 4WDing but I also spent a lot of time on highways so that levelled out any impact the off-roading had on fuel consumption.

The Tremor has an 80-litre fuel tank so, going by my on-test fuel-consumption figure, you could reasonably expect a driving range of about 770km from a full tank. 

Note: the Tremor requires AdBlue diesel-exhaust fluid.

VW claims an official combined figure of 6.2L/100km and the Caddy’s dash display was claiming 7.2 at the end of our 252km test, of which about one third was hauling its maximum payload.

After crunching the numbers from tripmeter and fuel bowser readings, our own figure was very close to the Caddy’s at 7.4L/100km.

So, based on our figures, you could expect a ‘real world’ driving range of around 670km from its 50-litre tank using 95 RON fuel.

Time and distance are two crucial factors that always help to crystallise accurate and objective scrutiny of a vehicle.

And so it was on this test.

Long stretches on open roads punctuated by short, sharp bursts of tough, technical 4WDing – and the Tremor did well in both realms but, of course, proved much better suited to off-roading.

The Tremor is nice to drive on-road – quiet, refined, comfortable and the engine and transmission are a relaxed and clever combination – but it’s off-road-suited suspension is firm through patches of chopped-up back-country bitumen and corrugated bush tracks and the like – sometimes jarringly so – and the chunky all-terrain tyres don’t help on sealed surfaces either. No surprise there.

But on the open highway at cruising speed, the Tremor exhibits all of those smooth-driving characteristics the Ranger line-up is so well known for. It sits on the road nicely, with that wider footprint yielding a settled stance, and this ute simply rumbles along the blacktop with nary a care in the world.

The brake pedal feels a tad spongy – taking some time between initial foot pressure to actually ‘biting', and then the brakes – discs all round – do clamp effectively into action.

Unsurprisingly, the Tremor does even better than a standard Ranger when 4WDing because that’s what it’s been engineered to do.

This ute is 5370mm long (with a 3270mm wheelbase), 2208mm wide and 1914mm high. It has a listed kerb weight of 2419kg. This is not a petite ute by anyone’s measure but even with a turning circle of 12.9m, it manages to never feel unwieldy on bush tracks.

It’s based on the Ranger Sport, which is no slouch in the off-roading department but, as mentioned earlier, it has the line-up’s full-time 4WD set-up not the part-time 4WD system.

The 2.0-litre engine is rarely stressed, offers plenty of torque across a decent rev range and it never has to work hard to get through most obstacles or challenges.

The 10-speed auto transmission is clever – there’s no scrambling between ratios – and you can take over duties yourself you can do so via the manual shifter. The ‘e-Shifter’ is mildly annoying but it irritates me less every time I use it.

Low-range gearing is adequate and the Tremor has an electronic rear diff lock for more traction-boosting control. It’s worth noting here that the Raptor has front and rear diff locks.

There’s plenty of driver-assist tech onboard and off-road driving modes include Mud/Ruts and Sand. These are no substitute for track-worthy 4WD mechanicals, but these modes do effectively adjust engine throttle, transmission, braking, traction and stability controls to suit the driving conditions.

Driver-assist tech is sound: off-road applications are displayed on screen – with driveline/diff lock indicators, steering, pitch and roll angles depicted – and hill descent control held the Tremor to a controlled 3-4km/h as I tip-toed down to the bottom of a difficult slope.

The Tremor upgrades have further boosted the Ranger’s capabilities off-road.

The power steering, light and sporty in all scenarios, has been tweaked with a heavy-duty tune and retains a confident feel in difficult conditions.

The suspension set-up – working off IFS with wishbones and coils at the front and live axle on leaf springs at the rear – now benefits from heavy-duty off-road engineering with new springs and Bilstein dampers with external reservoirs.

Wheel travel – how far the axle can move up and down vertically wheel to wheel relative to the chassis – is slightly better than a standard Ranger’s, with this ute’s tyres stretching further than the regular version’s.

Rubber is all-important when it comes to 4WDing and the news is good here: the Tremor has General Grabber AT3 all-terrain tyres (LT 265/70 R17) and these light-truck construction tyres are grippy and effective in the dirt.

The Tremor benefits from more driver-assist tech including low-speed Rock Crawl driving mode, Trail Control (which adjusts throttle to suit low-speed low-range 4WDing), and Trail Turn Assist (which, at low-range 4WD speeds, brakes the inside rear wheel to assist in tight turns.

Where a standard Ranger might scrape its underbody when off-road terrain becomes particularly challenging, the Tremor is higher off the deck than its regular stablemates. Its claimed ground clearance is 261mm but is probably closer to 220mm. I’ve said it before, but it’s worth noting again: as with any measurements provided by any vehicle manufacturer (ground clearance, wading depth, towing capacities etc), consider those figures with healthy scepticism. I’m more inclined to avoid maxing out on any listed measurement, just to be on the safe side, rather than have complete faith in any car-maker claims and perhaps risk strife as a result.

Continuing on: wading depth is listed as 800mm and its off-road angles are sound for this part of the market: for your reference, approach, departure and ramp-over angles are listed as 32, 27 and 24 degrees respectively.

There are a couple of niggles, though.

I’ve previously expressed annoyance at the auto transmission shifter – a kind of joystick on a light cycle of steroids and just as touchy. It’s especially finicky on bumpy terrain but it’s another Ranger-based characteristic to which I’m gradually becoming accustomed.

The operation of some off-road driver-assist tech can be confusing as it’s divided between the rotary dial (to select drive modes) and the screen (to engage the rear diff lock etc). Not a deal-breaker, but it takes some getting used to.

Back to regular programming: the Tremor has a listed payload of 901kg, and towing capacities of 750kg (unbraked) and 3500kg (braked) – and that’s where it bests its Raptor stablemate, which can manage 2500kg.

It has a listed GVM (gross vehicle mass) of 3320kg and a GCM (gross combined mass) of 6350kg. Remember: any onboard loads – such as people, pets, camping gear or aftermarket equipment (bullbar, roof rack etc) – must figure in your payload and GVM equations.

It may be a small vehicle but people of most shapes and sizes can find a comfortable driving position thanks to its spacious cabin with ample headroom, comfortable and supportive bucket seating with adjustable lumbar support and a big left footrest. Rake adjustment for the seat’s base cushion would make it even better.

Although it looks like a back-to-basics workhorse it doesn’t drive like one, particularly when unladen.

It feels more like a car than a van and is quite engaging (dare we say sporty) with its combination of firm but supple suspension, nicely weighted and communicative steering through the delightful leather-wrapped wheel and reassuringly strong retardation from a quartet of disc brakes.

It has less power and torque than its TDI320 turbo-diesel sibling and both peak values are accessed further up the rev range, so it must maintain higher rpm than the diesel for optimum performance which is typical of small turbo-petrol engines.  

The sweet-shifting seven-speed dual-clutch automatic makes this easy to achieve, though, particularly when you have the option of manual paddle-shifting.

The gearing also ensures low engine stress at highway speeds, requiring only 2000rpm to maintain 110km/h.

Although its agility is great for zipping through busy traffic or down narrow city lanes for delivery work, unfortunately it can’t erase the huge blind-spot over the driver’s left shoulder caused by the cabin bulkhead and, beyond that, the solid cargo bay walls.

The passenger-side door mirror is not large enough for adequate visual coverage of this hazardous zone. Although blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert are available as pricey options, we reckon they should be standard issue for not only our test vehicle but all solid-walled vans.

To test its load-carrying, we inflated the tyres to the 42psi cold pressures recommended on the placard and forklifted 415kg into the cargo bay.

With our crew of two, that equalled a 575kg payload that was about 140kg under its peak rating (we would have loaded more but weights were in short supply on the day).

Even so, the rear coil springs only compressed about 45mm, which was no different to when we loaded a similar model with more than 700kg. The rear suspension felt slightly firmer but still supple under this weight, maintaining safe and predictable handling.

 It also performed well on our 13 per cent gradient, 2.0km-long set climb at 60km/h, self-shifting down to a suitable gear and easily hauling this load to the top.

Engine-braking on the way down, in a manually-selected second gear, was minimal at best requiring several brake applications to keep it under the posted 60km/h speed limit.

However, this is typical of small displacement motors with heavy loads on their backs.

A maximum five-star ANCAP rating applies to all Cargo variants built from July 2022.

The Caddy Cargo offers numerous safety features headlined by seven airbags and AEB, along with new MY23 upgrades comprising 'Lane Assist' and 'Front Assist'.

Lane Assist operates above 60km/h to provide steering correction when the vehicle appears to be leaving the lane without the driver using the turn signal.

Front Assist detects cyclists/pedestrians plus oncoming traffic when turning at an intersection and can apply autonomous braking to avoid a collision.

There’s also a reversing camera and rear parking sensors, daytime running lights, non-adaptive cruise control, a driver fatigue alert system and more.

The Tremor is covered by Ford’s five year/unlimited kilometre warranty, which is the standard for dual-cab utes.

Roadside assistance is available for up to seven years as long as the Tremor’s owner has the ute serviced at an authorised Ford dealership.

Service intervals are scheduled for every 12 months or 15,000km and a fixed-price servicing plan applies to the first four years/60,000km if you pre-pay the $1385 required (GST included).

The Volkswagen Caddy Cargo is covered by a five year/unlimited km warranty with 12 months roadside assist.

Scheduled servicing every 15,000km or 12 months whichever occurs first.

Total capped-price servicing for five years/75,000km is $3142, or a pricey average of $628 per year.

However, VW offers an upfront five-year care plan that represents a $1492 saving (that’s almost 50 per cent) for the same service period.