Ford F250 Reviews

In September 2022, Ford CEO told me directly that the Bronco would be coming to Australia. We, as a nation, have waited patiently, but the time is right for the brand’s most adventurous SUV to join the local line-up, complimenting the Ranger and Everest it’s so closely related to.And this isn’t just the pipe dream of one motoring journalist, there are several key events that appear to be lining up in favour of the Bronco making its way to Australia within the next few years. But first, a quick history lesson. I was fortunate enough to catch Farley directly at the reveal of the new-generation Mustang in Detroit and ask him directly about the chances of the Bronco and its Bronco Sport small SUV namesake making Australian showrooms. This is what he said.“We can do Bronco and Bronco Sport for the globe for sure,” Farley told me. “But we have, like, a year or two order bank so we have a lot of work to do on our capacity before we can even consider something like that.”He added: “Of course it can be engineered , just like Mustang, but you have to invest in the capacity and it’s like the first or second inning of building up the Bronco line-up. It’s a whole family, we’ve just come out with the Heritage, we’ve got Everglades, there’s going to be a lot of iterations so just give us some time.”That was nearly three years ago and in that time much of what he said has come to pass, unsurprisingly. Ford has continued to roll out special editions of the Bronco in the US market, the latest being the Stroppe and Free Wheeling versions. This has helped keep interest high in the US and therefore, as Farley referenced, it has meant international expansion is a lower priority.As we’ve previously reported, Ford opened a second Bronco production line in China last year, a joint-venture with Jangling Motors, which leaves the Michigan, USA plant free to focus on feeding the hungry American market. While Ford Australia has made no official comment on the Chinese factory being able to supply Bronco here, it does clear some notable hurdles. The biggest one is the cost of both production and shipping, with China being significantly cheaper than America in both aspects.There’s also the on-going trade war between China and the USA, which effectively rules out any chance the Chinese factory could supply Broncos back to America. This, theoretically, leaves the door open for Australia and its SUV-loving market to take pole position for a future Chinese-built, right-hand drive Bronco.Given the Bronco has been on sale in the US for more than five years, having been revealed in 2020, it is approaching a likely mid-life update. This would be the ideal opportunity for Ford to make good on Farley’s promise and introduce the Bronco to Australia.Given the success of the Ranger and Everest, which share the same underpinnings as the Bronco, it would likely be a welcome addition to Australian customers. Ford officials have previously indicated that the modest sales of the Jeep Wrangler (the closest direct rival to the Bronco) have been a cause of concern, but given the relative success of Ford’s Ranger ute to Jeep’s Gladiator, that is a spurious comparison.Should the Chinese plan get the green light, it’s likely the Bronco could be in Australian showrooms by 2027, given the time needed to finish development of the right-hand drive version and Ford Australia’s focus on launching the Ranger Super Duty in 2026.And while there’s no official comment from Ford to back any of this up, Farley’s commitment as the big boss says all signs point to the Bronco hitting Australian roads and trials eventually.

Ford has introduced a special edition variant of its popular Everest SUV dubbed the ‘Black Edition’, which delivers a suite of cosmetic tweaks.

Are you an owner/driver of an Isuzu N Series, Fuso Canter or Hino 300 small truck? Then this might be for you, because Ford is banking on breaking into the light duty (LD) truck class with something completely different to the cab-over chassis norm with the coming Ranger Super Duty.

Ford Australia has axed so many of its cars over the past two years that it almost has nothing left on sale. It’s just lucky that one of the few cars left that it does sell — the Ranger ute —  does so in enormous numbers. So what’s missing from Ford’s line-up? A lot. Here are the cars we think Ford really needs in Australia right now.Ford lacks a rival, to not just to hardcore four-wheel drives like the Toyota LandCruiser and Nissan Patrol, but to more domesticated Aussie family favourites such as the Toyota Kluger, Kia Sorento and Hyundai Santa Fe.Yes, the Ford Everest seats seven and can go off-road with the best of them, but a more plush and comfortable suburban cruiser would fit nicely in the line-up.Now this might hurt a little bit and I apologise in advance, but in South Africa you can buy a Ford Territory. I know, what the Ford!?So, the South African Ford Territory is made in China and sold in other countries but it’s made in right-hand drive, which means there’s no reason why we can’t have it here.This new Territory isn’t as big as the Santa Fe at 4.63m long so it’s not really a large SUV but still, what a shame.What Australia really needs is a Ford Explorer, as in the petrol-powered version form the United States, not the UK electric version. The US Explorer is a a five-metre long seven seater, while the UK version is 4.4m and smaller than an Escape.Nope, bigger is better in this case and while the Explorer is currently only made in left hand drive, there is a chance a right hand drive might get the green light for the next-gen model.Ford axing the Escape is the car company equivalent to throwing away your only pair of pants just because you don’t like the colour of them.OK, that’s a terrible analogy but the point is mid-sized SUVs are the bread and butter of car brands and they sell all year long in large numbers and they’re kind of an essential item to car manufacturers. Ford axed the Escape because it didn’t sell enough of them. But it could easily bring back the Escape because it’s sold in the right-hand drive in the UK.Ford should seriously consider it, the mid-sized SUV segment is increasing in size at 19.6 per cent market share and Ford’s not able to join in the spoils. Toyota has the RAV4, Kia has the Sportage, Nissan has the X-Trail and Ford has nothing. No pants to wear at all.If there’s something Australians love almost as much as mid-sized SUVs it’s a small SUV. We’re talking the likes of the Toyota Corolla Cross, Hyundai Kona and the MG ZS. And Ford did have the Puma, but axed it in 2024 just four years after it arrived.The Puma was a high-quality feeling and premium looking SUV, but it was overpriced compared to its rivals and so sales struggled. People want premium looking at budget prices apparently.The Puma is sold in the UK as a hybrid and a fully-electric vehicle, so bringing it to Australia wouldn’t require anything other than a trip on a boat from Romania where they’re made.So there you are, Ford has pretty much all the cars it needs in right-hand drive to take the fight to rivals such as the Toyota RAV4 and Corolla Cross, the Kia Sorento and Hyundai Santa Fe.Will we see the Territory again? Will Aussies be OK with a Chinese made Territory? Given the the shift in attitudes and growing maturity towards Chinese brands and their rapid take-up there's no reason they wouldn't be.Sure bringing back the Territory nameplate, plus the Puma and Escape could be a risk for Ford, but would it be as big a risk as having all your eggs in the Ranger basket as it does now?

The Ford Everest Tremor is the latest mildly upgraded 4WD to enter the market. While the Ranger Tremor is a limited-edition variant, the Everest Tremor is here to stay.It has a 3.0-litre turbo-diesel V6, longer coil springs, Bilstein dampers and General Grabber AT3 all-terrain tyres.It also gets 'Rock Crawl' mode, steel bash plates, side steps and Tremor-specific styling and branding.

Where on earth is the Toyota Tacoma for Australia?Designed and developed expressly for the North American market, the series has served for over 30 years as the slightly larger and more comfortable cousin to the venerable Toyota HiLux.In fact, the two medium-sized utes were closely related until very recently, even as the Tacoma grew larger and more sophisticated over three generations, where it became the best-selling vehicle in its pick-up segment in the United States – a position held since 2004.Unveiled in 2023, the latest version prompted a high level of anticipation from industry analysts, since it was also expected to become the replacement for the eighth-gen HiLux, which celebrates its 10 anniversary this month.After all, the Tacoma’s timing was spot-on, with the newly-redesigned Ford Ranger ending the Toyota ute’s seven-year reign at the top of the Australian sales charts that same year (and hit number one again in 2024).It doesn’t take too much to figure out why people remain excited about the prospect of a HiLux-badged Tacoma for our market.Key attributes include a formidable presence brought about by its chunky styling, a vast array of grades including a Raptor-aping TRD Pro, huge interior space, sizeable load area, massive step up in safety technology and the availability of a hybrid powertrain option.The Tacoma trails Australia’s 3500kg braked towing capacity maximum yardstick by around 500kg, based on corresponding Canadian figures.That would probably change for our market, especially when you consider that today’s Tacoma is based on the same Toyota New Global Architecture – Frame (TNGA-F) body-on-frame “truck” platform that also underpins the J300 LandCruiser and J250 Prado 4WD SUVs.It is that connection that prompted much speculation over when – rather than if – the Tacoma would arrive in Australia, albeit wearing HiLux badges and possibly having Thai sourcing. After all, if they’re that closely related, wouldn’t they have interchangeable parts with models already offered in this market?As it turns out, Toyota will instead offer three distinctly different medium-sized utes – and it seems Australia will again miss out on the Tacoma after all… or at least, for now.Though unconfirmed officially, we hear from an internal source that a facelifted version of the existing, decade-old Mk8 HiLux will spearhead Toyota’s fight against the Ranger, BYD Shark 6 and co. from next year in Australia.About the only part of the Tacoma – which will remain North American only for the time being – we may see is a variation of its 2.4-litre i-Force turbo-petrol/electric hybrid powertrain, as it has been rumoured to be added to the HiLux facelift, as Toyota Australia starts its move away from diesel.Finally, as outlined previously, Europe, Japan and other lower-carbon regions are set to score the production version of the EPU (Electric Pick-Up) Concept Ute electric vehicle from the 2023 Tokyo Mobility show, though that’s also mooted for Australia too, as a flagship HiLux EV.So, what’s holding the Tacoma back for us?Mainly, it is only produced in Mexico, with annual capacity of around 250,000. And that’s about how many are soaked up in North America alone.Secondly – and this is a major reason – the Tacoma is only currently manufactured in left-hand drive (LHD) guise. And changing that makes no business sense.Typically, engineering for right-hand drive (RHD) in any vehicle program can add hundreds of millions of dollars to costs, and that appears not to have happened in this case. And it's not likely to in the future.Why? Even if Toyota could sell over 50,000 utes annually to match HiLux’s efforts last year in Australia – and that would possibly make us the fictional RHD Tacoma's largest market globally – that’s not nearly enough production volume to recoup development costs.That was reportedly one of the driving forces behind General Motors killing Holden barely two years after local manufacturing ceased in 2017, as there just wasn’t enough volume to justify the expense of changing LHD vehicles over to RHD for Australia. Even for a colossus like Toyota.Additionally, while the UK is another big RHD ute market for the brand, shifting around 30,000 HiLuxes last year, that's still not enough volume, while the vast majority of South African and Thai ute sales - the two remaining big RHD countries – are for more-affordable and lower-spec models. And cheap is not what any TNGA-F vehicle is designed to be.That’s probably the reason why the Tacoma is not earmarked to be built in Thailand, for now anyway. The existing HiLux fills that role far better.Thirdly, should it be green lit for RHD, the Tacoma would also be too expensive even in Australia, anyway, given its Mexican sourcing.This means the cheapest grade would probably cost a lot more than the current most expensive HiLux out of Thailand does. Which, by the way, is also where the Ranger, Isuzu D-Max, Mazda BT-50, Nissan Navara and Mitsubishi Triton also hail from, while the Shark 6, GWM Cannon, LDV Terron 9 and others from China cost even less for what they offer.Tacoma would have no hope matching their prices. The upshot here is that achieving something close to the current HiLux's 50,000 sales annually in Australia would be wildly optimistic as a result.Lastly, with Tacoma sales in the first quarter of 2025 up nearly 180 per cent year-on-year in the USA, there is no incentive for Toyota to compromise production capacity to accommodate the relatively small volume required for Australia.Of course, this could change with the US federal government’s tariffs on non-US made products, that might lead to big price increases for the Tacoma in its main market.While still highly unlikely, that might open the door for RHD exports should US Tacoma sales consequently collapse, though these are still early days.That’s a long shot, and it’s fair to assume that the only way Australians might be able to buy a reasonably-priced Tacoma is if Toyota decides to add production to Thailand, or some other lower-cost base than Mexico. Or follow the larger Tundra ute’s example by having it remanufactured from LHD to RHD in Melbourne.So, no Tacoma-based HiLux, then.Which is a shame, as a ute version of the latest Prado – which what the latest, N400 model essentially is, complete with an i-Force petrol-electric hybrid powertrain – would sound like the HiLux that Toyota should be offering to its fanatically loyal Australian customer base.Do you agree?

The popularity of one the most controversial vehicles types in Australia has plummeted so far in 2025, with sales of American-style jumbo trucks like the Ford F-150, Toyota Tundra and Ram 1500 driving off a cliff.Loved by those who buy them, but ridiculed by plenty who don't, the big trucks have been accused of being "big, dumb utes" that exploit tax loopholes by The Australia Institute, been threatened with higher parking charges, and been flagged by some MPs as candidates for higher registration fees.And now sales are hurting. Some 640 examples of the Toyota Tundra, Chevrolet Silverado, Chevrolet Silverado HD, Ford F150, Ram 1500, Ram 2500 and Ram 3500 were sold across Australia in April, bringing the group's year-to-date tally to 3010.That's down 26.2 per cent on the single month result in April 2024 (867 sales), while the year to date total has fallen 13.8 per cent, from 3490 over the first four months of 2024.But because, at this time last year, Toyota was delivering very few Tundras as part of a customer testing program, their results (up 171.4 per cent month-on-month and 99.3 per cent year to date) are actually propping up the segment's percentages. Remove the Tundra sales, and the segment for the remaining brands has actually fallen 32.7 per cent month on month, and 18.8 per cent year to date.Interestingly, the numbers in 2025 are even smaller than in 2023 (787 month and 3043 year to date), despite there only being four models in market then, compared to the seven being sold today.It spells hard news for all brands, with significant remanufacturing investment required to convert the models from left- to right-hand drive, but perhaps none more so than Toyota, who – after a six-year program to develop the vehicle for Australia – only put the Tundra on sale in November last year.At the time, media was told production was being ramped up to five vehicles per day, or up to 110 per month and 1300 vehicles annually. Last month, just 76 found homes, pushing the year-to-date tally to 299 vehicles - an average of 74 per month, or 888 annually, should the trend continue all year.We asked Toyota about the Tundra's slow start in February, and the brand told us "It’s very early days, but we are pleased with the response to Tundra since its official launch in the middle of November. Our forward orders are in line with our forecasts and we look forward to expanding the line up with the introduction of a new premium grade in Q2 2025."Clearly it's not just Toyota struggling to move the big trucks at the moment. The most popular Ram, the 1500, was down 18.1 per cent for the month and 24.9 per cent year to date, the Chevrolet Silverado was done 18.3 per cent for the month (but is up six per cent for the year), the Ford F-150 is down 69.9 per cent for the month and 35.9 per cent for the year.

Two years after it was retired to the hatchback hall of fame, the iconic Ford Fiesta could return as a rebadged Volkswagen – and an EV.

Diesel powertrains mounted a major comeback in April, dominating the country's best-seller lists as plug-in hybrid powertrains suffer as FBT exemptions expire.

There are some states where the very existence of unmarked police cars seems almost as illogical as it is cruel, while in others, like Victoria, it’s a surprise that every second vehicle isn’t a cop car in disguise.