2019 Ford Ranger vs 2020

What's the difference?

The 2019 Ranger XLT with twin-turbo 2.0-litre diesel and 10-speed auto offers 10kW more power and 30Nm more torque than the venerable Duratorq 3.2 litre five-cylinder alternative, along with superior fuel economy. Although Aussies traditionally lean towards large capacity engines, based largely on perceptions that smaller ones have to work harder to do the same job, there was no evidence of that during our test.

Indeed, it hauled its one tonne payload up long and steep climbs with an effortless ‘you call this a hill?’ arrogance and with plenty in reserve. Pub-test perceptions are powerful things, of course, but so too is this new engine which makes light work of hard work.

The Ranger XL 4x2 is always controlled and always comfortable. It has an impressive no-fuss approach to everything and combine that with its reliably grunty engine, smooth-shifting auto and a very restrained ride (for a ute) and you have a damn good dual-cab that makes a lot of sense as a real work truck.

The Ranger’s rugged ladder-frame chassis rides on a big 3220mm wheelbase and with the XLT’s overall length of 5426mm and 1977mm overall width it remains one of the largest in the dual cab ute segment. 

Coil-spring independent front suspension and a leaf-spring live rear axle combine with electrically power-assisted steering and front disc/rear drum braking to produce a well-rounded chassis package, with excellent ride and handling for such a high-riding vehicle. Front seating is spacious and comfortable while the rear is a bit of a squeeze for three adults, particularly the one in the middle who loses the paper-scissors-rock shoot-out.

The Ranger’s off-road highlights include 237mm of ground clearance, 29 degrees approach angle, 21 degrees departure angle, ramp break-over angle of 25 degrees, 800mm wading depth and 12.7-metre turning circle.

It has that distinctively chunky Ranger look on the outside and the interior is decidedly work-friendly with cloth seats, vinyl floor covering and hard plastics everywhere, designed to cope with the dirty rigours of work life.

The XLT’s kerb weight of 2197kg combined with its 3200kg GVM results in an excellent payload rating of 1003kg, which means it’s a genuine ‘one tonner’ in local ute lingo. 

The load tub has a floor length of 1549mm and width of 1560mm, with 1130mm between the wheel arches. There are also four tie-down points, a 12-volt outlet, night-time illumination, a lift-assisted tailgate and protective liner

The XLT is also rated to tow up to 3500kg of braked trailer, but when you deduct 3500kg from the XLT's 6000kg GCM rating (or the most you can legally tow and carry at the same time), that leaves only 2500kg. 

And if you then deduct the 2197kg kerb weight from that figure, you’re left with only 303kg of legal payload capacity. Which is enough for two to three adults  before you can think about adding luggage, so do your sums if you plan to tow this heavy.

We don’t know how some manufacturers work out their towing/GCM ratings, because they are often as rubbery as their fuel economy figures. Our best advice, for real world driving, is to interpret any 3500kg towing limit as a 3000kg limit, to give you much needed legal and safety margins.

Like all Rangers the XLT offers numerous cabin storage choices including a large bin and bottle holder in each front door, along with a single glove box and overhead glasses holder. The centre console has an open storage bin at the front, two bottle holders in the centre and a lidded box at the rear which is also cooled and doubles as an arm rest. 

Rear passengers get a storage bin and bottle holder in each door, flexible storage pockets on the rear of each front seat and the centre armrest folds down to reveal two more cupholders. The lower seat cushion also swings up through 90 degrees and can be stored in an upright position if more internal floor load space is required.

As mentioned the interior is quite spartan – cloth seats, vinyl floor covering and hard plastics surfaces – and while it is very basic, it looks and feels right. This is a job-ready work space; don’t go looking for power-adjustable, heated seats in here because you won’t find them.

There’s plenty of storage in the form of hard sculpted door pockets, a centre console with lid and two cupholders in front of it and a few smaller spaces here and there for keys and pocket rubbish.

There are two USB ports at the front, as well as an auxiliary 12V power outlet in the lower dashboard and one at the rear of the centre console.

Our test vehicle was a Ford Ranger XL 4x2 (rear-wheel drive) dual-cab Hi-Rider with a 2.2-litre turbo-diesel engine and six-speed automatic transmission. It has arctic white paint – any other colour, except for true red, is considered a prestige colour and costs $650. This vehicle also did not have the optional $500 heavy-duty suspension pack, which includes new front and rear dampers, thicker rear springs with revised spring rates, and a specific ABS and ESC calibration. This option – designed for comfort while carrying loads, Ford reckons, not to improve load-carrying ability – is available on all XL variants, except the 4×2 Low-Rider.

The MSRP for this vehicle is $40,390, includes GST.

But what does it have? Well, it has 16-inch steel wheels, cloth seats, and vinyl flooring – and not a whole lot else. But that’s perfectly suited to this ute and its main purpose: work … with a touch of play, perhaps.

It does have Ford’s SYNC3 multimedia with 8.0-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay/Android Auto (no voice-activated controls though), as well as a reversing camera, rear parking sensors, and a lift-assisted tailgate.

It does not have 4WD or Ford’s terrain management system, but it does have a rear diff lock – as do all Ranger Hi-Rider variants.

Ford’s latest member of the Ranger engine family is capable of meeting Euro 6 emissions with AdBlue, but it’s a simpler Euro 5 specification in Ranger. With the latest in sequential turbocharging, this engine produces 157kW at 3750rpm and 500Nm of torque within a 250rpm band between 1750-2000rpm.  As peaky as that may sound, in reality the two turbos working in sequence provide more than ample flexibility either side of this narrow band width. 

The 10-speed torque converter automatic’s closely-spaced gears have overdrive on the top three cogs for economical highway cruising and in Sport mode can be shifted manually via a small toggle switch on the side of the shifter. 

Its low 4.7:1 first gear, combined with the part-time dual-range 4x4 transmission featuring shift-on-the-fly engagement, 2.7:1 low range reduction and 3.73:1 final drive, provides a useful 47:1 crawler gear for tackling the toughest off-road terrain. There’s also a rear diff lock.

This Ranger has a 2.2-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine – producing 118kW at 3200rpm and 385Nm at 1600-2500rpm – and a six-speed automatic transmission. This is a perfectly serviceable combination, neither too lively or too refined (in fact, it’s quite noisy but I’ll get to that later). 

Remember: this ute is a 4x2, it is not a 4WD.

We put Ford’s fanciful combined figure of only 7.4L/100km to the test using trip meter and fuel bowser readings. Our first refill, after 538km, including a full GVM test, worked out at 10.65L/100km, which wasn’t far off the dash readout of 10.1. 

Our second refill, after 445km of mostly light and medium loads, improved slightly to 9.9L/100km compared to 9.7 on the XLT’s computer. So, based on our best figure, you could expect a realistic driving range of around 800km from its 80-litre tank.

It has a listed fuel consumption of 7.8L/100km (combined). I recorded an actual on-test fuel consumption of 11.4L/100km after more than 200km of driving, including carrying that 780kg load through regional streets and roads.

It has an 80-litre tank.

The Ranger is a comfortable drive around town. Ford has also done a good job with NVH (Noise, Vibration and Harshness) suppression too, particularly with the 2.0-litre diesel and its under-bonnet surrounds.

It’s an excellent engine for this application, with acceleration that feels more energetic than the ‘high performance’ Raptor, even though they share the same drivetrain. The XLT fairly leaps away from standing starts at full-throttle and surges towards triple km/h figures with a vigour not shared by its desert raider cousin.

We can only put this down to two variables. One is the XLT’s superior power-to-weight ratio, because it’s a massive 135kg lighter. The other is that the Raptor’s larger diameter tyres result in slightly taller gearing. So if you want more get-up-and-go, the XLT would be the better option.

The intelligent 10-speed auto is a smooth operator, with largely seamless shifts between its closely-spaced ratios. The over-driven top three are great for fuel economy at highway speeds although top gear in full lock-up seems a bit tall for this engine, given that peak torque is between 1750-2000rpm yet it’s only doing 1500rpm at 100km/h and 1600rpm at 110km/h.

You can also select ‘S’ for sport and shift gears manually using the toggle switch. However, we found it worked best when left in auto mode, as it quickly adapts its shift protocols to suite different driving styles and begins downshifting with enthusiasm when you start braking, particularly on steep descents.

We put the XLT’s 1003kg payload rating to the test by strapping 890kg into the tub, which combined with the driver resulted in a 990kg payload. The stout rear leaf springs compressed only 60mm (about half that of any coil-spring ute we’ve tested) resulting in a near-level ride height with plenty of rear bump-stop clearance.

With this load it maintained good handling and ride quality over a variety of sealed and unsealed roads. If anything, such a large amount of sprung weight improved the ride, with a hint of bottoming only being detected on the largest of washouts and road dips. 

It also powered effortlessly up our 13 percent gradient 2.0km set climb, self-shifting back to fourth gear at 2400rpm all the way to the top, with the right foot barely touching the accelerator pedal. Most impressive.

Engine braking on the way down, though, was minimal but not unusual for small capacity diesels. Our only other gripe was a slight but noticeable driveline shudder from standing starts between 0-10km/h. It was also evident when unloaded, only less noticeable. 

The front seats are manually adjustable and even though all pews are comfortable enough, none of them will ever win an award for high-level plushness.

One thing is abundantly clear: this is a work ute, of that there is absolutely no doubt because it’s quite gruff from first turn of the key and it becomes even more noisy under throttle, but none of that is much of a surprise and none of that is especially difficult to live with if you’re at all used to a work vehicle’s peculiar idiosyncrasies.

No worries about the 2.2-litre diesel engine having enough grunt either: it’s a good little unit, not the torquiest engine around – it’s no stump-puller – but it works well with the six-speed auto in most applications, even with a load. 

There is, however, some lag to acceleration at times and that auto box is guilty of, now and again, holding onto a gear for a bit too long, but that’s mostly under load. 

Be aware, there’s also a touch of drivetrain vibration under heavy acceleration at lower speeds.

Steering has that nice and light Ranger feel about it and this ute is easy enough to manoeuvre around city and suburban streets without any hassle. It has a 12.7m turning circle.

Though it does sporadically exhibit the back-end jitter that unladen utes have suffered since the dawn of time, that skipping behaviour is never terrible in the Ranger. Ride comfort, overall, feels quite firm but composed.

The 16-inch steel wheels on Dunlop Grand Trek AT20s (255/70R16) are tough enough for job-site duties and the brakes – discs at the front, drums at the rear – have a real definite biting action to them and knowing you can bring this ute, unladen or not, to a brutal emergency stop if needed inspires confidence.

So, it’s nice and comfy for the drive to and from work, but how does it go with a load in the tray?

The Ford Ranger has a five-star ANCAP rating, as a result of testing in 2015.

This Ranger has six airbags (dual front, front side and full-length curtain airbags), as well as AEB, cruise control (not adaptive), lane-keeping aid, reversing camera, rear parking sensors, trailer sway control and a lift-assisted tailgate. There are two ISOFIX child-seat anchor points and two top-tether points.

The Ranger XLT is covered by Ford's five year/unlimited km warranty. Scheduled servicing is every 12 months/15,000km whichever occurs first. And capped pricing for first five scheduled services ranges from $360 to $555. Roadside assistance is available for up to seven years if the vehicle is serviced at a participating Ford dealer.

Every Ranger comes with a five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty.

Service intervals are recommended at 12 months/15,000km, 24 months/30,000km, 36 months/45,000km and 48 months/60,000km and, at time of writing, each appointment costs $299.