2019 Ford Ranger vs Toyota HiLux

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.

It’s a basic work truck that’s short on features but big on load-carrying ability, with a genuine one tonne-plus payload rating. However, as a direct result of that, it also has the harshest unladen ride we’ve experienced in a single cab cab-chassis.

So if you’re wanting a genuine Toyota tray, our best advice would be to choose either the heavy-duty steel (HDS) or the heavier ‘industry pack’ (MPHDS) trays. They both weigh over 300kg, which is more than double the weight of our test vehicle’s aluminium tray. You’ll lose the same amount in payload capacity of course, but with a lot more weight permanently over the rear wheels, we reckon the more civilised unladen ride quality would be well worth it. ends...

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.

You don’t get the latest trapezoidal grille design found on more upmarket grades and many items are finished in cost-saving black including the grille, lower front bumper section, door handles, mirrors and steel wheels. And there are also conspicuous blank inserts in place of missing higher-grade features like front fog lights and numerous buttons and switches.

Sadly, it also has the same annoying multimedia touchscreen shared by all HiLux models. It quickly turns opaque with fingerprints and simple tasks, like adjusting the volume, can be as distracting as trying to use a mobile phone or tablet while driving, which is illegal of course.

The large door mirrors are well located and there’s ample vision through the rear window with an empty tray. However, you certainly miss a rear-view camera and parking sensors when the window is blocked by a tall load. Comfort is adequate for a single cab and big blokes can find a workable driving position, although reach adjustment on the steering wheel and a large left footrest would be welcome additions.

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.

The 1570kg kerb weight and 2810kg GVM results in a sizeable 1240kg payload rating. And when you deduct the weight of the 140kg aluminium tray from that, it still leaves 1100kg of load capacity.

It’s also rated to tow up to 2500kg of braked trailer but with its 5280kg GCM (or how much you can legally carry and tow at the same time) the payload limit drops to 1070kg. In other words, to tow  2500kg you only need to reduce GVM by 30kg - a very practical set of numbers for a wide variety of work applications.

The Toyota aluminium tray is (internally) 1777mm wide and 2550mm long. It features rattle-free drop-sides plus a robust rear screen protector, which surprisingly lacks pivoting load retainers at the top on each side which are ideal for ‘book-ending’ long lengths of timber, PVC pipe, copper tubing etc.

Even so, there's heaps of tie-down points. Internally they total 16, provided by aluminium rails along both sides which sit inboard of the drop-sides, with eight holes in each for securing ropes or tie-down hooks. There are also four rope-rails beneath the floor on each side, for external load anchoring if required.

Although it’s a single cab there are numerous storage options, including a bottle holder and open bin in each door, pop-out cup/bottle holders on each side of the lower dashboard, two glovebox compartments (the lower lockable) and an overhead glasses holder. There’s also a centre console unit with an open storage bin in front of the gear-stick and another beside the handbrake, plus two cup/bottle holders at the back.

Our test vehicle was the 4x2 WorkMate single cab cab-chassis with 2.4 litre turbo-diesel and five-speed manual for a list price of $24,990. That's cheaper than Ford’s 4x2 Ranger XL equivalent (2.2L diesel/6-sp manual) at $27,990, but more expensive than Mitsubishi’s 4x2 Triton (2.4L diesel/5-sp manual) at $22,490.

Fitted to our test vehicle was Toyota’s general-purpose aluminium (GPA) tray, with hinged drop-sides, rear window protector frame and mudguards, which costs an additional $1889.95 RRP. So combined with ORCs you could probably haggle a drive-away deal for around $30K.

This worker is as basic as you can get in a HiLux, starting with 16-inch steel wheels with 215/65R16C light truck tyres and a full-size spare. Inside there’s vinyl floors and basic cloth-trim seats, with no rake adjustment for the base cushion, no lumbar adjustment in the backrest and limited reclining room. And the steering wheel is only height adjustable.

However, it does have features designed to make a hard day’s work easier, like power windows and door mirrors, manual air-con, remote keyless entry, non-radar cruise control, 12-volt accessory socket, two-speaker multimedia system with 6.1-inch control screen, multiple connectivity including Bluetooth and steering wheel-mounted audio controls, plus numerous places to put stuff.

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.

One of the HiLux WorkMate’s enduring strengths is Toyota’s 2GD-FTV turbo-diesel engine. Quiet, refined and willing in response, it’s the smaller capacity 2.4 litre derivative of the 2.8 litre 1GD-FTV designed with lower upfront and operating costs in mind.

The 2.4 produces 110kW at 3400rpm and 343Nm of torque across a broad 1400rpm band between 1400-2800rpm. With automatic transmission, that figure increases to 400Nm, so the 2.4 is clearly a low-stressed unit with long service a priority.

The manual gearbox is only a five-speeder. However, its short 4.3:1 first gear is fine for getting heavy loads underway while its over-driven fifth, combined with relatively tall 3.6:1 diff gearing, allows the 2.4 to cruise comfortably on the highway.

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.

Toyota claims a combined average of 7.7 litres/100km but our figure, calculated from fuel bowser and tripmeter readings after 531km of ‘real world’ testing, worked out at 8.9 litres. That was impressively close to the lab-based official figure and excellent for a one-tonner. Based on our numbers you could expect a big driving range of close to 900km from its 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. 

We’ve never ridden a bucking bull in a rodeo, but our test vehicle’s ride when empty provided a pretty good simulation of it. The leaf-spring rear suspension was so firm and the unladen tray so light, at times it felt like there was no suspension at all, resulting in many hard thumps in the lower back when driving over bumps. And the bigger the bumps, the harder the thumps.

It didn’t take long to become fatigued by this, particularly on corrugated dirt roads and heavily-patched bitumen back roads used during our test. So if you want to avoid the chiropractor, best cure is a decent load over the rear wheels. Therefore this vehicle would be best suited to work applications that require either lots of heavy lifting, or a custom-built tray that's permanently loaded with heavy tools and/or equipment.

Maximum five-star ANCAP rating when last tested in 2015, but without AEB it would lose at least one of those stars if tested now. The vehicle stability control menu also lacks trailer sway control which would be desirable given its GCM. There’s also front and side airbags for driver and passenger.

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.

Five years/unlimited km warranty. Scheduled service every six months/10,000km whichever occurs first. Specific model capped-price servicing of $240 quoted for the first four scheduled services over 24 months /40,000km whichever occurs first.