Blog Posts
Returning 2019 Ford Ranger Takes on Top-Selling 2018 Toyota Tacoma: Video
It's not good enough anymore to simply bring another player to an automotive class that does the same things all the other competitors have been doing for years. You must have unique selling points: At minimum you need to do several things better than the rest, and you must do things that no other vehicle in the class is doing. At least, that's the template we've noticed for a successful vehicle launch or re-launch, as the case may be.
Case in point: Some may argue Ford has an advantage bringing the 2019 Ranger back to the mid-size pickup class, mainly because Ford has been evolving and improving the existing global Ranger — quite popular in places like Australia — all over the rest of world even though the Ranger left the U.S. market in 2011.
We decided to see how the new Ranger stacks up to one of its competitors. It seemed natural to put a fully loaded 2019 Ford Ranger Lariat with the FX4 Off-Road Package up against the best-selling mid-size player, the 2018 Toyota Tacoma. Our challenge for this head-to-head contest was to select the most comparable Tacoma trim level. We eventually settled on the mid-level TRD Sport 4x4, which meant it didn't have Crawl Control or the more well-appointed interior details of the Limited, TRD Off-Road and TRD Sport. Still, all the major mechanical comparison points were there: suspension, bed, powertrain, four-wheel drive system, etc.
In the video below, PickupTrucks.com Editor Mark Williams and Cars.com Los Angeles Bureau Chief Brian Wong share their opinions about the two mid-size pickups after spending three days with the trucks in Southern California traversing mountain roads, playing at an off-road park and driving in some of the toughest city and highway traffic Los Angeles to Barstow has to offer.
We know this video is a little longer than usual, but we thought you'd want to hear as much as possible about these pickups. Some of the observations will seem logical, while others might catch you by surprise. No matter how you react, there's plenty to digest here and we'll have more to say about how the Ranger matches up to other mid-size pickups when we have the opportunity for a full apples-to-apples comparison test. More to come.
