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We Sneak a Quick Drive in a 2019 Ford Ranger
We recently had the chance to drive the all-new 2019 Ford Ranger during a local Ford drive event open to potential customers. The official media drive for the Ford Ranger is not until December, but during the 2019 Ford Ranger Drive Tour, the automaker is giving Ford fans who register online a chance to drive the new Ranger and the 2019 Ford Edge ST SUV. Unbeknownst to Ford, we signed up, too.
We had only seven minutes behind the wheel, which gave give us a chance to weave in and out of Saturday morning traffic and jump off a few stoplights to see what the turbocharged 2.3-liter inline-four-cylinder engine can do. Although we'll have more detailed driving impressions when we get to tow and haul with the Ranger in December, we got enough time to know the 2019 Ford Ranger and its four-cylinder engine will be something special. We believe it will meet the needs of many holdout Ranger fans as well as first-time truck buyers.
Pent-Up Demand
The drive event I attended was outside Los Angeles in the massive parking lot of the Santa Anita Park, a horse-racing track). People lined up about an hour before the event opened. Since participants had to preregister online, the event was pretty well organized despite some last-minute drop-ins. Ford had six Edge ST SUVs and two Rangers on hand; more than 40 people were lined up to drive the vehicles. Only one or two of the attendees hopped into the Edge, which may be an indication of the pent-up interest in the mid-size Ranger. Ford may have to adjust it production plans and add a shift or two.
Men dominated the crowd waiting to drive the vehicles, but we overheard several women talking trucks as we waited our turn. And wait we did, since with just two trucks for drives of five to seven minutes, the wait was hours for some. The mood, as you might imagine, was light and cheerful as attendees And the organizers removed one of the stand-alone Rangers from the static display and dropped it into the drive rotation to shorten wait times. To call this a huge miscalculation would be an understatement; if Ford had doubled the number of Rangers, many people would have likely jumped back in line for another drive.
Our Drive
Our loop took us through some short coned-off parking lanes on aging pavement. Right away we could feel the solidity of the front end when initiating a right or left turn and when moving faster (more than 35 mph), even on corners. The steering was tight. When looking at the Ranger's profile, the front end dips a little more than the rear end, , which is typical mid-size pickups. Engineers design the bed height so that it levels when its loaded to maximum payload capacity. However, the majority of a pickup's life will be spent empty. We think the Ranger's front-end dip also helps its handling on the road and is meant to improve its driving dynamics. No doubt many companies will offer a quick leveling kit (we saw several at the 2018 Specialty Equipment Market Association Show) for the Ranger's front end to give the truck a more horizontal stance. Still, we were surprised by how nimbly and quickly the Ranger responded to steering inputs as we navigated some tight parking lots and a local neighborhood. This truck did not feel heavy at all.
Top-of-the-Line Lariat
All the Rangers at the event were well-equipped top-of-the-line Lariat 4x4 crew cabs with the FX4 Package that includes the Ranger's exclusive Trail Control system, multiple terrain/traction settings, a locking rear differential and hill descent control. Think of Trail Control, now available on the 2019 Ford F-150 Raptor as a type of cruise control for slow-go trail crawling that allows you to engage the system at a slow speed. It handles throttle and braking duties, and all you have to do is steer. During this drive we did not get to use the four-wheel-drive system or Trail Control, but we did notice a throttle responsiveness change and transmission shift point retune when briefly playing with the terrain settings. The different terrain settings change the throttle mapping, steering feel and transmission shifting when adjusted.
The independent front suspension feels planted and forgiving, even as we carved some harsh S turns in the parking lot (which our event representative did not appreciate). The rear suspension also felt solid, but we did detect a good amount of "jitter" after rolling over a few speed bumps and through potholes before the rear axle settled down. We should note the vehicles we drove were preproduction units and were driven from Detroit to Los Angeles just the week before. In fact, one of the spokesmen who drove the truck to L.A. said he was mobbed by Ranger fans at every fuel stop and got better than 27 mpg on the highway-biased route. We'll take both comments with a healthy dose of skepticism.
The leather interior of the Lariat has plenty of soft-touch surfaces on the center storage console, doors and even across the front dash. It's clear that Ford engineers weren't trying to reinvent or push the existing mid-size pickup definitions into uncharted waters. Instead they focused on delivering a quality product to people who want function in a smaller package.
We didn't see a lot of the F-150 in this new truck. The navigation screen was a decent size, and radio and climate controls were easy to understand and identify. We like that Ford kept the easy-to-reach hand brake to the driver's right hand, and the 10-speed transmission offers a quick-touch thumb shifter on the stick. The backseat offers more room for adults than you might think, with relatively comfortable seating and an armrest. Even with that said, kids will have a much better experience in back.
Ranger Options
The Ford Ranger will not be offered with two wheelbase options, but it can be had as a SuperCab (6-foot bed) or SuperCrew (5-foot bed) with 4x4 or 4x2 drivetrains. We'll know more about the factory-rated 7,500 pounds of towing capacity when we attend the media drive, and we'll be looking more closely at payload ratings on mainstream models. Pricing, to date, ranges from $25,395 (XL 4x4 SuperCab) up to $39,480 (Lariat 4x4 SuperCrew), but the trucks we drove were fully loaded and likely listing for around $40,000.
If line length at this Ranger drive event is any indication, Ford will be quite happy with how many Ranger buyers are out there, ready to put that kind of money down for this new mid-size pickup
