Best Dual-Cab 4x4 Ute announced for 2024

The Ford Ranger has been named carsales’ Best Dual-Cab 4x4 Ute once again in 2024, this time topping a classy field of seven premium contenders priced around $75,000.
 
It’s the second consecutive Best Dual-Cab 4x4 Ute award for the latest-generation Ranger since its release in mid-2022, and the fourth for Ford’s popular homegrown pick-up since our inaugural award in 2019.

As with all carsales Best awards, testing and scoring was split across five main criteria: safety, technology, comfort/convenience, driving performance and ownership costs including residual values provided by the experts at Redbook.com.au.

But as usual for our Best Dual-Cab 4x4 Ute award, off-road capability, towing performance and both payload and tray functionality were also assessed as part of the multi-day judging process, in this case by three of carsales’ most senior journalists led by road test editor Scott Newman.

In the end it came down to a split decision between the Ford Ranger and its new sister model, the second-generation Volkswagen Amarok, which was ranked less than one point behind the Ranger in second from a total of 100 points.

The recently-facelifted Isuzu D-MAX placed third, ahead of the all-new Mitsubishi Triton, the Mazda BT-50 and the long-running Toyota HiLux and Nissan Navara.

While the carsales Best Dual-Cab 4x4 Ute award applies to the entire model range – which in the case of the Ranger line-up includes more than 20 distinct body style, powertrain and equipment combinations – both the top-shelf Ford Ranger Wildtrak V6 and Volkswagen Amarok PanAmericana flagship were stand-out performers in all five test areas.

The range-topping Amarok scored a narrow win for safety and matched the Ranger for not only technology but also comfort/convenience and driving performance. However, it fell short in terms of total ownership costs, handing the overall win to Ranger by a slender margin.

Underpinning their suitability for a wide range of Australian new-vehicle buyers, both the Thai-built Ranger and South African-made Amarok are fitted as standard with an extensive array of advanced driver aids and cutting-edge multimedia technologies, in addition to benchmark utility numbers including a 3500kg towing capacity.

Highlighting how far the humble utility has come in a relatively short time, all utes tested here come standard with heated, powered and at least partially leather-trimmed seats, Apple CarPlay/Android Auto, dual-zone climate control, rear air-vents and keyless entry/start.

But the Ranger and Amarok go several steps further with a wider array of well-calibrated safety functions, plus 360-degree cameras, self-parking capability, wireless phone charging (matched by D-MAX) and more airbag than any other mid-size ute.

The Volkswagen has the best interior, comprising more comfortable seats and better-quality leather than the Ford, plus matrix LED headlights (optional in the Wildtrak) and a full-width digital instrument cluster (unavailable in Ranger).

However, the Ford more than compensates with its more practical cabin, tray and towing provisions (including its standard powered roller tonneau and trailer reversing assistant), and both the lowest purchase price and best resale value of all utes tested here.

Best-sellers for their respective brands, the Ford Ranger and Volkswagen Amarok are the only locally-designed, engineered and developed utes on the Australian market, which is among the world’s three largest mid-size pick-up destinations.

Dual-cab 4x4 utes account for the vast majority of the segment, which is second only to mid-size SUVs in terms of popularity, accounting for almost 20 per cent of Australia’s new-vehicle market in 2023.

Nearly 240,000 utes were sold in Australia last year – up 12 per cent on 2022 – and the three most popular new vehicles were utes.

The Ford Ranger became Australia’s top-selling vehicle for the first time in 2023 with more than 63,000 sales, ending the HiLux’s seven-year winning streak and becoming the first Ford to top the market since the EF Falcon in 1995.