Best used dual-cab ute for 2024

The 2018 Ford Ranger Raptor has chewed up and spat out the opposition, winning the best dual-cab ute category in carsales’ Best Used Cars for 2024, proudly presented by Bingle.

For the sixth consecutive year, the locally-developed pick-up has won the category for Ford , but this time in flagship Raptor form, powered by a strong and refined twin-turbo diesel.

It may displace a meagre 2.0-litre capacity (and is now the default engine across the Ranger line-up), but every last cubic centimetre of the biturbo four-cylinder works hard for the money.

In 2018, the arrival of the Ranger Raptor with its off-road racing design and dynamics posed a question that other light commercial vehicle importers were unable to answer.

The Ranger was outsold by the Toyota HiLux in the same year, but mostly because of the Japanese brand’s dominance at the 4x2 end of the pick-up and cab-chassis market. At 36,883 sales for the year, the Ranger came within less than 2000 units of toppling the HiLux in the 4x4 segment.

For 2018, Ford moved to a five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty for all vehicles, including the Ranger. Initially, the Ranger Raptor was unavailable with autonomous emergency braking and adaptive cruise control; the ultimate Ranger variant delivered the goods in a host of other ways, however.

While the 2018 Ford Ranger was the judges’ favourite in 2024, which was also the case in earlier years, the Raptor didn’t fare so well in the RedBook number crunching. What seemed to let the Ranger flagship down principally was its retained value – likely a reflection of the Ford’s high purchase price when new.

Available in just the one variant, the Raptor dual-cab was powered by a 2.0-litre four-cylinder twin-turbo diesel matched to a 10-speed automatic driving all four wheels.

Its RedBook score was 34.8 points and the judges’ score of 48 took it to a total of 82.8 points out of 100. When new, this specific variant sold for $74,990, and in the used-car market a 2018 model is valued by RedBook at $50,800.

As judge Marton Pettendy observed when he drove the car at its launch in 2018:

Describing the Raptor’s engine as “a peach”, he also praised its 10-speed automatic transmission for being “almost always in the right gear”, but it was the Raptor’s “rally car-style composure over everything from mid-corner corrugations to high-speed washouts” that really impressed.

“The Ranger Raptor may be based on a humble 4x4 double-cab pick-up, but its off-road capability and visual ‘volume’ have both been turned up to 11,” he concluded.

What is the reason the Ranger has been such a success story for Ford – not just in Australia, but around the world as well (especially now the new-generation Raptor has a turbo-petrol V6)? It benefits from Ford’s Aussie design and engineering capability in terms of packaging, performance and chassis tune.

Adding a whole new level of handling prowess to a package that was already superior to its rivals in terms of dynamics, ride comfort and technology, the 2018 Ford Ranger Raptor is a deserving winner in the carsales Best Used Car awards, proudly presented by Bingle.

The Isuzu D-MAX LS-T dual-cab 4x4 ute scored 38.7 points from RedBook and 38.0 points from the judges for a total of 76.7.
RedBook value: $41,300

The Toyota HiLux Rugged X dual-cab 4x4 ute scored 38.8 points from RedBook and 37.0 points from the judges for a total of 75.8.
RedBook value: $51,650

What makes a car eligible for carsales Best Used Cars awards?
• Less than six years old
• Standard side-curtain airbags
• Standard Bluetooth
• Standard electronic stability control (mandated for 2014)
• Standard reversing camera for SUVs

How did RedBook weight the categories for scoring?
• 10 per cent for resale
• 10 per cent for ANCAP rating
• 20 per cent for cost of ownership
• Five per cent for service intervals
• Five per cent for number of days for vehicle to sell