New Ford Ranger – Five things we love, and don’t

The new-generation 2022 Ford Ranger has finally launched in Australia, kicking off with dual-cab 4x4 models across five spec levels and three diesel powertrains, the latter headlined by a new V6 turbo-diesel.

The range will quickly fill out over the coming months, but spending time with the new Ford Ranger at launch has turned up five things we love about the new Aussie-developed ute – and five things we don’t like so much.

The good…

Ute buyers are increasingly demanding more car-like behaviour and the new 2022 Ford Ranger has embraced that thinking.

It’s no more obvious than with the way it hushes unwanted noises and vibrations. Even in four-cylinder guise, the Ranger is respectably quiet and relaxed.

It helps that the body feels tight, in turn eliminating much of the shake and rattle that some utes do so well.

It steps up a level with the V6 models, which are eerily quiet and smooth by ute standards, in part because the V6 engine has lot of low-rev mumbo, so doesn’t need to be driven hard in most circumstances.

Utes have a well-earned reputation for bucking and bounding over bumps. A leaf spring rear-end does a great job of carrying a tonne, but when there’s no weight out back they can be a lot less convincing than an SUV.

But the new Ford Ranger builds on its already impressive manners.

Sure, there’s still some firmness when unladen, but it’s not uncomfortable or harsh. And the Ranger has excellent body control by ute standards.

As well as resisting leaning through bends it also controls those big bumps swiftly, ensuring you can get on with whatever else is ahead.

There’s plenty of age in the 3.0-litre V6 that is now the hero of the new Ford Ranger line-up (its DNA dates back to the Territory and Land Rover Discovery 3). But there’s also enough fresh engineering to make it a sweet unit.

The V6 went through an engineering program as though it was a new engine. Throw in a 10-speed automatic and it’s a significantly different bit of kit to anything we’ve experienced previously in a Ford sold in Australia.

Peak power is nothing special at 184kW (although it’s thoroughly respectable), but the 600Nm of torque is a nice muscly addition.

The V6’s real talent is not its outright thrust but its effortless grunt and smoothness, which makes even mid-throttle acceleration that bit more relaxed than its four-cylinder stablemates.

The central screen in the new Ford Ranger is a sizeable unit, measuring 10.1 inches in even the more affordable models.

That’s a fair bit of real estate, and having it arranged in a portrait configuration allows for other virtual buttons to reside around the smartphone connectivity.

Speaking of which, when utilising Apple CarPlay you can adjust the size of the CarPlay display to allow for maps or music to take up more of the screen.

There’s the occasional gripe – the Google Maps pointer/locator is mostly lost off the bottom of the Apple CarPlay display – but there are more hits than misses.

And if you get the Wildtrak, the screen size increases to 12 inches, in turn eating into some of the storage space under the screen. There’s no more functionality in those Wildtrak models, but everything is that little bit bigger.

The new Ford Ranger was designed and engineered from the outset to be loaded with accessories.

Mounting points on each side of the load box have pre-drilled holes to allow for load racks or other accessories, while the Wildtrak even comes with roof-mounted switches to wire up anything from camping lights and a light bar to an onboard air compressor.

There’s even a space under the bonnet for a second battery; it cleverly pops the washer bottle refill point on an extended mount so the battery can slide in underneath.

The not-so-good…

The wheels have been spaced further apart, but the new Ford Ranger doesn’t liberate more meaningful space for its occupants.

That’s in part because despite the repositioning of the wheels, the overall size of the ute is almost identical to the outgoing model.

Up front there’s no shortage of space and it’s easy to get comfy in the driver’s seat, with good fore-aft adjustment of the steering wheel and good visibility.

Tall folk in the rear may have more challenges with legroom, which is no better than the last Ranger (which, to be fair, was among the better utes for rear seat comfort).

Still, given the improvements elsewhere we were hoping there may be a few extra millimetres in the rear. (Ford says shoulder-room has improved slightly.)

Four-wheel drive versions of the new Ford Ranger are designed to tackle some gnarly terrain, but there’s no rear recovery (tow) point if you get stuck.

You get one front tow hook on XL and XLS models and two front hooks for the XLT, Sport and Wildtrak variants. But no recovery point at the back.

Instead, Ford points off-roaders to the tow hitch that comes standard on XLT, Sport and Wildtrak; best to splash out about $50 on a tow hitch shackle.

And for those who haven’t optioned a tow bar? Make sure you don’t need to be towed from the back…

The digital instrument cluster for the new Ford Ranger is a nice addition, especially for those buying at the entry level of the range.

But there’s a bigger cluster available for the incoming Ford Everest and Ranger Raptor – and it’s simply not available for the rest of the Ranger models.

That’s a shame because the separate fuel and temperature gauges on either side take the gloss off all those pixels.

It would be great to see the bigger display available at least on the Wildtrak that is already brimming with kit.

There’s no such thing as the perfect place to suck air into a four-wheel drive. Each location has its compromises.

But whereas the old 3.2-litre five-cylinder used to draw air from inside the wheel-arch, with the new model it’s getting it from between the bonnet and driver’s side headlight.

Sure, the air is more easily rammed into the intake, but that intake is also ready to scoop fresh water in if the bonnet temporarily dips below water level.

The Ranger may have an 800mm wading depth, but our recommendation if you’re getting anywhere near that depth would be to invest in a snorkel. As well as Ford-approved accessories you can guarantee there will be plenty of aftermarket options.

Ford was desperate to maintain a more traditional gear selector for the new Ford Ranger.

Many cheaper models get the old tall selector that is a familiar piece of kit. But some, including the V6 variants, get a new stubby electronic gear lever called the e-shifter.

It looks great and easily falls to hand, but it’s not overly intuitive to use. Three buttons on the side have nothing to do with shifting through the detente, instead being used to manually select ratios once you’re in drive.

Instead, you have to aim for the release button at the front of the selector then carefully guide the lever to the P, R, N or D point you’re aiming for.

It’s easy to miss your target, at which point the lever may decide to take over and automatically select Park while you gather your thoughts…

All of which looks great, but we’d be happier with more obvious shift points.