Ranger Danger

MANILA, Philippines - With every single launch, of every single new generation of every single new model, you will hear the words “goal posts” thrown around a fair bit. I’ve been covering this beat for ten years, and I’ve yet to attend an international launch where I haven’t either seen, heard or felt those words fondling me somewhere in a press kit, presentation or a tipsy conversation during cocktails.

And fair enough, too. Because without them, well, we’d probably all be driving some variant of a Chinese-made Model T, and worse, be quite happy with that. But while we have come to expect significant changes and innovations in every new model, every now and then, along comes a vehicle that doesn’t just move the goal posts, it uproots them and plants the damn things in another playing field altogether.

Meet the new Ford Game Changer. At least that is what I think they should have called it. But for copyright and corporate communications reasons, let’s stick to Ranger, the game changer.

It’s rare that I level this much praise on a new model that didn’t come out of Maranello, Stuttgart or Modena, but credit where credit is due, this new Ranger is what every pick up wants to be when it grows up.

Gone are the days when we needed to suffer with wooly steering that is as responsive as my local “unlimited data” 3G coverage on my iPhone; gone, too, are the apologies you need to make to passengers for the lack of creature comforts and conveniences that they got used to in a modern sedan; and gone is the need to carry around a Swiss Army Knife, because we finally have another tool that really does do it all. Alright, I may have gone overboard with the Swiss Knife.

Point I’m trying to make here is that, as a pick up truck owner myself, I can’t tell you how appreciative I am to anyone that blurs the line between utilitarian and humanitarian. I love having a big wide bed that swallows my extra large mountain bike whole – but I could do without the assault on my coccyx bone each time I fail to dodge a pothole or slow down enough for a speed hump. I love the ground clearance I have for flooded streets, but I won’t miss the need to have men with high visibility vests and illuminated orange sticks guiding me into a parking space or three-point-turns.

These are compromises we’ve just come to accept with pick ups. And we didn’t care because we didn’t know any better. But after several hundred kilometers of both on- and off-road driving through the heart of its birthplace in South Australia, we now do. And I’ve had trouble sleeping ever since; we’re basically talking cellphone to smartphone leap here.

See, as good as they are with trucks, Ford engineers couldn’t improve the Ford Ranger anymore. It had been milked for all it was worth and it was time to move on. So a DNR (Do not resuscitate) order was given, and they went out and invented an entirely new one. This meant replacing the motherboard, so to speak, and rethinking the entire concept of what a pick up should be. And the result is pretty damn impressive.

The platform, which is twice as stiff as before, is completely new, as is the suspension design, steering, transmission and engines; nothing was carried over  precisely because Ford has chosen an entirely new approach to the segment and any old bits they tacked on would be as out of place as a retractable attenae on your iPhone. In fact, only two things are shared with the previous generation. I forget the second one, but one of them is the name.

Ford intends on launching the new Ranger by next month; and while the Philippine press will get their chance behind the wheel of Ford’s new brute ute in next week’s ASEAN Launch in Thailand, The STAR was invited to get a first impression last September during the international launch.

Held in a place where loneliness would go to get away from it all, the Ranger long lead drive in Flinders Ranges, South Australia, was the perfect place to test out both the ruggedness and comfort of this Australian designed and developed global truck from Ford. Known to be one of the most inhospitable places on earth, if this place was any tougher, it would rust. And that is exactly why Ford chose it.

Granted, we arrived at a more temperate time of year, but the landscape only knows one season: scorned. The Ranger made light work of it’s dusty highways and torturous climbs that would chew through a perfectly good suspension for breakfast before snacking on your transmission for lunch, but then again, this is home for the Ranger; it was born here, will probably have its children here, so it was quite comfortable with the accommodations.

There’s a clever balance of mechanical grip and electronic assistance to give the Ranger enough traction to deal with every obstacle we threw at it. Steep ascents were dealt with by simply popping the gear into first, easing off the clutch and then steering your way up with your feet off the pedals the entire time. Same went for descents, which used the advanced Hill Descent Control feature to maintain a safe and controlled pace down without locking up.

Impressive, but this is old news for the Ranger. No offense, but the last one could do what we did, albeit just being a lot more vocal about it. The true test was the on-road performance that Ford claimed to have made leaps and bounds in.

With a tree-stump pulling 470nm of torque, and 197 horsepower to play with, the new Ranger enters the Philippine market as the most powerful pick up in its class  with a 1500kg payload capacity and a 3200kg towing rating. And all of this is put to the ground by either a six speed manual or six speed automatic transmission.

On the smooth asphalt highways that sliced through the heart of the great Australian outback, as well as the winding roads through Adelaide’s famed wine region, the all-new specifically designed 3.2-liter Duratorq turbo diesel practically idled as it cruised on the state speed limit of 110 Km/h.

But it is in the steering and handling that the Ranger pulls a massive gap away from the previous generations of pick ups. The rack and pinion set up is quick, sharp and very talkative in comparison to anything else we’ve tried in this segment before, and the interior comforts are enough to make an SUV blush. We took the top of the line Wildtrak, which will be the closest thing to our locally offered Rangers, and the level of thought put into the design is outstanding, like 20 separate storage nooks and crannys; a lockable glove box that fits a 15-inch laptop, plus clever storage under the rear seats that keep valuables away from prying eyes.

Without taking too much of my colleagues thunder away, considering that you will get another complete review from The STAR in the coming weeks after the ASEAN launch next week, all I can say is that there’s a new Ranger in town, and the competition should be afraid. Very afraid.