Absent from the US market since 2011, Ford's mid-size pickup has been hugely popular as a twin-cab utility pickup elsewhere in the world. Now the Ranger's back on home turf, and we had a chance to get up close and personal at the International off-road and UTV expo in Scottsdale.
US customers will get any engine they like, as long as it's a 2.3-liter, 4-cylinder EcoBoost gasoline engine with a 10-speed auto transmission. That's good for 270 horsepower and 310 lb-ft (420 Nm) of torque, and our man on the ground at the expo, found it surprisingly peppy and fast in a quick on-road test loop, with a very quiet cabin, an extremely impressive turning circle and perhaps a little too much jerk in the transmission when sinking the boot into it in Sport mode.

Ford representatives demonstrated the Ranger's Trail Control – a controlled crawl mode best described as cruise control for very rough terrain. This lets you set a defined speed in increments of half a mile per hour, and the car will maintain that speed, whether uphill, downhill or on rocky flat ground, while you concentrate on the steering.
The Ranger can be specified as a twin-cab, or the rear seats can be deleted to significantly extend the rear bed in a SuperCab option. There are three trim levels – XL, XLT and Lariat. All three get auto emergency braking, but you'll need to spring for the XLT to unlock lane-keeping assist, reverse sensing and blind spot warnings with trailer coverage. Stepping up to the Lariat gets you adaptive cruise control and a larger 8-inch color touch screen for the SYNC 3 voice-controlled multimedia system.

The appearance can be up-specced with Chrome or Sport packages, and there's a further FX4 package for serious off-roaders that want suspension tuned for off-roading, as well as all-terrain tires, steel bash plates, a rear locking differential and the above Trail Control modes.
Plenty of photos in the gallery.
Source: Ford
Please keep comments to less than 150 words. No abusive material or spam will be published.
It's an EV world now, old men. Millions of us are waiting for the Tesla or Rivian truck.