Animal attraction

Ford's new Ranger ute has enough room in the back to swing a cat, Rob Maetzig discovers.

Maybe this shouldn't come as any great surprise, but my pet cat just loves vehicles.

Whenever I turn up in the driveway with the latest test vehicle, he immediately jumps in to check it all out. Quite often we don't spot this happening, and it's only been some time later that we've noticed the little fellow up against a window, wanting to get out again.

The other day I arrived in something a little different – a two-wheel-drive Ford Ranger XLT double-cab ute, complete with a waterproof and lockable hard tonneau over its wellside tray.

And in that tray the ute was carrying several bags of sand. I don't know why the sand was there; I presumed Ford New Zealand had chucked it in the back to give the ute some extra weight in the interests of better ride and handling.

But all of that meant nothing to my cat Louie. All he knew was that there was a great big load space up there in the back of that strange-looking vehicle, and once he got up there he discovered a large number of bags filled with stuff that smelled really interesting.

I had to pop out somewhere, so I closed up the back of the ute, started up, and headed off down the street. It was only after some considerable distance that I noticed the cat's head suddenly pop up in the rear-view mirror as he peered into the cabin area, wondering where on earth he was going.

I suppose I could have left the cat in there and carried on to complete my errand, because when that $2400 optional hard tonneau is in place, the load area is completely sealed off so there was no way he could have escaped.

But I turned around and delivered Louie back home where he could wait until the next vehicle arrived.

And while I suppose $2400 is quite a bit of cash to fork out for weather- and theft-proofing the back of a ute, it does transform the vehicle into something very useable.

In the case of my Ranger, it meant I had room for four or five adults inside the double cab, plus a lockable load area that was almost 1.5 square metres.

Almost enough room to swing a cat, you could say ...

The Ford Ranger has been on the New Zealand market for a couple of years, and this year underwent a facelift. The changes are more cosmetic than anything else – a new front end that includes a different bonnet, headlights and grille, gruntier-looking front fenders, and a different rear tail-light assembly. The XLT also gets new alloys.

Key changes to the interior include the installation of side airbags on the higher specification models including the XLT, changed seat trim fabrics, amber illumination for when driving at night, and an auxiliary input for iPod and MP3 players.

A brand-new "hero" model called Wildtrak has also been added to the range, and I'm scheduled to drive that in a few weeks so will write about it then.

Meanwhile, the 4x2 Ranger my cat was so impressed with looked solid enough, thanks to the bodyshell changes designed to give it a chunkier appearance, and the fact that it offered a "Hi-Rider" stance which meant it improved ground clearance by 26mm to the 207mm also offered by the 4x4 version.

Hi-Rider was introduced by Ford several years ago to give the 2WD ute the ability to better traverse poorly maintained roads. And that underlines something that remains important about this Thai-built Ford – despite some of the changes that have been in the interests of comfort and specification, it is still a workhorse vehicle in the best ute sense of the word.

Underlining that again is the power plant up under that chunkier bonnet.

Two versions of Ford's Duratorq TDCi diesel engine are used by the Ranger, with the majority of the models powered by a 3.0-litre version, leaving just three of the base XL 2WD versions to use a lesser 2.5-litre version.

That 3.0-litre turbo diesel offers good grunt. The maximum power is 115kW which is OK, but more importantly the peak torque is 380Nm from just 1800 rpm – and even at 3000rpm there's still more than 350Nm, which is more than some of the competitor engines offer at peak.

Mind you, when you're driving a 2WD ute and it is empty, all that torque can combine with the characteristics of the ute's live axle rear end to create some interesting situations at takeoff if the acceleration is too hard and the road is wet. That's probably why Ford chucked in all those bags of sand that my cat found so interesting.

But it does mean a certain amount of care needs to be taken with this Ranger when heading off from standstill. But that's a minor downside that is easily overshadowed by the sheer usability the engine offers.

And that, overall, is the beauty of the Ford Ranger XLT: its usability. Prices range from $42,990 for a five-speed manual version to $48,990 for a five-speed auto.

- © Fairfax NZ News