Road test: Ford’s power Ranger

PACK away your salopettes and sweep the last of April’s snow from Soutra’s summit, because summer is here and it’s time to hit the beach. And when we say “hit the beach”, we don’t mean “trawl the prom looking for the last parking space, stick five quid in the meter and haul half a hundredweight of seaside essentials half a mile across the dunes”. That’s for losers. We mean “plough right down to the water’s edge and jump out”.

PACK away your salopettes and sweep the last of April’s snow from Soutra’s summit, because summer is here and it’s time to hit the beach. And when we say “hit the beach”, we don’t mean “trawl the prom looking for the last parking space, stick five quid in the meter and haul half a hundredweight of seaside essentials half a mile across the dunes”. That’s for losers. We mean “plough right down to the water’s edge and jump out”.

For this recipe, you will need four driven wheels with which to tackle soft sand, a generous helping of oomph to outmanoeuvre an inrushing tide, and lashings of lovely luggage space for buckets, spades, surfboards and a barbecue.

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What you’ll end up with is the Ranger, Ford’s representative in the pantheon of hard-grafting pick-ups which double up as family cars, where it sits alongside the Toyota Hi-Lux, VW Amarok and various Mitsubishi L200s with go-get-’em names such as “Barbarian”, “Warrior” and “Animal”, but not “Tax-Friendly Commercial Vehicle With Seats For The Wife And Kids”, which is odd, since that’s why so many of them have come to be sold to the VAT-reclaiming ranks of the self-employed. But enough of this Inland Revenue chat!

It’s sunny and the great outdoors beckons. The Ranger is built in South Africa to a blueprint drawn up by an American designer who lives in Australia, so it’s safe to say it has the great outdoors in its DNA. From Monday to Friday, you’ll find it hauling hay bales across the fields, or transporting bags of cement from the builders’ merchant to the construction site. Scrubbed up for the weekend, though, and the Ranger is ready to play.

So, before lesser mortals have finished rooting around in the boot for their picnic rugs and arguing about whose job it was to pack the factor 50 and fill the flask with tea, this burnt-orange bruiser (other colours are available) will have delivered you and four mates to the coast, where you can set about assembling the beach-front villa you carried flat-pack in the back.

Best of all, because it’s a big, brash pick-up, it doesn’t mind getting its feet wet, muddy, sandy or a combination of all three. Plus, when you romp across the beach in your Ranger, everyone will think you’ve arrived straight from the set of Baywatch, so here’s hoping you still fit into that skimpy red swimsuit.

All Rangers come with “rugged” fitted as standard, but this is a top-of-the-range Wildtrak edition, so it gets a few extra luxuries. Leather seats are a nice touch, although they get a bit hot in direct sunlight, so be careful where you park your bikini-clad behind when you get back in. Sat-nav will guide you to the nearest hospital burns unit while the air conditioning soothes your fevered brow.

Despite its hillbilly origins, the Ranger Wildtrak isn’t some slack-jawed hick. In fact, it’s quite advanced. Bluetooth and iPod compatibility means the stereo is capable of playing more than banjo music. A reversing camera which shows what it sees on a nifty little screen built into the rear-view mirror make manoeuvring the Ranger into a tight spot very easy indeed.

They can’t do much about its massive 17-and-a-half foot length, though, so you’ll still see its big orange butt poking beyond the space outside the surf shop, no matter how neatly you park it.

One area where the Ranger scores over its rivals is under the bonnet. In higher-spec models, the engine is a 3.2-litre turbodiesel with five cylinders instead of everyone else’s four. Not only does its 198bhp trounce lesser pick-ups, but it also makes a distinctive, off-beat thrummy sound as you romp around the countryside looking for things to fill the load bay with.

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It’s still a bit gruff under acceleration, but settles down to a background murmur once you wind it up to motorway cruising speed. The downside of all this cubic capacity and power is the middling fuel economy – despite some slippery styling at the front, Ford can only promise you 28-and-a-bit miles in exchange for every gallon of diesel drunk. Even then, we think they’re being a bit optimistic, so reward yourself with an extra sausage from the barbecue if you can squeeze more than 25 out of it.

Big springs and balloon tyres make a decent job of smoothing out the Ranger’s rudimentary ride. There’s not much weight over the back wheels though, so speed bumps are tackled with all the finesse of a badly landed 747. As long as you remember you’re not in a Ferrari, you won’t have much cause to complain about the handling, although I confess to not being brave enough to see how far that light back end could be pushed before stepping out of line in the rain.

The six-speed gear-change feels a bit rubbery at first, but if I can get used to it, anyone can. Or opt for the beach-bum-friendly automatic if moving a lever to change gear is, like, too much effort, dude.

VITAL STATS

CAR: Ford Ranger Double Cab Wildtrak 3.2 TDCi

PRICE: From £24,040 (£24,520 as tested)

PERFORMANCE: Max speed 109mph, 0-60mph 10.3 secs

MPG: 28.3 combined

CO2 EMISSIONS: 249g/km

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