Review: Ford Ranger Raptor - Living with the Beast

By Lawrence Minnie

We drove the new Ranger Raptor on a cross-country journey to see if this new off-road legend is easy enough to live with, and what makes this beastly 4x4 so alluring.

 

Living with the beast

Much has been said about the new Raptor from Ford SA. There is no doubt by now that the monstrous machine is very capable off-road and has the beastly proportions to match. We wanted to know what the Raptor was like to live with every day and decided to take a small week-long road trip across the country to see if the average run-around was any different.

 

Styling

The Raptor stands by its name, it's aggressive and bulky and has styling cues that make it look dangerous. Wider than standard sheet metal, big wheel arches and huge broad tyres give the Raptor a menacing stance while the grille and bumper elements front and rear set it apart from the rest of the Ranger line-up.

It just looks mean and you will get more than a few raised eyebrows when pulling into a parking lot.

We were actually quite lucky in that our test mule was one of the understated versions without the garish sticker pack running down the side and this actually highlights a small problem with the Raptor branding. 

Somewhere along the line an enterprising aftermarket stylist made up some Raptor stickers and glued them all over a standard Ranger. This has led to a literal army of stock standard Rangers running about with over the top body kits, bumpers and wheel and tyre combos all bearing the Raptor branding that inevitably water down ownership and exclusivity of owning a “real” Raptor.

 

This means that only enthusiasts can actually tell a real one from an aftermarket fake so I rather enjoyed not having the decal pack on mine and yet I was still stopped by 4x4 drivers and asked questions about the vehicle. 

 

The Drive

Our route took us from Johannesburg to Durban via Clarens and the Golden Gate National park, onto the Oribi Gorge, Shelly Beach and plenty of driving in between.

Over 2800km and the Raptor barely caused discomfort. It has an incredibly compliant drive and the NVH levels were almost non-existent.

I was expecting a great deal of road noise from the giant off-road tyres but heard or felt nothing.

It is very comfortable to drive, although manoeuvring its bulk around parking areas can be difficult if you aren’t fully aware of where the corners are.

By now most of you are aware of the specially designed Fox suspension in the Raptor and although I didn’t actually go out and fully test the off-road prowess, I can attest to the fact that it does indeed lead to a superior road driving experience. There is much better suspension damping that leads to better steering control as well as feedback through the steering wheel.

 

Performance

The Raptor is powered by a 2.0 Bi-Turbo diesel engine mated to a 10-speed automatic transmission delivering 157kW and 500Nm. I personally felt that it was rather underpowered in the first three gears, lacking the urgency that you get from many other double cabs. 

An interesting thing is just after completing my week with the Raptor, I drove the all-new Everest with the same setup and none of that was present. I can only attribute the lack of urgency to the wheel and tyre combo messing with the gearing on the Raptor.

The same engine and transmission setup was awesome on the Everest which left me slightly disappointed in the Raptors performance low down, however, once you get past those first few gears the Raptor comes onto song and it is very difficult to keep it under the national limit on the long stretches of freeway without making use of the cruise control.

This leads me to believe that the Raptor is definitely biased towards off-road activities where those first few gears really don’t need to deliver speed but be warned, a standard Ranger double cab is going to leave you in its dust from pull away.

 

 

Space and Comfort

As our road trip crew discovered, the interior of the Raptor is as plush and comfortable as can be. Plenty of leg and headroom and enough space for a few pillows and blankets to boot. The seats are a heated suede leather combo with the requisite Raptor embroidery and are adjustable in multiple directions to attain the perfect driving position.

The interior actually bears a striking resemblance to a sports car, plush leather upholstery and a chunky steering wheel with paddle shifters and a red location line to boot. In short, a very nice place to spend some time.

The fact that Ford has absolutely packed with the Raptor with tech doesn’t hurt either, SYNC 3.3 with Apple Car Play and Android Auto readiness, ambient lighting, auto high beam, adaptive cruise control, keyless entry, push-button start and enough charging sockets and USB outs to power a household of mobile devices. 

 

 

Safety

Along with all that tech, the Raptor is also brimming with safety systems. The interior sees 7 airbags and a tyre pressure monitoring system fitted while behind the scenes you have lane departure warning, pre-collision alert, lane keeping assist, reverse camera with PDC and park assist, heads up display and all the standard systems such as EBD, ABS, TSC, and the likes in operation.

The Ranger is as safe as can be, being one of only a small handful of utility vehicles to score 5 stars in the Euro NCAP crash testing. 

 

Fuel Consumption

On our cross-country jaunt, we averaged 10.5l/100km with an average speed of 127km, this included stop/start traffic, freeway and low speed crawling through nature reserves. We spent just over R3050 in diesel on our adventure which equated to roughly R1000 per tank.

Ford SA claims an average of 8.3l/100km but the 10.5 we got is much closer to reality.

 

Price

All of this comes at a cost though and it’s not exactly cheap.

The Ford Ranger Raptor comes in at R 803 300 for the full house. You get a 4 year / 120 000 warranty and a 6 year / 90 000 service plan.

This puts it squarely in the premium bracket along with the VW Amarok and Mercedes Benz X Class, a tough sell when there are so many Raptor look-alikes out there.
 

Verdict

The Raptor is cool. It is incredibly capable and packed with tech but I can’t help but feel that if you are buying this to be seen or recognised as a Ford groupie you may as well buy a WIldtrak and drive it through your nearest aftermarket parts store and see what sticks and achieve the same thing.

But, if you are buying this to genuinely attack the off-road cross-country scene and don’t mind paying the premium for the pleasure, you can’t go wrong with the Raptor. It really is that good and is worth the extra money and the wait.

Just make sure you get yours without the stickers.