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Sadly, Ford has opted to delete some of the more important exterior equipment that greatly enhances practicality such as the drop-on bed liner (the Amber Metallic showed major nicks already) and side step boards. Inside, no major reprogramming was done to uplift the Ranger’s doom-laden interior. Although, there are still some key changes that will certainly not appeal to everyone’s taste. For instance, there’s the addition of generous swathes of metallic-finished plastic that will certainly keep your attention away from the limbo of looking into miles of a dubious material called black plastic. The seats are now wrapped in higher quality fabrics and redesigned to improve touring comfort, but still contain the piping stitching, which is irritating to say the least. Lastly, the instrumentation cluster has been given a sporty rethink with its Volkswagen-style white-on-blue gauges. Sadly, it turns on as ordinary florescent green at night. Standard creature features remain the same: all-power amenities, a stereo with in-dash CD player, rear defogger and instrumentation dimming light control. One neat feature that is truly likeable it the foldable rear bench, which acts as an emergency luggage space in the event of rain—of course, at the expense of carrying three additional passengers. Shouldering on underneath the new hood is the same 2.5-liter turbocharged diesel with a class-leading power rating of 117 bhp and 280 Nm of pulling power. The strength of the engine is very evident with the Ranger’s surprisingly off-the-line performance. It accelerates quite well, being able to do speeds beyond the legal speed limit on the South Expressway, as long as you keep the turbo spinning in its sweet spot. It’s worth nothing though that brute strength is all that this engine’s good for. In terms of refinement, it’s really down there—with tons of mechanical noises that truly betray its diesel origins. Like before, it’s fairly weak with its Noise Vibration Harshness (NVH) level as accelerating on the highway would make even the biggest Metallica fan scream for mercy. This fact could make the Ranger a not so desirable car for that everyday commute to the Makati office. Frugality is not a strong point as well, managing only 9.6 km/L on a combination of city and highway roads with two-wheel drive engaged most of the way. |
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