The mid-size pickup segment is back. Here's how the Ranger compares to the Colorado and Tacoma.

Transcript

ALEX KIERSTEIN: I'm Alex Kierstein in the 2019 Ford Ranger. Just wanted to talk about how this truck compares to its main competitor. So I'm going to focus on the Tacoma and the Colorado. The Nissan Frontier is also in there, but it's a little older truck, little smaller.

Compared to the Colorado and the Tacoma, the Ranger is sort of middle of the pack in a lot of respects. It's a little smaller than both of those trucks in terms of exterior dimensions. Even though there is aluminum in the hood and the tailgate and a lot of high strength steel under this truck, it falls somewhere in the middle of the range, which makes sense it's sort of the middle with a range sized mid-sized truck.

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In terms of the major off-road numbers it's also kind of middle of the pack. If you compare it to the stock 4 by 4 versions of the Colorado, not the ZR2, those approach break over departure angles are not great compared to the Ranger. But the Ranger is also not quite as good as the Tacoma in that regard.

Same goes for ground clearance. So it's not that bad of a place to start it off roading is going to be something you want to do with this truck, you're in kind of a good place to build off of. The aftermarket might be able to help you match the ground clearance, the approach to break over departure angles, the capabilities of the more hardcore specialized trucks like the TRD Pro and the Colorado ZR2. But in sock form it's also much better than just a regular Colorado 4 by 4.

And the last thing to consider is the fuel economy. This is a class leading truck in both two and four wheel drive according to EPA numbers. Real world mileage may vary. We know a lot of times these small turbo engines over performing the EPA tests. In the real world, people don't drive as slowly as they do in the test machine. The real world they can suck more gas than equivalent non-turbocharged competitors. So that's just gonna take real world experience to figure out how this truck does. But based on the EPA numbers, it's class leading. Not by much but it is class leading.

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