Ford’s only global pickup truck: The Ranger
It’s most important competition may be Ford’s own Maverick hybrid
Ford offers the broadest range of pickup trucks sold in the US market:
Ford F-450 and larger
Ford F-250 and F-350
Ford F-150 (SUV equivalent being The Expedition)
Ford Ranger (SUV equivalent being The Bronco)
Ford Maverick (the sole unibody)
Out of these five Ford lines of pickup truck business in the US market, only one of them is a true “global” product, that’s sold globally and also manufactured outside North America as well. That’s the Ranger.
For those of you who travel around the world, you don’t see the US best-seller, the Ford F-150 almost anywhere overseas. For some reason, you see a few of them in Sweden, but not anywhere else in Europe until you hit Istanbul, and then just barely there. The F-150 is 99.999% less frequent overseas than in the US.
However, you do see the Ranger in many countries around the world. Unlike market leader Toyota, which sells its similarly sized pickup truck under two distinct nameplates -- Tacoma and Hilux -- Ford has one unified product in this segment, and that’s the Ranger. It received a significant redesign in early 2024, and it now looks noticeably better than it did before all-around.
Size inflation
Today’s Ford Ranger makes the Ford Ranger we remember from even 1989 -- a mere 35 years ago -- seem like a toy. It’s almost like the 2024 Ford Ranger is the size of an F-150 from the 1980s. Such it goes. Today’s F-150 is a much larger beast.
In turn, the Maverick has taken the role that the Ranger held 35 years ago. More about that later.
It’s all about the relative fit
Half the trick of understanding the Ranger is trying to justify its position between the F-150 and the Maverick. This is not an easy task, so bear with me.
From a size perspective, at least when it comes to the interior of the cab -- room for five people -- and the bed, the Ranger is a lot closer to the smaller Maverick than it is to the larger F-150. Stepping into the F-150 feels like you're walking into a house. The F-150 is so wide that the person sitting on the other side may as well be in a different zip code. One is almost looking for the intercom system.
The Ranger doesn’t feel anywhere near that large. Rather, its interior feels roughly like the Maverick, size-wise.
When you can no longer fit an F-150 in the garage
The F-150 has grown so large that it has outgrown many garages. While some of the newly constructed garages have grown in size, legacy garages haven’t grown and will obviously remain unchanged for decades or even centuries to come. No matter how good an idea it may be to create a larger F-150, there is a hard limit to what a regular legacy home garage can fit. And this limit has already made the F-150 too big for some people.
The F-150 is a superior vehicle to the Ranger in every way, not just in terms of the obvious advantages that size brings to the interior or the bed. It also happens to have better seats and is available with more engines and configurations, such as the bed length. Therefore, if you can fit an F-150 in your garage and you don’t have a problem parking it elsewhere, the F-150 is likely a better purchase for you than a Ranger.
The more honest comparison: Maverick
I just explained the only reason you would pick a Ranger over an F-150: Parking fit. In contrast, the choice between the Ranger and the Maverick is more complex. For most people, size is not going to determine the difference between these two: The length and width are close enough. It has to be something else.
The interior of the cab doesn’t feel all that different between the Ranger and the Maverick. They’re more similar in size than not. However, the Ranger is a much taller vehicle. In the Maverick, the hip height is much lower, as it is based on the Escape and Bronco Sport. The hip height is such that you sit down, not even “even.”
In the Ranger, depending on how tall you are, you may still be climbing “up” into the cab. This is a huge difference vis-a-vis the Maverick. In and of itself, that distinction is neither good nor bad, but you should at least be aware of it, because the difference is stark.
Driving a Ranger vs Maverick
The difference between driving the Ranger vs the Maverick is also like night and day. The Ranger drives more like a truck than even the F-150. The best I can describe it is that it is bouncy, and more so than the F-150.
In contrast, the Maverick drives like a modern unibody crossover, aka “the modern car.” There is nothing bouncy or “trucky” about it. I cannot emphasize enough how stark this difference is. You also feel it in the steering, which is more precise and easier to control in the Maverick.
Engine and fuel economy
You can’t get the Ranger as a hybrid. As a result, its wonderfully powerful engine drinks plenty of fuel. I averaged a mere 20 MPG in my week or gentle suburban driving in near-ideal conditions. That’s not bad for a legacy truck, but it is also a world of difference when compared with Ford’s own Maverick.
You see, the Maverick is available with a hybrid powertrain where I have been yielding a whopping 40 MPG in real-world driving. It is effortless and painless. The downside through the 2024 model year was the hybrid Maverick was available in front-wheel-drive. For the 2025 model year, available near the end of 2024, the Maverick will finally become available with all-wheel drive as well, long overdue:
Eventually, the Ranger will also get a hybrid powertrain, but there are no signs that it is imminent. That means the Maverick holds this significant advantage for now.
Cockpit electronics: Ford hits another perfection
The 2024 Ranger has Ford’s newest version of the portrait infotainment screen, which also includes climate controls. This is the first such large screen with climate controls that I finally can accept as being as good as physical knobs and switches. Everyone else in the industry should use Ford as the reference standard in terms of the user interface.
Why would you buy a Ranger over a Maverick?
I have given you several compelling reasons why the Maverick is a better truck than the Ranger, especially in terms of steering, handling, suspension and fuel economy. So why would you still buy a Ranger, despite these downsides?
The Ranger has a slightly bigger bed.
The Ranger may have a higher payload.
The Ranger can tow more.
The Ranger may have better off-road capabilities.
You prefer to sit higher up.
You prefer that bouncy/crude “truck” driving feeling (I don’t).
In almost all countries outside North America, you simply don’t have a choice: The Ranger is the only pickup truck Ford offers. You can’t go bigger with an F-150, and there is no lower and more carlike Maverick. The Ranger is Ford’s global pickup truck product. Fortunately, it’s a good one, especially with its superior cockpit electronics and overall competitive metrics on most counts. Now, if we could only get that hybrid soon.
Here is a video comparison between two particular versions of the Ranger and Maverick -- not the ideal versions to be compared, in my opinion, but nevertheless one that contains much important information to consider: