Words & Pictures by: David Lee

Ford’s tag line “Make Every Day Exciting” certainly comes true with their newly launched Ford Ranger TDCi with commonrail turbo diesel engine.

We had the opportunity to test the newest Ford Ranger auto for a week recently.  It was a nicely put together truck.  The interior of the truck is nothing fancy, pretty standard, but with some nice touches like cup / bottle holders all round; extra cigarette lighter / charger outlets; large centre console box to store ones CDs that one may wanna listening to on the standard stereo with CD player in the truck whilst one cruises around.  Other nice interior touches are the leather wrap steering wheel, the instrument panel and the rounded air-condition vent gives the interior of this truck a nice classy and sporty touch.

The sporty touches doesn’t end with the interior.  The Ranger TDCi has a kick ass new engine which can churn out the power to continue to live up to the sporty image.  The new Commonrail  Diesel Engine is mated to a 32-bit microcomputer fuel management system that can push out 141 bhp and 330Nm at 1800rpm of torque.  This is an increase of 22% of power and 28% of torque over the previous model.  This was definitely evident when we manage to spin the wheel of the auto truck when we picked it up from Ford Malaysia.  The new Variable Geometry Turbo also gave this truck much smoother acceleration without the turbo lag.  It really is a sporty truck.

Suspension wise gave this beautiful truck a firmer and more comfortable ride and handling.  It didn’t feel like one was taking a boat ride on choppy seas.

Transmission wise, the Ranger TDCi that we test drove came with a 5 speed auto that is able to switch from 2WD to 4WD with a flick of a switch, while the truck is still on the move.  This is possible through the unique Borg Warner transfer case and shift-on-the-fly technology.  As for the manual version, transfer from 2WD to 4WD is still done the traditional way.

Other additional features of this truck are, 2 stage driver and passenger airbags; 4-wheel ABS with electronic brake force distribution (EBD); and load sensing proportioning brake valve (LSBV) that controls rear breaking pressure.

Overall the new Ford Ranger is a nice truck which we enjoyed having for a week.  The improved interior, the more powerful engine, better safety features, and a beefier exterior looking truck makes it worthwhile to own.  It certainly lives up to the Ford tag line, it was exciting and a blast to drive in the concrete jungle.

Thank you Ford Malaysia.  We hope that we will be able to test the Ford Build Toughness of the truck in other jungle.