I have all the secrets on the new Ford Ranger right here in my notebook, but I can’t tell you any of them until next week, and I feel bad about it! You, loyal Autopians, deserve only the freshest, most exclusive content, and yet here I am, with a notebook filled with fresh, hot content, and I’m not feeding you its sweet, sweet nectar. Alas, I have made a blood oath to the off-road gods: All I’m allowed to share at this moment is this short teaser and also fact that the new Ranger is going to show its face on May 10. That’s next Wednesday! Okay, I will tell you one thing: The Ranger Raptor seems pretty legit and ready for some fairly gnarly off-road terrain, but I can’t tell you anything else. That alone might have been enough to send me to off-road purgatory (or worse) so I need to hold my tongue now. Here, check out this teaser.
What a fun 24 hours it has been. Ford flew me from LA to my home town of Detroit for “Ranger School.” No, not army training (Dad, you can put down the bottle of champagne), but rather a briefing on Ford’s newest pickup truck — the upcoming 2024 Ford Ranger (and the off-road beast of the Ranger line, the Ford Ranger Raptor). But before this, I checked into the Detroit airport-hotel Ford had gotten me for the night, and then headed to the curb, where reader Ken graciously picked me up in his 2015 Jeep Wrangler JK on a 3.5-inch AEV lift and 35-inch tires. We were headed for the first Autopian car-meet of 2023 (not counting the tire-fire party I had at my house before I moved):
Incidentally, on our way from the airport to the meetup in Troy, we spotted a Chevy Cavalier with what looked like a miniature fuel door under the left taillight — per the bumper sticker, this thing had been converted to natural gas (CNG)!
We’re now straying quite far from this article’s Ford Ranger-based headline, but to save all of you from spending your Saturday evening down a deep rabbit hole when you should be doing errands or raising children, just watch this video:
Anyway, after cleaning the drool off ourselves (a natural reaction to a dual-fuel Cavalier, right?), Ken and I arrived at our classy car show meetup location: the Walmart parking lot. What we saw was a diverse group of 20-ish cars surrounded 25 to 30 fellow car-cultists:
One gentleman even showed off the suspension he had designed and patented for his Mustang:
The suspension features two coils of widely different spring rates, and a mechanism for locking each spring out, thus drastically changing the ride with a simple twist of a lock-ring (as I understand). The downside is reduced wheel travel, but the inventor still says he finds it to be a great setup:
You can get a better idea of what showed up by reading Autopian reader (and Pontiac Vibe guru) Nick’s post on Opposite-Lock. It was great, and afterwards seven of us went out to dinner together before Keith (the guy sitting to the left of me — an airplane mechanic and a skilled car-wrecher) drove me back to the airport-hotel in his gorgeous Pontiac Fiero.
Listening to that Iron Duke hum after Keith popped his Getrag transmission into fifth gear was a glorious way to end my day:
The next morning, I hopped into a van, and Ford drove me and fellow journalists from the airport to an undisclosed location in the sticks:
We eventually arrived at a cabin on a lake, and were greeted by a big sign that said “Ranger School.” Multiple 2024 Ford Rangers were strewn about the property, hidden by black cloth covers.
The rest of the day involved Ford taking us to Ranger School – sending us to different modules where we learned about the new truck’s design, engineering, and connectivity. And then we saw the new Ranger Raptor. I can’t tell you anything about it, but I am excited for the 10th, and you should be, too.
I am sworn to secrecy on all things Ranger, but Ford has allowed me to share with you this teaser:
Here are some screenshots, which I will not annotate for fear of slipping up:
May 10. Wednesday. Theautopian.com. Prepare your souls.
The only thing I’m even interested in knowing the Ranger is if they’ll get rid of the Texas sized taillights on their Oklahoma-sized truck. The current one loses all of it’s appeal to me purely by that.
But, alas, I won’t pay attention. This Mopar guy will be waiting to hear about the new force for Ram that’s also getting announced on the 10th.
I’m gearing to be disappointed (heard it’s supposed to be a 510hp TRX, which is definitely not what the 1500 needs) though.
What’s the point of your comment?
Is it the size of a late ‘90s F150 yet?
The ’98 Silverado was 77 inches wide, which is just 0.60″ wider than the 2023 Colorado.
This has been out in Australia for some time, I wonder why they bothered to put an embargo out on it.
It’s a whole new Ranger. The Ranger Raptor in australia was the last gen truck
Ah no, The Ranger Raptor in Australia is based on the new Ranger with a twin turbo v6, its been out for a while
It’s out in europe since months ? What’s left of new about it ?
David, don’t ever expect us to hold the press embargoes against you. Come on now.
> a skilled car-wrecher
Revealing typo of the day.
Those transmission struts look like they were inspired by faucet mounting rings.
“All new Ford Ranger!”
Is it really all new though? They didn’t fix the awkwardly raked back windshield that is one of the most obviously awkward parts of the existing pickup, and it pretty much looks like the existing Ranger Raptor.
Actually, it is all new. Mostly. Not that it’s any improvement. It’s still an adequate utility but it’s not really worth the money being asked for something in which you can easily see the penny pinching especially in the lower spec trims.
I just want to know if the damn thing is practical. (The regular versions, not the off road hotness.) That means a six foot bed that you can reach in with your arm and touch the floor with.
You couldn’t even do that with the last one. Which is why our fleet Rangers typically have dropside flat bed bodies on them…
If you want that in a new vehicle, the only option I can think of is a Ford Maverick with the tailgate down.
I did try it with the newer Nissan Frontier and my hand did touch the floor. I don’t have long arms, just average so I was impressed.
The Maverick’s bed is too short for me along with most standard crew cab beds which is why I prefer extended cabs.
I’m also impressed! I would have thought the Frontier falling into the mid-sized category would mean it’s become slightly too big to be ideal, like most other trucks.
If you don’t might me asking, what do you haul that you need the space for?
Of course, any of us could just go to the Ford Australia website and have at it.
However, having seen under the hood of a new Ranger with the 2.0 twin turbo diesel…it looks way too cheap to be that expensive. The plastic inner arches are also the outer panel ‘flares’ for Huey’s sake.
The cars at the meetup interest me more than another new ruck.
While David was doing that I ran into a GM mule near Van Dyke and 696 which was an S10 High Country 2.8 Diesel 4×4 with manufacturer plates.
2 years back I seen the Ranger 2.8 diesel being tested on Telegraph.
THOSE are what we want. Short wheelbase small bed diesel 4×4 available with a manual.
Id take that over a Raptor any day of the week.
That 3.0 sounds pretty gnarly!
I’m going to take this moment to say, if Matt didn’t tell you, I said you are one of the nicest, best, humans this planet has ever produced.
Can’t wait for the Ranger Deets!
(edit: and please do some wrenching soon)