Yahoo Autos Tested: 2024 Ford Ranger XLT's Twin-Turbo V-6 Is a Sweet Treat
Every fall, we're reminded to check our Halloween candy for mischief. What are the troublemakers hiding in caramel these days? It's hard to remember. Here's something else that's hiding right beneath our noses. It's Ford's V-6-powered Ranger. The optional powertrain unwraps 315 horsepower, but the sweetest part is that it makes this unassuming mid-size pickup nearly as quick as the high-flying Ranger Raptor.
Ford's twin-turbo 2.7-liter V-6 has been around almost as long as Good & Plenty (okay, give or take 120 years). Introduced for the F-150 in 2014, the turbo-six was a bit of an outlier as it was the only F-150 powerplant that didn't use a block that consisted of all aluminum. Ford has doled out revisions to its V-6 over the years, and the engine is optional in the Bronco and the Ranger, where it's a $2195 upcharge over the standard turbocharged 2.3-liter four.
A Uniquely Positioned Powertrain
The twin-turbo V-6 is also a bit of an anomaly in the mid-size truck segment. Every Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon uses a turbo-four, as does the Toyota Tacoma. The Jeep Gladiator, Nissan Frontier, and Honda Ridgeline use larger V-6s, none of which are turbocharged, nor do they offer as much horsepower or torque as the Ranger. The test results certainly highlight the latter point.
Available only on four-wheel-drive Ranger XLT or Lariat models, the V-6 posted impressive acceleration results. Its 5.6-second launch to 60 mph is 0.6 second quicker than the four-cylinder Lariat we tested and just 0.3 second slower than the 405-hp Raptor that's powered by a slightly larger and much more powerful twin-turbo 3.0-liter V-6. From a 5-mph roll, the V-6's torque advantage of 90 pound-feet over the base 2.3-liter materializes into a 1.4-second lead to 60 mph.
The V-6's passing power is even more impressive—something Ranger drivers are likely to rely on more often than tire-warming launches from a stop. It takes just 3.1 seconds to accelerate from 30 to 50 mph, just 0.1 second slower than the Raptor and 0.6 second quicker than the base engine. From 50 to 70 mph, the V-6 Ranger is even more remarkable: Its 3.8-second time is 0.1-second improvement over the Raptor's and 1.8 seconds quicker than a 326-hp Tacoma Hybrid we tested.
The Ranger is near its speed limiter at the end of the quarter-mile with the acceleration tapering off. The V-6 does it in 14.5 seconds at 94 mph, the four-cylinder did it 14.8 seconds at 93 mph, and the Raptor got there in 14.1 seconds at 97 mph.
Few Downsides
One might expect the high-power engine to pack a major fuel penalty, but the V-6 Ranger's fuel economy isn't much worse than the four-cylinder's. That isn't to say it's very good. On our 200-mile highway fuel-economy test, the Ranger V-6 managed 20 mpg, 3 mpg short of its EPA estimate. And while we haven't performed a highway test on the four-cylinder truck, the difference in their highway fuel-economy EPA estimates is a single mpg. The mid-size segment has but one fuel-friendly choice: the all-wheel-drive Honda Ridgeline, which achieved a fantastic result of 28 mpg on our highway test.
The V-6 is icing on the cake for the new Ranger, which is significantly improved over the one before it. The ride is smooth and without the jostle and bounce of most pickup trucks. The steering is still pretty vague but has a strong return to center. The new Ranger's revised suspension with aluminum front upper and lower control arms and its rear dampers mounted outboard of the leaf springs are meaningful updates that can be felt as quickly as the suspension is put to work.
Every Ranger uses the same four-door crew cab and five-foot box (which actually measures 59.6 inches instead of the previous 61.0). Compared to the four-cylinder Lariat we tested, the V-6 truck (equipped with additional off-road protection via the $1445 FX4 Off-Road package) tipped our scales 164 pounds heavier at 4745 pounds.
Is It Worth the Scratch?
The XLT we drove wore an as-tested price of $47,655 but still kept things pretty basic with a keyed ignition, manually adjustable cloth seats in the same color as a used coffee filter, and manual climate control. We also found it a little funny that the temperature readout lacked any actual numerical values. This left us feeling like we were looking at an electoral map of sorts, guessing as to what might be a comfortable temperature based on how deeply red or blue the thermostat's gradient was.
For just a couple grand or so extra, Ford's V-6 gives the Ranger the type of scoot typically reserved for big performance players like the Raptor. Granted, it's missing the Raptor's plethora of off-road tech, Fox dampers, and 33-inch tires, but the optional powertrain does elevate the standard Ranger without nosing it too close to the Raptor's $57,315 starting price.
We think the V-6 is a meaningful upgrade, and for folks actually using the Ranger's 7500-pound towing capacity or its 1711 pounds of max payload (4WD only), the added juice during passing maneuvers is a sweet treat.
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