Last Updated: 16/06/2008
Wild at heart
I’ll come clean right at the start of this report, when the Ranger Wildtrak arrived at the office in December 2007 for its four month stay, I was already the owner of a Nissan Navara Aventura. As the top model in Ford’s pick-up range, there were inevitably going to be some comparisons made between the two over the coming months.To make matters worse, I had already tried the automatic Ranger Thunder and come away unimpressed. The Wildtrak therefore had something of a hill to climb.
Our Ranger was literally straight out of the box, with less than 200 miles on the clock. But it didn’t take long to discover that the 3.0 litre TDCi engine was more than up for a bit of hard work. It puts out a lusty 156hp and 380Nm of torque, in both cases less than Nissan’s finest, which has itself now been eclipsed by the Toyota Hilux special that’s about to hit our roads with almost 200hp under the bonnet.
However, the Ranger tips the scales a full 221kg lighter than the big Nissan, which on the road makes the Ford feel the more sprightly. And even with just five gears in the manual box, this lighter weight also pays dividends at the fuel pump. Or at least it does when you are on a run, around town things become a bit more expensive.
We managed a best of 32.5mpg on a long distance run in the Ranger, well above Ford’s predicted average of 30.7mpg, though slightly below the promised extra urban figure of 35.3mpg. That fuel consumption is very much speed dependent however. Stay within the motorway limit and you can really stretch a tank of diesel. Put your foot down a bit further however and the laws of physics take over, with the bluff front end providing a barrier of wind for the engine to overcome.
In constant urban driving things are considerably worse, with the Ford rarely bettering low 20s, which is an expensive way to commute. That said, few 4x4 pick-ups do well in constant stop/start motoring.
Used as a daily driver the Ranger is a comfortable companion, and we covered almost 6,000 miles in our four months with the vehicle. There is plenty of room in the front and in the rear seats, and it is perfectly reasonable to carry five for longer journeys, though the ride is understandably bouncy, particularly in the rear.
The handling is good and the big Ford can be hustled along country roads at a fair pace. Indeed if you are in a hurry the Wildtrak can make remarkable progress for such a big vehicle, and it has surprised a few hot hatch drivers over the last four months.
As the top model in the Ranger line-up, the Wildtrak has had a good rifle through the parts bin and the options list. Leather and alcantara seats, manual air conditioning, a 6 CD stereo and a host of styling extras make a good stab at luxury. However, when compared with some others on the market there is no sat-nav or Bluetooth phone connection, things I certainly make regular use of.
That meant having multiple electrical gadgets wired into the dash, fortunately the Ranger has two 12V sockets, but it left wires trailing around the cab. Also missing from the Wildtrak, and surprising given that the mirrors are electrically adjustable, were heating elements in the mirrors, which meant that early in the morning you couldn’t see anything in the mirrors without cleaning them first. More importantly, in heavy rain it was impossible to keep the mirrors clear. Personally I think that heated mirrors are an essential for any commercial vehicle.
Fortunately there was a deep two-stage central bin to keep all the gadgets in while parked. There was also a good sized glove box and a rather odd, and very thin, paperwork storage tray in the dash.
At the working end of the vehicle things also looked pretty stylish, with an Armadillo roller shutter as standard on the Wildtrak and what Ford calls a sports bar across the back window. All of which is well and good, until you want to actually use the pick-up bed.
I realise that the Wildtrak is very much a lifestyle vehicle, but even lifestyle activities require a useable cargo area. The bad news is that the roller shutter prevents you using the last foot of the bed and the sports bar means there are no tie-down points at the front of the bed. Certainly there are side rails, but these are painted and you can’t get a ratchet strap hook under them.
For trips to the tip the Ranger worked fine, but to carry a trials bike, a lifestyle activity if ever there was one, I had to have the tailgate down and the bike diagonally in the bed to get it on board. And with the tailgate lowered, when you put it in reverse the parking sensors go mad and beep continuously.
The verdict
Don’t get me wrong, I like the Wildtrak and was sad to see it go, but the compromises, both in the rear and in the cab did grate just a little. I think that the problem is that I have come to expect extremely high standards from a Ford. The Transit, and for that matter the Transit Connect, are so well thought out, both in the cab and the load area, that you know the engineers have spent time working with the vehicle.
With the Ranger of course, Ford’s engineers have had to use a Mazda pick-up as the starting point. Though the Wildtrak is a perfectly competent truck, you just get the feeling that a ‘real’ Ford would have been that bit better.
So to the big question, given the choice again, would I still buy the Navara over the Ranger? At £21,622 including £750 for the roller top, the Ford is certainly less expensive, and in truth you can find them in dealers for considerably less than that.
But I do use the extras, such as climate control, sat-nav and Bluetooth, that are standard on the Nissan, all the time and did miss them on the Wildtrak. If it was my money I would probably still pay the extra and go with the Navara.
However, if it was company money being spent, and particularly if you were buying a number of trucks, I wouldn’t blame anyone for opting for the Wildtrak. The only thing that I would say is be sure of what you want to carry in the back and on the seats. If you need a hard working truck, the more practical Ranger XLT, which is considerably less expensive but still has plenty of toys, might well be a better buy.
