This owner review of a new 2021 Ford Ranger comes to us from a TFLtruck viewer – Andre Ozvath. He traded an older Ford Focus for a brand new Ranger. Here are his thoughts about the good and the bad about purchasing a new Ranger.
“I wanted to share my brand new truck with you. It’s a Cactus Grey 2021 Ford Ranger (Sport) 4×4 w/ a rear locker. I’ve been dreaming about a new truck for a few years now and I finally pulled the trigger. When searching for a vehicle I knew I wanted a truck but didn’t know what kind (Full size vs. Midsize). I don’t tow often and wanted something that could take me off-road and through some relatively narrow trails. I love the Tacomas, but I also love the new Rangers. It was a very hard decision.
After living with the Ranger for about a month and putting around 500 miles on the truck. I can say that the engine is amazing, I love the turbo, and the thing just goes without hardly any driver effort. I should probably mention that I’m coming from a 5-speed Ford Focus, so obviously it doesn’t take much to wow me in the realm of horsepower.
I should note the items I don’t like much about the truck. Here are some things to consider about the Ranger.
– Stock (non FX4) suspension: it’s pretty bad. It feels like driving on bricks. I always planned on swapping the suspension out so that’s not a huge deal to me. I plan on the Fox 2.0s. Has anyone had any experience with this system on their truck?
– Small gas tank: the 18-gallon fuel tank is pretty depressing. I’m not aware of any larger aftermarket fuel cells available here in the US. If anyone knows, please let me know!
– The 9-speed transmission? I know it’s a 10-speed, but I swear I’ve never seen the truck shift into 2nd gear. On starts and stops, from the gear indicator on the dash, it always goes from 1st to 3rd or 3rd to 1st. Have any other Ranger owners noticed this? The only reason I noticed is that occasionally on starts I can feel a slight vibration in the gas pedal, a similar feeling to the engine bogging down from being in too high of a gear. Overall the transmission seems like it’s slightly lazy on downshifting when going below 20 mph aka stays in too high of a gear and bogs down unless you put your foot into it. I’ve found shifting the truck into Sport Mode when driving at low speeds actually makes the transmission shift more favorably. Probably because the transmission is less worried about shifting into the highest possible gear to increase MPG.
Overall, I love the truck at a sub $40K price. It’s not perfect, but nothing is. Anyways, thanks for the great content TFL! I love all your channels! Thanks to everyone for any assistance in the comments, stay safe out there!”
Andrew, I can tell you that the different driving modes do greatly affect the 10-speed shifting schedule and pattern. Yes, switching into Sport mode should make the transmission and the truck feel more immediate. Here is our video with a new Ford Ranger with customized tuning by 5 Star Tuning.
