(upbeat rock music)
- The 2019 Ford Ranger is the Toy Story 4 of trucks.
I know it's a stretch, but bear with me.
Up until 2018, there have been three generations
of Ford Ranger manufactured here in the U.S. of A.
In that same period of time,
Pixar has released three heartwarming,
make-you-feel-fuzzy-inside, great friendship,
Toy Story films.
Coincidence?
I don't think so.
We're going Bumper2Bumper on the 2019 Ford Ranger.
My favorite vehicle of the year, so far and...
The Toy Story 4 of trucks.
- [Woody Toy] There's a snake in my boot.
Ugh! (upbeat rock music)
The Ranger has come a long way
since its birth in America in 1983.
Twelve years before Post Malone was born.
The final Ford Ranger produced in North America
rolled off the twin cities' assembly line
on December 22, 2011.
To learn more about that story, check out this episode
of Up to Speed, but keep watching this video.
Fast forward eight years and bam!
Emeril Lagasse.
Ford has brought the Ranger back to America
and produced this beaut.
Now, Ford has kept true to what made the Ranger
such an appealing truck in its heyday.
It's reliable, like Woody from Toy Story 4.
It's tough, like Buzz from Toy Story 4.
It's hardworking, like Sarge.
But it also has some new features that are sure to leave
a pretty little smile on your face.
I wanna remind you guys that neither Ford or Pixar
are paying us to make this video.
I'm just a fan of the Toy Story franchise
and the Ford Ranger pickup truck.
The backbone of every good truck is the chassis.
That's why the smarty pants engineers over at Ford
decided to ditch the third-gen chassis architecture
and created an all-new, fully-boxed, six-cross member,
high-strength steel frame.
If the chassis were a character from the upcoming Pixar film
Toy Story 4, it'd be Buzz.
He's tough, he's sturdy, he's also a Space Ranger.
Hm?
(high energy electronic music)
The front fascia and bumper were also redesigned,
replacing the integrated plastic bumper with a steel bumper
mounted separately from the bodywork.
This Ranger is equipped with Ford's top-of-the-line
off-road package, the FX4.
It gets 16-gauge high-strength steel bash plate,
meant for bashing.
And front tow hooks to pull your dumb buddies out
when they get stuck trying to impress the lady folk.
It's got three frame-mounted skid plates
that cover the fuel tank, the transfer case,
the front differential to prevent damage
from rocks and de-briss.
Or when you're riding over Priuses in the city.
JK, most of the race car drivers I know drive Priuses.
The new Ranger comes in three different trim levels.
The XL, the XLT, and like this one, the Lariat.
And for some reason, unbeknownst to moi,
there will not be a Splash Edition.
Why?
Max!
Play that Splash com-mersh.
Check out that font on the bed,
you know he knows how to party.
Surf party, God!
Yes!
It also comes in two different cab types:
an extended super cab or a crew cab.
You want a single cab?
Too bad, go overseas.
This truck here is a Lariat super cab painted up
in the hot pepper red.
It's not just a red pepper, okay?
Don't get it twisted, it's a hot red pepper.
And if the color of this truck were a Toy Story character,
I know you're wondering, it would be Jesse.
She's got a fiery spirit and red hair to match, boy.
She's cool!
We dated.
Like, all through eighth grade.
Now to all my foreign friends watching, what's up?
Thanks.
This version of the Ranger might be pretty familiar to you.
I'll refer to it as the Foreign Lone Ranger,
A.K.A Zorro, which has been sold in Australia, South Africa,
South America, Asia, Europe, and pretty much everywhere else
in the freaking planet except in America.
It's Ford, since 2012.
They did a minor mid-cycle facelift in 2015
20 years after Post Malone was born.
But it has remained fairly unchanged
since the major revamp seven years ago.
It's new to us, old to you.
But whatever, we can be excited.
Don't be a Ranger Dick, guys.
Be a Ranger Rick.
(funky music)
The Ranger comes in two different bed length options.
A five-footer for the crew cab,
or the James Pumphrey option six-footer in the extended cab.
However, neither bed has the option
for old school flare sides.
Flare sides are freaking cool, dude.
Ford told us the number one question people ask
when buying a new truck is:
can you lay a tarp down in the back and fill her with water
to make a truck bed hot tub?
Well, you could if you wanted 'cause this 4x4 super cab
configuration can carry up to 1650 big ole LBs in the back.
That's eight Nolans or 10 mes.
I'm stealth, remember?
All right, cool, but what if you want to throw
an actual hot tub on a trailer and pull that behind you,
you think the Ranger can do that?
Rhetorical question, yes it can.
All 2019 Ranger models have a best-in-class
7500-pound towing capacity.
That's 37.5 Nolans or 45.5 repeated mes.
Do the math, I'm 164 pounds!
Now, you may be wondering why this particular Ranger
has a big ole box on top of it.
Well...
(snaps fingers) It's a tent.
Ford recently announced a partnership with Yakima
to offer gear specifically for the Ranger,
like this SkyRise rooftop tent
sitting on their OutPost HD truck rack.
- Welcome to my crib, thanks for coming by.
(upbeat rock music)
This is a tent on top of a 2019 Ford Ranger.
You know?
Nothing special, but I've got the vaulted ceilings.
Got some skylights.
Got plenty of storage space right here.
Got my roommate over there, he's just chilling out.
And of course, where all the magic happens.
All right, you've seen my crib.
You've seen my car.
Now, get the heck out.
(chill music)
- Supporting all that weight is accomplished
by single parabolic Hodgkin's type
non-independent leaf springs.
You don't know what those are?
Well, I'm gonna tell ya.
A parabolic spring is basically a leaf, or set of leaves,
which are tapered in a parabolic way rather than a linear.
This allows the truck to carry more weight in the bed,
an astonishing amount for a truck of this size,
and it also helps to make the ride more stable.
Now, the bed of the truck is Hamm, obviously.
He's hefty, but plush,
much like the rear suspension of the Ranger.
I'm doing it.
Now that we've talked about the rear suspension,
let's go see what this truck's got on up front.
(explosives firing)
The front suspension is a double Wishbone Ranch
independent design with nitrogen-filled shocks.
100% nitrogen!
Sorry, Oxygen.
Sorry, Argon.
Sorry minute concentrations of noble gasses in the air.
You don't come inside the shock club!
Sorry, bro, you're too young.
This truck has the 18-inch wheel option
and, boy, they are chrome-y.
Not my personal preference
but this thing basically has all of the options
so I'm sure that they just checked every box.
Those are mounted on 265/60 18 Hankook Dynapro ATMs,
leaving you rolling with 8.9 inches of ground clearance.
Is 8.9 inches a lot of ground clearance?
Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo.
Well, the only other truck in the midsize market
that beats that is the Takoma with 9.4 inches of clearance.
But, I mean, come on, half an inch isn't that much, right?
Right?
Pop open the all-aluminum hood in this Ranger-danger
and you get a 2.3-liter EcoBoost
producing 270 Bullseye hers-pers
in a best-in-class 310-pound-feet of torque
gettin' you down the road from zero to 60 in 6.9 seconds.
That's a fast horse.
This is the same motor that's in the Explorer,
the Focus, and the 'Stang.
It's a 16 valve, inline 4 with dual overhead cans,
and a twin scroll turbocharger.
Letting you scroll twice as fast.
The twin scroll design allows for quicker boost response
and improved turbine efficiency.
It's the most fuel-efficient truck in its class
with an EP estimated 21 McGeezies in the street,
and 26 MPGeezies on the highway
for a combined total 23 MPJeezies.
Looking for a different power option
in your new American-made Ranger?
Well, I'm sorry, my fellow U.S. of Aers, we don't get one.
While the foreign Ranger gets it's choice of diesel options,
we here in the States don't get to choose
what goes under our hood.
It's like a claw machine and the only thing that's inside
are identical little green aliens.
That's your engine option right there.
You only get one.
There's no bonus Woody or Buzz.
I'm committed, I'm doing it.
Sue me.
Actually don't sue me if you're Pixar.
Please. (upbeat music)
Okay, so we only get one engine to choose from,
but what about the tranny?
How 'bout like a five or six-speed manual in here,
then we can call it even steven.
No hard feelings.
Sorry, fellow Americanos, you only get one option
and, no, it's not a manual.
But that's not really a surprise.
Lets not get too teary eyed, though.
The Ranger comes equipped with Ford's 10R80 transmission.
A longitudinal 10-speed that was jointly developed
by Ford and GM.
Weird!
The 10-speed creates a lot less fall off in engine speed
between gears and allows for a continuous,
butter smooth pulling power, baby.
The Little Bo Peep of the Ranger is the interior.
She's ditched the pink polka dots
and now has an all-new look.
Did you see her in the trailer?
She's not (bleep) around.
She's hot now.
Like the exterior of the truck,
the interior has changed quite a bit
since we last saw the Ranger here in the States,
with various options depending on trim level.
And probably the most underrated feature in the cab
that I have yet to mention...
(handbrake cranks)
It's got a real handbrake.
The electric thing makes it a parking brake,
not an emergency brake.
(handbrake cranks)
For all you off-road junkies,
the Ranger has a terrain management system
with four selectable driving modes.
Ooh, that's a lot of modes, dude.
Each mode alters transmission gearing,
throttle response, and steering control depending on the,
you guessed it, the terrain.
There's also a trail control function.
Think of it as off-road cruise control.
Set a speed and the Ranger will maintain it on the trail
auto-magically, sending power to each of the four wheels
independently to maintain momentum.
That way, you can sit back, relax, and hang your feet
out the window, true Florida-people style.
The back is big enough for one large adult son.
Once you squeeze him back there
there's two USB charging points
and a 400-watt power inverter
that'll run your Margaritaville machine.
Those power outlets come in handy because, you know,
boys like Nolan just love their devices.
I tried to limit his screen time,
but sometimes I'm just like,
do whatever as long as it keeps you occupied.
Parents know what I'm talking about.
- Are we there yet?
(tires screeching)
- I will cancel this father/son trip, dare me!
- I'm sorry.
- I'm sorry, too, young boy, I love you.
- I love you, too.
- Are you watching Daddy's show?
- Mm-hmm.
(laughing) - Creepy.
They kept what worked and added new stuff
to make it even better.
So that's why as a total package the Ford Ranger as a whole
is most like
Slinky Dog.
He's man's best friend.
He goes away, and then he comes back.
Kind of like how the Ranger went away.
And then it came back.
He's not super flashy, but that doesn't matter,
because everyone knows him and everyone loves him.
And to put the cherry on top,
Slinky Dog is voiced by Jim Varney, who played Ernest
in Ernest Saves Christmas,
and in that movie he drove a 1972 Ford F100 Ranger.
All right, guys,
we obviously went out on a limb with this one.
Kind of a different approach to a car review.
Tell us what you think down in the comments.
Are you excited for the new Toy Story movie?
'Cause I freaking am!
Every Tuesday we're gonna be doing this until the day I die.
Keep watching my Thursday show, Up to Speed, every Thursday.
Watch Nolan's show Wheelhouse on Mondays.
Follow me on Instagram, @JamesPumphrey.
Follow Donut on Instagram, @DonutMedia.
Small disclaimer, in Ernest he drove an F100,
we think it was a de-badged Ranger.
We're 99% sure.
Again, let us know in the comments what you think.