Ford Ranger Raptor long-term test: report 12

The car Ford Ranger Raptor 2.0 EcoBlue 210 4WD auto | Run by Max Edleston, senior photographer

Why it’s here To provide grin-inducing entertainment and practicality in equal measure

Needs to be Unstoppable on-road or off-it, reasonably sensible to run, and practical enough to be used as a working vehicle

Mileage 20,024 List price £57,064 Target Price £57,064 Price as tested £59,824 Test economy 25.6mpg Official economy 25.4mpg

31 October 2024 – Memory lane

Nostalgia can lead to the strangest of places, as I discovered recently. While reminiscing about a holiday cottage my family used to go to over school holidays with my parents, I resolved to get into my Ford Ranger Raptor and go and find it. And while I was there, I aimed to fulfil a childhood dream of driving on the nearby beach.

With our alarms having gone off awfully early, my parents and I loaded into the Raptor with a beach picnic, and bundled my Dad’s freshly serviced bicycle into the load bed. This fitted well with the roller-top closed, once we’d removed its front wheel and weighted it down with a blanket. 

I was grateful for the Raptor’s heated seats and steering wheel as we set off from Cheshire to Black Rock Sands beach in North Wales with the sun just rising in the sky, and for the Raptor’s comfy ride as we plodded along on the motorway. As we got closer to the Welsh border and beyond into the countryside, the roads narrowed from dual to single carriageways, and from there to local roads and, eventually, single-car tracks. 

As a sign we were on the Raptor’s home turf, the number of pick-up trucks we spotted in driveways increased, with plenty of Nissan Navaras, Mitsubishi L200s and regular Ford Rangers in attendance.

From her vantage point on the rear seats, my Mum commented that she had plenty of head and leg room, and that the Raptor’s seats were more comfortable over our long drive than she’d been expecting. 

We rocked up to the holiday cottage where I’d spent many summers, and while Mum went to potter around the place, my Dad and I ventured down the sandy track towards the beach, where signs confirmed vehicles could be driven.

As we inched onto the sand, I switched the Raptor into its sand mode, along with activating four-wheel drive – I’d kept the truck in two-wheel drive mode up until this point in the interests of saving fuel. I quickly took it out of sand mode, though, since I think that’s more suited to the soft, dry sand of desert dunes rather than the wet, compacted sand of a Welsh beach. Still, I completed a childhood dream and happily drove my truck around the beach, where it was every bit as capable as I’d hoped.

While I set up for some photos, my Dad unloaded his bike and cycled along the coast, but we couldn’t stay for long since the water was already beginning its slow march up the beachfront. And having already witnessed my Raptor getting stuck in mud earlier this year – and the faff it took to get it free again – I didn’t fancy staying put for too long.

We re-grouped on the nearby dunes and had a fantastic Autumn picnic, using the rear bed of my Raptor as a makeshift table, before setting off back home. We rolled back along the motorway to Cheshire in comfort, with the Raptor having shown yet again that it can be a car for all seasons. And for a trip down memory lane, I can think of few better companions.

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