Ford Ranger 2022 review: Raptor X towing test

It’s hard to argue the Ford Ranger Raptor X is good value.

It is the most expensive version of the PX-series Ranger line-up, listing at $79,390 plus on-road costs (MSRP). Yep. You’re looking well north of eighty grand on the road.

And you don’t even get all the good equipment available on some of the other Ranger models – missing from the Raptor X is adaptive cruise control and front parking sensors, which you get on Rangers costing $20,000 less.

However, the standard equipment on the Raptor X includes a wider body to house the distinct Fox Shocks dampers front and rear (with coil springs front and rear, too), as well as black 17-inch alloy wheels with 33-inch BF Goodrich KO2 Baja Champion all-terrain tyres (265/70/17), off road side steps, the F-O-R-D grille, as well as revised interior trim with red stitching to match up with the exterior sticker pack.

You also get an extended black sports bar, LED headlights, LED daytime running lights, a tow bar, a reversing camera, rear parking sensors, an 8.0-inch touchscreen media system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, sat nav, Bluetooth phone and audio streaming, keyless entry and push-button start, auto high beam lights and an extensive array of safety features – more on that in the safety section.

Ford Ranger colours on other grades? Plentiful. On Raptor X? Only four to choose from: Arctic White, which is free, or the optional ($650) Conquer Grey, Shadow Black or Ford Performance Blue you see here. 

A little bit of historical context, here. Back in 2011 when the current-generation Ford Ranger launched, the most expensive model available was the $55K XLT. The Wildtrak pushed the envelope when it arrived in 2012 at $59,390 in auto. Then when the PXII facelift arrived in 2015, the top spec model skipped the sixty grand point, and it has been on the rise ever since. When the Raptor first arrived in 2018, it was $74,990.

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I’d be more than happy to have one of these in my driveway as a permanent resident. I’ve loved the look of the Raptor from the day I saw it, and the Raptor X adds a few more eye-catching elements to add a bit more eXterior X-factor. I guess that’s why it’s the Raptor X?

The visual enhancements ​​include red tow hooks at the front, Asphalt Black alloy wheels, an extended sports bar (like the Amarok’s), a black ‘Ford’ tailgate badge and a bunch of matte black exterior trim including foglight bezels, F-O-R-D grille, fender vents, side mirror caps, wheel caps, door handles, the tailgate handle and the rear bumper.

Then there are those Over The Top decals. These OTT units are inspired by the Mustang muscle car and run from the bonnet to the roof, down the sides and up onto the tub and tailgate. They look great, and the textured finish (matte black carbon twill) is set off by that Searing Red trim at the edges.

The red theme carries into the cabin, too, with red stitching on the dashboard and steering wheel (including the racing inspired straight-ahead marker) – in the non-X Raptor, all that was blue. There are also different interior trim elements and plastics.

As with the existing Raptor, the X’s body dimensions are beefy. It’s 5398mm long on a 3220mm wheelbase, 2028mm wide (with mirrors folded), and 1873mm tall without a load. 

That means it sits about 20mm taller than a FX4 Max, but the load-in height is pretty badly affected – it’s 964mm from floor to tailgate, which is a substantial jump from the FX4 Max (871mm) and well higher than a Wildtrak or XLT (837mm), so lifting heavier items into the tray requires a bit more work. 

The Raptor X has a kerb mass of 2376kg, with a payload capacity of just 714kg. The gross vehicle mass (GVM/GVW) is 3090kg, while the gross combination mass (GCM) is 5350kg – meaning you cannot be at payload capacity and towing a maximum load behind.

The towing capacity is 750kg unbraked and 2500kg braked – a full 1000kg braked towing disadvantage over all other Ford Ranger models. 

We’ve covered this in multiple reviews of the Ranger to this point, but here’s the rub, because aside from the red trim and stuff, there’s not a whole lot different here.

The interior is great for the most part. The storage is good – cup holders up front between the seats, bottle holders in the front and rear doors, flip down armrest with cup holders in the back, map pockets, and you can fold up the seat base to allow for a large covered storage zone, too. Up front there’s also a good centre console bin for odds and ends, but there is no dash top shelf, and no pop out cup holders at the edges of the dash like in the HiLux or D-Max.

The screen – an 8.0-inch unit with Ford’s Sync3 infotainment – includes sat nav, many of the onboard controls, Bluetooth and wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. It works well, and is easy to get used to. It might take you some time to get used to the fact that you have to look at the screen for some of the climate controls, but at least there are knobs and buttons to actually control things. 

The FX4 Max gets electric front seat adjustment and heating (but no steering wheel heating), and the seats are comfy up front and covered in a nice material. In the back it’s fine – at 182cm or 6’0” tall, and can comfortably sit behind my own driving position – but adults might find it a bit tight three-across. Child seat anchors? Yep – two ISOFIX and two top-tether hooks.

Milk? Juice? Ford Rangers? You know. The range-topping flagship has a smaller-than-most engine, a 2.0-litre four-cylinder Bi-turbo diesel engine. Some may turn their nose up at that, but it’s a really, really good motor.

Engine outputs are 157kW of power (at 3750rpm) and 500Nm of torque (from 1750-2000rpm), class-equalling for a four-cylinder engine, and the best you can get in any 2.0L diesel ute.

The only transmission is a 10-speed automatic gearbox, and there are no paddle shifters – but you can use the manual mode toggle switch on the selector if you feel the need to take matters into your own hands. Or fingers. 

The VW Amarok has permanent four-wheel drive, but the Ranger doesn’t. It has selectable four-wheel drive (4WD or 4×4), and an electronic locking rear diff is standard too.

The Raptor X’s official combined cycle fuel consumption is 8.2 litres per 100 kilometres.

During our test loop with the 1725kg cherry picker in tow, we saw a real-world at the pump return of 13.4L/100km. That’s okay, but we managed better in the FX4 Max with 2.3 tonne on the back.

It has an 80 litre fuel tank capacity and you can’t get a long range fuel tank. But if you’re doing a lot of driving in traffic, there is a fuel-saving start-stop system.

The Ranger engine has Euro 5 emissions levels, a diesel particulate filter (DPF) fitted, but doesn’t need AdBlue. It has official CO2 emissions of 212g/km CO2, low for the class.

It’s the sort of ute that when you walk out the front door and see it in the morning, you’ll be happy to be getting into it. And likewise, at the end of the day, you’ll feel good going home in it.

It’s comfortable, composed, fairly quiet and definitely the sort of rig that you could live with, whether you need a ute or not. 

I actually prefer the way the FX4 Max drives, with its leaf-spring rear suspension offering a little bit more reassuring firmness. But the coil spring setup with multilink rear suspension in the Raptor X is softer, more subtle, and certainly deals with bumps really well.

It’s designed for that, after all – I’ve driven these off-road, and you can positively plow through bumpy sections that leave other utes feeling jittery.

As we’ve come to expect, the Ranger’s steering is excellent – light and easy to twirl the wheel, and while it doesn’t have a huge amount of feel to it, it’s very livable. Just note, the turning circle is large. 

I said above that this is one of the benchmark motors in this part of the market, and in daily driving it shows why – there’s immense torque and effortless grunt when you need it, and it’s a helluva lot more refined than what you find in a Toyota HiLux or even the Isuzu D-Max / Mazda BT-50 pair.

However, there is some lag to contend with – the turbos can take a little while to get things moving from a standing start, and if you’re shifting between drive and reverse on an incline, just be aware that you may roll forward and then you might end up squealing those back tyres when things pick up. I did it a few times.

Once moving, the 10-speed auto can be a bit busy between gears, but I don’t have any issue with it trying to find the right cog to access the torque on offer. 

A word of advice – watch your shins while getting in and out of the cabin – those side steps are huge. 

So, that’s the unladen, unhitched driving impressions done. What about how it tows?

We hired a 1725kg Nifty 150T cherry picker from Kennards Penrith for the purposes of this test, in order to find out whether the Raptor X can hit the mark for towing.  

Hitching up to haul is simple – there’s a good quality reversing camera and rear sensors, and the camera has a zoom button so you can perfectly line up the towball, and is a lot better than some other solutions – in a Toyota HiLux SR5, for instance, there’s a line, but the camera isn’t square on the tailgate.

Once hooked up, we towed across a series of different scenarios, including back streets, industrial areas, open road urban, highway and freeway driving, and it wasn’t nearly as controlled or comfortable an experience as I had in the Ranger FX4 Max – and that test was with a heavier load behind (2.3-tonne!). The FX4 Max’s leaf spring rear with the Fox Shocks was considerably more confident, plus it has a 3.5-tonne towing capacity, not 2.5-tonne like this Raptor.

The issue is that the desert racing-tuned suspension is not so much made for heavy towing, and you get that feeling as soon as you encounter bumpy sections of road. Sure, the unwieldy design of the cherry picker – long, tall, high centre of gravity, not streamlined at all – means it is always going to be more challenging than a camper trailer or jetski trailer. But it was a little more wobbly and bobbly than I expected, with the trailer at times pushing the ute around when hitting bumps.

The softness of the suspension also meant it felt a bit more boaty than you might want, but at least the light steering of the Ranger was easy to direct.

The engine and transmission? No problems, there – the 2.0L bi-turbo four-cylinder might sound small for a job like this, but it’s an oomphy unit with immense grunt when you need it, and the 10-speed automatic transmission means there is always a ratio that’s right for the situation, be it on the highway, at lower speeds, or up steeper mountain climbs.

So, then – buy one of the less expensive Ranger utes if towing is your most important consideration. I implore you.

The ANCAP rating for all current Ford Ranger models dates back to 2015. It got five stars.

But it’s falling short of plenty of its rivals – even the much cheaper GWM Ute has more advanced safety tech fitted than the top spec $80K Raptor X at less than half the price.

Standard is auto emergency braking (AEB) with pedestrian detection, lane keeping assistance, auto high-beam lights, rear parking sensors, a reversing camera, roll-over mitigation, load adaptive stability and traction control with trailer sway control, tyre pressure monitoring, traffic sign recognition, driver fatigue monitoring and six airbags (dual front, front side and full-length curtain).

You can’t get the Raptor X with adaptive cruise control, semi-autonomous park assist, front parking sensors, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic, rear AEB, or a surround view camera. 

You get a five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty plan, and up to seven years of roadside assistance, and there’s a lifetime capped price servicing plan as well. Ford will only charge you $299 for the first four services, with maintenance intervals every 12 months/15,000km.

Read our Ford Ranger problems page for more info on concerns, issues, recalls, problems or common complaints.