When you drive a new generation of Ford Ranger for the first time, you will find that this car completely breaks the concept of American pickup trucks, so that luxury and intelligence are completely filled with the whole body. Perhaps, this is the pickup of the new era, which is no longer a loading tool, but an all-round star on the road.
A few days ago, the author ushered in the first intimate contact with the rangers at the Dongchuan Debris Flow International Racing Camp on the outskirts of Kunming, as for why the test drive site was set here, needless to say, it must be to show the off-road nature of this model. Of course, it really didn't disappoint the author during the whole test drive.
This pickup is not a pickup
Why do you say that?
In fact, in the past, the definition of pickup was easy to load, unload and take goods, so it was designed with a rear bucket, and then this model was transliterated as a pickup. It's just that in the eyes of the Chinese people, the pickup truck of that year was a kind of model that loaded goods and was more suitable for running on non-paved roads, but often the pickup truck was tattered inside and out. But in recent years, due to changes in demand, there have been great breakthroughs in high-end pickup trucks on the market, such as the appearance design is very domineering, and the interior is also much more luxurious. It's just ......Compared with the current SUV, there is still a big gap in terms of intelligence and human-vehicle interaction.
But the arrival of the Ranger breaks boundaries again, especially when driving, and you won't believe it's a pickup truck at all.
So where do these feelings come from?
The first is the suspension of the Ranger, and the mid-to-high version adopts a combination of front double wishbones and rear multi-link + watt linkage. Needless to say, although this kind of suspension has a complex structure and high cost, its advantage is that it can absorb lateral force with two extra swing arms, making the driving experience in the car more stable. The Watt linkage has the characteristics of simple structure and light weight, and can effectively suppress 90% of the lateral swing of the tail, even if the Ranger is driving in complex road conditions, it is also very stable, even if the rear bucket is loaded with something, there will be no unbalanced feeling at the tail, and the difference between driving an SUV is not big.
In addition, there is a more important thing is that the intelligence of the Ranger and the interconnection of people and vehicles are also very surprising, I thought that as a pickup, there is a fixed speed endurance is almost, but the Ranger has L2Level 9 intelligent driving assistance. When the NGA switch is switched, it can also change lanes by toggling the steering stick, or automatically change lanes at the right time according to the high-definition map. 
As for the interaction between people and vehicles, it is even more powerful, the Ranger's car machine uses 8155 chips, and the reaction speed is extremely fast, especially when giving continuous instructions, its judgment is very accurate. In a hilarious test, we started with a single command to open the window, and the driver immediately replied, "Okay, the window is being opened." "Later, someone issued more than 30 directives in a row. The car machine answered more directly: good, good, good, good, good......The voice of the car machine in the back is stuck, and I can't say a complete sentence......But I didn't expect that more than 30 instructions were executed quickly and accurately, which stunned everyone on the scene......What kind of immortal reaction speed is this......
Off-road, still extraordinary
As the creator of pickup truck models, Ford's pickup truck has always been second to none in the international reputation for off-road performance. Just like the well-known F-150 Raptor, the dream of many young people. And the Ranger is also known as the little bird of prey, so from the point of view of the heritage, its off-road ability must be very strong.
The Ranger has the largest approach angle of 30°, a 26° departure angle and a longitudinal passing angle of 23° in its class, with a minimum ground clearance of 238mm. In addition, the Ranger is also equipped with the EMOD intelligent full-time four-wheel drive system from BorgWarner, which is directly driven by a motor + reducer, and the front output torque bearing capacity is increased from 1200N·m to 1850N·m, which can greatly improve the extreme off-road ability of the vehicle. In slippery conditions such as gravel and mud, the Ford Ranger Ranger's multi-plate clutch limited-slip differential directly compresses the friction disc group for active four-wheel drive intervention, which greatly reduces the possibility of frictional overheating during off-road and enables pre-loading with mode selection.
In the test drive site, the Ranger really showed his wild side, with shell craters, water gullies, large humps, and lateral slopes, all of which seemed to be difficult to stop its progress. Especially in the face of complex ramps such as shell craters and cross axles, the vehicle may lose power when the wheels are suspended in the air, and the Ranger uses the mechanical differential lock on the front and rear axles to completely lock the left and right half axles, making it very simple to get out of trouble. Of course, in the whole off-road, the author also found one of the biggest advantages of the Ranger, that is, the response to locking and unlocking is fast, and it is basically completed immediately after pressing the lock button, and now most of the off-road SUVs on the market have not reached this efficiency, but the lock or the lock, you have to wait for 3 to 5 seconds. Later, the technical staff communicated and learned that the Ranger's locking speed was only ...... 200 millisecondsI just want to say, what kind of fairy speed ...... is this
In terms of off-road configuration, to tell the truth, the Ranger is much more comprehensive than the pickup trucks of its own brand. Just like off-road wading detection, off-road transparent chassis, off-road information display, off-road creep mode and off-road turning assist and other convenient functions for off-road scenarios are equipped, let us realize that the playability of this car is too high!
On the off-road competition site of the Dongchuan mudslide, the author had a happy play, breaking through, walking in the sand, wading, and removing the mud, and the feeling of the ranger is described in one word - stable!With it on, there seems to be nothing that can't be challenged!
Write at the end:
A group of 60 or 70-year-old off-road veterans once told me that there are only two kinds of pickup trucks in the world, one is called Ford and the other is called Other!Although in this day and age, the gap may not seem so exaggerated, but it turns out that Ford's pickup trucks are really fun and really durable. In particular, the Ford pickup truck, which has undergone Chineseization, has been greatly improved in terms of comfort, and it can be said that its competitiveness has reached a new level.
Under the challenge of this practical, fun, intelligent, comfortable and inexpensive Ford Ranger, how much cake will be taken away from the market?Forget it, this is not what I should think, this should be thought about by independent brands, especially the Great Wall Cannon with the largest market share at present, and think about ......