The Ford Ranger is a popular pickup truck that can tow and haul heavy loads. It’s built to handle rough terrain, making it a good choice for outdoor adventures.
When you press the gas, a turbocharged car sometimes takes a moment before it feels faster. That pause is called turbo lag.
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Have you heard? It's Merry Christmas! Yes!
Merry Christmas everyone! I'm stuffed full of Christmas ham, I'm overflowing with joy, exhausted
from shopping and cooking. But before I retire for the night with a fine glass of cardinal
de four armnyak and an Opus X-segar on the patio, I just wanted to say a quick shout-out to
all of you listeners and fans and from the bottom of my heart wish you all a Merry Christmas,
including our sponsors and a couple reminders, don't forget, from now until December 31st
take advantage of Amzels holiday offer, you spend $125 or more on synthetic oil, lubricants,
grease, car care products, and even merch, and you get the Amz oil blocks UTV set for free,
just use that promo code Holman 2025 at checkout. And then also ending at the end of the year,
don't miss your chance to get a new knife for 40% off MSRP, that's right, treat yourself
to a Kershaw, use the promo code to TSP 2025 and get yourself a new knife today at Kershaw.kaiUSA.com
before it's too late. And also OVR Mag makes a great gift for you or someone else you want
the latest in adventure, gear, upgrades for your vehicle, go to OVR Mag.com and use the code
at Truxio Podcast for a discount on print or one year digital subscription for free. The only
thing left on my Christmas list is for some more emails, five star hotline voice mails, and new
reviews on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and of course for you guys to treat yourselves and use
our discount codes to support our sponsors. So while I was going through some of our bank
content, I was saving this one truck review for another segment, and I realized I hadn't run it
yet and that segment hasn't quite come together. So I figured my Christmas present to you would be a
little truck review of the current Ford Ranger to make sure that this special Christmas episode
had a little something bonus extra in there for you. So without further ado, let's do a quick
Christmas truck review.
Hey everybody, it's Holman, and I know we just played What's in Holman's driveway, but this one's not
in my driveway. Hopefully you can hear it fire up. This one is actually out of the desert with me
right now. I did a little off-roading and we'll get in here and sit in a brand new Ford Ranger
XLT with the 2.7 twin turbo V6, which is pretty awesome. So this truck, in line with my trying to
keep close to 45,000, is 46265. The options are the XLT series, the 301A equipment group, which is
XLT in dual-zone climate control for a thousand forty-five. The 2.7 liter EcoBoost engine, I believe
is 3.30 horse and 4.15 pound feet of torque, 25570R17 all-train tires, the sport appearance package.
This one also has a 373 gear with locking differential. That was $420, but by the way, the EcoBoost
was a 21.95 option. And then advanced tow package, which with tech, 2,305 floor liners, 160 bedliners
that's been sprayed in, that's 4.95. So, base price was 39645. This has 6,620 dollars in options
and total is 46265 plus a $1595 destination. So, I'm out off-roading. Going down some subterros,
I figured it would be a good opportunity to take you through and let you know what I think about
the Ranger. So, first of all, I really like the styling upgrade over the last generation.
And my favorite thing is probably the interior layout. I love the big screen that's in the
portrait, kind of like a RAM 1500. It's nice because you have car play on top and then your
secondary controls like climate control on the bottom half. It does have some physical buttons
for climate control, but it doesn't have physical buttons for everything. Although this one
does have some off-road modes. You get more if you go FX4. This also has the advanced
towing packages trailer backup. And it has the adaptive cruise control, things like that. This
is the bigger screen as well. The only thing that's weird is you pay for the upgraded tech package,
which gives you the reverse-steer or pro trailer backup assist. You get the bigger screen,
but you still have a 10-inch display for the driver dash instead of the bigger one. And then you also
don't have a push button starter, which I know it's funny. I used to be like, oh, push button suck,
but I've gotten lazy and I love them. And it's been really hard to remember, I have to take this
key, which is your standard key fob. And then you have to take the push the button because it's
like the switchblade style where the key comes out. Then you got to turn it on. And I've been so
slow with proximity sensors and stuff. Or I know it sounds like a bunch of first world problems,
but you know, you would think that Ford would include that with the technology package. I mean,
for example, it has mirrors that fold when you park. So why couldn't you just give me a push button?
I've got power cloth seats. Why not just give me a manual cloth seat. I gladly trade that for the
for the push button starter. Anyway, one of the little niggles on this truck. And in fact,
it doesn't have a homelink as silly you have to step up to a I guess a lariat for that.
There's a few other differences. Again, cloth seats, although the rear seat does have a armrest
with cup holders, which is pretty huge. And this doesn't have the upper glove box. It just has a
cubby. But overall solid feeling truck, really nice to drive. Directional stability is really good
on the freeway. Twisty roads. It's not too much understeer. It's nice and weighty steering feels
good. And it's got giant side mirrors. So this ability with this truck is actually really good. And
then this also has a bunch of the cameras as well. And you would think that the 2.7 is the way to
go because it has a lot of power. But I found it to be a little bit laggy. And when it's on the
boil, it's on the boil. It sounds great. It's smooth. And it gets with it. And the turbo's light up
and you're like, damn, that's a lot of power for a little truck. But sometimes the engine and the
transmission tuning aren't in sync, which kind of sucks because there's times where you push down
the throttle, expecting something to happen. There's a little bit of a delay and some latency there
that I think the sport mode helps take that out. But I rather the sport mode would just be normal
and it didn't feel so lazy because this thing has gobs of power. I'm also interested in the new 2.3
liter, which is the MCU engine. It's not the old EcoBoost. It's the new one that's been in the
Mustang. I think he explored for a year, maybe two. Finally made it way into the Ranger for 2025.
It makes a lot more power in the Mustang than it does in the Rangers. The Ranger has the older
numbers, which I think were like 280, 285 horsepower and like 330 or something like that.
Torque. But the new engine's supposed to be a little bit underrated so that it doesn't step on
the V6 territory. I think that 4-cylinder, I can't wait to drive one. I think that could be a
really good choice for a lot of people. Plus you get 4-cylinder fuel efficiency and things like that.
But build quality, no squeaks and rattles. This is a non-FX4. This is a sport and yet it still feels
really good off-road. The shock tuning is actually surprisingly good. It just overall feels
good. The front seats are pretty comfortable, difficult forward, lots of bolster, which is a good
thing. This also comes with LED lights and signature lighting, which is good as well.
And so on the XLT, you get the Matrix lighting where as you turn the LED light up to
illuminate your path if you will. On this, they're just a standard LED, but they're pretty bright.
They look good. The cutoff is nice on it and you get all the signature lighting. So it looks
like a more expensive truck. The 17-inch wheels look great on this. They're painted gray. This one's
blue, two-tone. So overall styling on this truck is really good. The interior is really good.
Backseat, legroom and comfort seems good. There also seems to be a fair amount of
rake to the seat back. It doesn't feel super vertical, which is a problem in some of the pickup
trucks. And just overall, it feels really good. Like I said, my biggest complaint about it, and by
this truck, I believe, is rated to $7,500, which is great for a mid-sides. And it feels like
you could do that also as the integrated trailer rake controller, again, pro-trailer backup systems
with the steering from the knob, which is another awesome feature for a mid-sides truck.
But overall, really digging on the ranger, I just wish the transmission and the engine were
a little bit more in sync because it makes it feel a little bit lazy and not as much fun to drive
around town, but those problems tend to disappear on the highway and off-road on the dirt road that
I'm on now hasn't been a problem at all. So I'm getting to the end of this road and I'm going to
be turning on the pavement. So I'll go ahead and do a wide open throttle, go ahead and roll the
window up and quiet that down. And then hopefully you'll get a chance to hear what this thing
sounds like on the road. Also, the vents, the registers seem like they put out enough air,
I was driving it was 100 degrees today and had no problem with the AC keeping up. So that's another good
thing. And again, I just think Ford's done a really good job with the ranger. I've owned a bunch
of these things, the older generations before they stopped making them, not the last generation,
but two generations ago. And I love that truck and I always saw myself, you know, wanting to get
back into the ranger, but I didn't really like the offerings. I thought the old styling was really
kind of soft. It didn't feel a forward trucky. It felt like more like an escape. The inside had
that kind of cling on, looking center stack that came from all the economy cars. It just
it just wasn't a felt like a truck to me. The seats were overstuffed and this this one definitely
has much more of that smaller F-150 vibe to it, which I think is really important for Ford owners.
In terms of the options, you can of course get a layer of it and max it out. I think somewhere
close to high fifties or maybe even touching 60 and we get leather and a B&O sound system. But
to be honest, the base sound system that's in this one is totally fine wireless car play,
wireless charging pad. I mean all that is awesome and I asked myself one simple question,
could I live with this truck? And I think the answer is yes, but I think I would trade the
expense of the V6 upgrade and swap that for the FX4 package so I could skid plates and better
shocks and a little more aggressive tire. So I think that would be my caveat. I think yeah,
I could definitely live with this truck. It does everything. It feels you know, it's very
parkable. It feels good. All right, I'm getting out on the pavement here and I'll do a quick
acceleration. They'll do a wide open throttle. You don't really hear the turbos in this truck
and the truck is super quiet. But the engine is not a harsh or coarse or anything that's
totally fine. All right, so I'm going to come around the corner and line myself up here and
go ahead and do this is a wide open throttle from the start.
And that's 60 right there. So I don't know if you heard it. When I stomped on it, it took
a little bit of time for the revs to catch up and that's what I'm talking about. That late
seal, that turbo lag. There's a little bit of that delay on throttle tipping and it just feels lazy.
But once it hits about 2,000, 2,200 RPM, the turbo starts to light and it just takes off and it's
got plenty of passing power. That feels really great. I just again, I go back to the transmission issue
where it feels like it gets lost in the gears a little bit on occasion. I can drive it smooth
but I can also figure out where the holes are. So that would be my only major complaint. But I
wonder if it's any better with the 4 cylinder. I think the 4 cylinder would be a great option in
this truck. But again, rides really nice. It's quiet. Again, 4x4 sport package looks good, looks
premium. Even though we hit that right around that 45,000 dollar price point, it comes with all the
tech and car play and Android Auto, all that kind of stuff. Serious XM and overall, really dig in
the ranger. So if you guys got any questions, truckshowpodcast at gmail.com but there's a quick little
glimpse at what my feelings are while I'm driving it. Hopefully you guys like coming along for
the ride. In mixed city driving, it did about 17 miles per gallon and it was low 20s on the
highway. Probably a 400 mile range, something like that. But right now we're doing 50 miles now or
down a two lane road. And I don't know hopefully you can hear how quiet it is. It's a really nicely
isolated and it's a truck that I think I can drive across if you're no problem. It's spend a lot of
time in a little bit of a rattle that's coming from the cup holder, not from the truck itself. This truck
will be at the top of my consideration list if I were going to get a mid-size truck which is
definitely on the radar. And I think Ford Ranger is going to be right up there with the other
things that I'll consider. So let's mark Ford Ranger on the list and we'll see where it goes.
Thanks for riding along with the truck. That's in my driveway. Well not now but it will be in
a little bit when I get home. So there you have it. A quick look at the Ford Ranger and that'll do
it for this special Christmas episode. Keep the conversation going on social at Truckshow Podcasts
into some emails. Truckshow Podcasts at gmail.com. I want to hear from you or I want to hear
from you five star hotlines six five seven two oh five sixty one oh five. And we've got to thank
our sponsors Mzole.com Kershaw Kershaw dot Kai USA dot com or OVR magazine OVR mag dot com. And don't
forget to leave us a review or go to Truckshow Podcasts.com and go to the featured products tab
where you can see all of the different codes and specials we have so you can pick up yourself
something nice. Thanks for listening and for me and my family to you and yours. Merry Christmas to
you all. I hope Santa was good to you and to all the good night. Let's do it again soon. Merry Christmas.
And use this production elements by DJ Omar Khan and Jay Tillis. If you like what you've heard
please open your Apple podcast or Spotify app and leave us a five star review. And if you're a fan
there's no better way to support the show than by sharing it and patronizing our sponsors.
Some vehicles may have been harmed during the making of this podcast.
Merry Christmas.
About this episode
A festive celebration kicks off with heartfelt Christmas wishes and a rundown of special holiday offers from sponsors. The highlight is a detailed review of the 2023 Ford Ranger XLT, featuring its new 2.7 twin-turbo V6 engine, interior upgrades, and off-road capabilities. The host shares insights on styling, tech features, and driving performance, while also discussing some minor quirks like transmission lag. Overall, the Ranger impresses as a solid choice in the mid-size truck segment, making it a contender for those in the market for a new vehicle.
Merry Christmas to all of our listeners! We just wanted to say thank you and give you a little end-of-the-year Truck Review bonus content. The Truck Show Podcast is brought to you in partnership with AMSOIL, Kershaw Knives, and OVR Mag. Don't forget to check out truckshowpodcast.com for special offers from our friends and sponsors, including:
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Use promo code HOLMAN2025 on amsoil.com until 12/31/25 to get a free AMSOIL UTV Blocks Kit with any purchase of $125 or more.
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Use promo code 2TSP2025 for 40% of MSRP and free shipping on great, high-quality knives from Kershaw.kaiusa.com.
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Use promo code @truckshowpodcast for a free annual digital subscription or a discount on a print subscription on ovrmag.com.
