Ford Ranger 2025 review: Platinum long-term | Part 2

I'm surprised to be writing this, but I'm now about eight weeks into life with the Ford Ranger Platinum, and it is still, hands-down, the most useful vehicle I've welcomed into the Chesto garage since the small, loud and expensive one entered our lives about six months ago.

It's not perfect, which I'll come back to in a second, but in terms of size, space, practicality and usefulness, it outshines the assortment of SUVs, of all shapes and sizes, we've also had over this period.

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But I now know going fast around corners falls a distant second to just getting to wherever the hell it is you need to get to with all the stuff you need to bring with you. And for that, it's a ute for the win.

Now, full disclosure, I live in Sydney’s cramped and crowded inner west, and so I am far more likely to order a pallet of oat milk than a tray-load of bricks or something similarly manly.

But we do love a weekend away down the coast, and you simply can’t beat top-down loading your gear into the Ranger's tray, rather than loading from back to front in an SUV, with the former allowing you to maximise the space on offer.

Helping massively with that task are the in-built steps on either side of the tray which allow you to step up and access the stuff tucked right up under the rear windscreen.

Without them, I guess I’d be balancing precariously on a tyre or kind of army-crawling my way to the back of the tub – which is not a great look on anyone, least of all a tubby 41-year old who somehow manages to achieve world-class plumber’s crack without completing a single day of an apprenticeship.

Better for all involved, then, that I use the steps. And the point is they exist, and they’re just one example of the kind of thoughtfulness that’s gone into designing the Ranger, and into making it as easy to live with as possible. 

All of which points to this work-site-focused ute doubling as a real SUV alternative for those of us who would rarely – if ever – put its heavier duties to the test.

But I would want the Platinum, given it's so awash with car-like premium features (big screens, leather seats, 20-inch alloys, good headlights etc) that you can easily forget you're driving a ute. And, if I enter my postcode, Ford says it will set me back an astonishing $89,102 on the road.

And that, dear readers, is a lot of money. Twice the price, or thereabouts, of a pretty well-equipped Chinese dual-cab (albeit with significantly less engine), or one of Australia's cheapest seven-seat SUV options – both of which would largely do what I need them to do, and carry what I need them to carry.

But in the Rangers defence, at least some of that scratch goes towards things I’ve never needed or used. On the long list of stuff I haven’t touched are things like the towing capacity, the full payload, the 4WD kit, and the rows of cockpit-style 'aux' switches above your head used to power accessories I don’t have or want.

That all costs money, and no doubt are beloved by plenty of owners, but they also all contribute to that price.

That said, I love the engine, with its punchy 184kW and 600Nm from that big V6 turbo-diesel, and I love the look, with its tough-guy front-end, the giant DRLs and – in the case of my test car – the 'Shadow Black' paint job ($750).

But I absolutely do not love the fuel bill. As I mentioned last month, we've been doing a lot of highway kilometres in the Ranger, and I can't get the average fuel use to drop below 11.5L/100km.

And at $1.88 per litre, and with the Ranger's 80-litre fuel tank, I'm watching those little numbers on the bowser climb all the way to $150 if I have to go from empty to full. That hurts a bit.

Finally, I’m not sold on the transmission, or at least, not entirely. My Ranger is fitted with the 10-speed automatic, and in the city it’s pretty seamless, shifting away without the driver noticing anything unusual (exactly what you want from your transmission).

But at freeway speeds it seems to get confused as to what gear it wants to be in. My (entirely unscientific) experiments seem to suggest it’s somewhere between gears eight, nine and 10. Or maybe just nine and 10.

But either way it feels like it’s sometimes pausing, or slipping, between those gears, and if you put your foot down at around 100km/h, there’s sometimes nothing for a worrying moment or two before it gets itself together.

So, impressive, but not flawless, family transport this month. But will my new ute love affair continue into month three?

Acquired: April, 2025

Distance travelled this month: 1050km

Odometer: 5055km

Average fuel consumption this month: 11.6L/100km