Ford Ranger 2021 FAQs

Check out real-world situations relating to the Ford Ranger 2021 here, particularly what our experts have to say about them.

• What is the fuel consumption of the 2021 Ford Ranger Wildtrak?

  With the official combined fuel consumption figure for your Ranger being 8.9 litres per 100km, having 50km of range remaining should, theoretically, suggest you have slightly less than five litres of fuel in the tank. Which further suggests you should be able to add something like 75 litres of fuel at that point. But car-makers tend to set up these warnings on remaining fuel range fairly pessimistically, giving you a bigger margin before running out. And that’s what I’d imagine is happening here. They do so because most cars will never match their official fuel number in the real world, as well as giving you a bit of lee-way in case a service station doesn’t magically appear over the next hill. The upshot is that you won’t be able to pump as much fuel into the tank as you thought it would take; that is, you had more fuel remaining in the tank than you thought.

  As far as your distance per tank goes, that sounds about bang on the money to me. To get 700km from the Ranger’s 80-litre tank gives you an overall fuel consumption number of 11.4 litres per 100km which I would say is just what you should expect from this vehicle in normal use.

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• Does having the "smart alternator" configured to a normal alternator void the warranty in my 2021 Ford Ranger?

  The `smart’ alternator fitted to the Ford Ranger was designed to cap the amount of charge being fed back into the vehicle’s battery. In effect, it meant that the battery was usually charged to a lower voltage that it would have bene with a conventional alternator.

  The reason for this was to extend battery life by never over-charging (and stressing) the battery, but many owners have found that the lower charge rate left them with a battery more likely to go flat when they most needed it. Many Rangers are also used for camping and therefore have a second battery fitted. That could also cause problems as the extra battery and electrical accessories often fitted to such vehicles weren’t recognised by the vehicle’s computer, leading to more low-voltage problems.

  For many Ranger owners, the solution was a trip to a Ford dealer where the computer could be re-programmed to make the alternator perform in a traditional (non-smart) way and keep everything purring along. Having this performed at a dealership will not affect your warranty, but having a non-Ford technician fiddle with the charging system may not be so warranty-friendly.

  I’m also informed that driving everywhere with the car’s headlights switched on causes the alternator to acknowledge the current draw and switch to a higher charging output.

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