2017 Ford Ranger vs 2018

What's the difference?

Toyota's HiLux is feeling the heat from Ford's (PXII) Ranger in Australia's hotly contested 4x4 ute market. Recent national sales figures show the Ranger is outselling the former undisputed champion of this segment and closing the gap on the Toyota's long-standing dominance of the 4x2 ute segment, as well.

Ford is obviously in a buoyant mood, celebrating the Ranger's success in early 2017 with the first XLT dual cab 4x4-based special edition called the FX4. Fans of Ford's US pick-ups will be familiar with this moniker. It was first applied to Ford's best-selling F-150 as a special off-road option package with heavy duty suspension, underbody protection and unique body accents.

The Aussie version gets the body accents but no mechanical upgrades. However, Ford Australia has form in this area from decades past, so it's no surprise to see a new millennium reprise of special editions which offer the same cake with different icing.

In the immediate aftermath of Ford's unveiling of its high-performance ute, the Raptor, in Thailand earlier this year, social media channels and pubs everywhere fired up with charged debates over the company's choice of a 2.0-litre engine four-cylinder bi-turbo diesel engine for its new flagship high-performance ute.

Was it a shrewd forward-thinking strategic move or a misstep? The case has been argued strongly by both sides – those who still love big engines and those who see the value in smaller-capacity engines.

Well, we've just spent a day driving a final pre-production Raptor prototype in the Northern Territory and we got a pretty solid impression of it over a variety of terrain.

So, does this hard-charging bush speedster, with off-road-racing DNA live up to the hype or not? Read on.