Welcome to the Ford Ranger Platinum—Ford’s best chance of selling Europe on the idea of a pickup truck as a one-and-done machine. Use it for work, weekends away or just grocery runs; Ford’s big pitch is that for family, fun and... really hard work, its dolled-up pickup will sort you out.
So there’s a 3.0-liter V6 diesel, with more than 235hp and 597Nm, and a towing capacity of 3.5 tons. Oh, and proper four-wheel drive, naturally. But then in the Platinum spec, it’s paired with a 10-speed automatic and phrases like ‘re-engineered to reduce noise and vibration,’ then draped in tinsel-like 20-inch alloy wheels with machined faces, privacy glass and LED lights.
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The tailgate has a soft-close feature to separate it from the slam-bam kind. Inside, you’ll find wireless charging, buttons that make the Ranger Platinum park itself, and a suite of electronic aids that’ll fret about lane changes and cross traffic. There’s leather on the seats, LCD screens on the dash, and little B&O symbols on the speakers. Clearly, Ford wants the Ranger Platinum to be the family car of choice for those who live on the frontier of nation and nature.
Obviously, the idea of a family-ready pick-up is something that’s been going on for quite a while over in North America, and has also taken root in Australia. But then the US and Canada have been nuts for pick-ups for decades now, and the Australians a) need something to replace their utes, and b) drive on the sort of roads that stretch the definition of what, exactly, constitutes ‘a road.’
More photos of the Ford Ranger Platinum
This story first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.
