I was wanting the tremor because of the smoother ride but it was hard to find one. But since I don't really offroad, I settled for 4x4.
I’m not sure if this is different for 2021.
Great review, thank you for all the details. =)I just reached 12000k miles and drove on a road trip so I thought would finally give a review on my ranger. I love this truck. Its fast and smooth. I have the 2021 xlt 301 4x4 super crew and I’m pretty happy with it.
I only have a few minor complaints which isn’t that big of deal.
90% of the time its pretty smooth going over bumps and stuff. I had a few passengers not to long ago and I asked if it was bumpy to them. They said it was fine. For my road trip, I had no issues. I drove from San Antonio to north Oklahoma. I was expecting some bounciness once I hit Oklahoma because the roads aren’t very well taken care of. But it was smooth.
- It’s annoying trying to the latch the back seats. Its crappy design. I had a 2006 impala, and the rear seats where much better closing and leaving folded down. But honestly I don’t ever get back there. My little dogs have car dog beds back there and they ride with me a lot.
- No lower grill for the bumper. I don’t know what ford is thinking leaving that space open. That’s just an invitation to rodents and road debris. I wish I would have noticed when I bought my truck because I could have installed something there right away.
- The rough suspension. Most of the time its not so bad but I did a u-turn one day and the road was uneven, and it shook the whole truck and I was bouncing all over the place. Its on my to do-list to get replace. I’m leaning towards the fox 2.0 or ford fox 2.0 performance. I haven’t done it yet because its pricey.
For performance, I honestly think the stock tune is fine once its smooths out the longer you drive it. I took an hour drive to my fathers in laws ranch and I was hitting 90mph like it was nothing. Before my road trip I put on the 87octance soft shift performance and i think it really works well. I can tell it made huge improvement on the sport mode shifting. On stock sport mode, it seemed to struggle going from 60 to 70, with the tune, it just goes up quickly. I play around with sport mode when I’m on back roads or I enter the highway. But I switch it back because it takes a good hit on my mpg. I’m hoping to go back to 93 octane in the future.
My miles per gallon for driving, I was averaging 23 mpg and when I filled up I got over 400 miles to empty. I was wanting to get up higher but there’s so many tailgaters in Texas, I just had to keep up with the flow of traffic. So far I added running boards, tail gate damper, bug shield, the lower bumper grill, mx4 back flip, chrome ranger letters, and Livernois tune.
I let my brother and my friend drive it, now they want one. When I got here, my friend asked me to use my truck for picking up a recliner. On the drive up there, I saw a Honda ridgeline so I had to fly by it. He asked me why, so I told him honda ridgelines aren’t real trucks and they think there cool but there not. Lol. I also told him about the tune and he asked why do I need it to go even more faster. I told him it’s a ranger, it’s a scouting truck. I should be able to go anywhere quickly.
My father-in-law criticized me for not having a towing hitch because he wanted me to pull a trailer for him. But I don’t really ever have a need to tow anything so its not on my priority list. If he really wants to me tow something, then he can he give me money to buy one. But I’ve been thinking about just going with ford tow package. I would rather get theirs than get an aftermarket one.
Overall, I love this truck and I’m not a knit picky person when it comes to little things. Sometimes I get wind noise when driving, sometimes I don’t notice. Nothing on the truck is deal breaking. I agree the interior could use an update but coming from a 2006 chevy impala to this truck, it’s still an upgrade to me. I plan to keep the truck as long as it can go. Hopefully it will last me a long time.
