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Marton Pettendy13 Apr 2018
NEWS

SPY PICS: 2019 Ford Ranger Wildtrak outed

Ford Ranger Raptor’s tamer brother breaks cover, as 2019 Ranger and Everest draw near

There’s been plenty of action around the wicked new Ford Ranger Raptor, which arrives Down Under in September, but very little news about the mainstream 2019 Ford Ranger and Everest models that will follow soon after – until now.

While the Raptor will be launched here first – as soon as August – the entire 2019 Ranger line-up, headlined by the upgraded Wildtrak you see here, will hit Aussie showrooms the following month.

They will be joined soon after by the facelifted 2019 Everest, which is based on the same Australian-engineered T6 ladder frame and built in the same Thai factory.

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So when it arrives by the end of this year, expect the new-look Everest to bring similar cosmetic and technical upgrades to the 2019 Ranger.

We’ve seen the revised front-end of the regular 2019 Ranger in spy pics from Thailand before, but this is our first look at the now-second-from-top-spec Wildtrak, which is currently priced at $59,590.

Together with the $55K-plus XLT, the Wildtrak currently comprises two-thirds of all Ranger sales in Australia, where it’s Ford’s top-seller, the country’s best-selling 4x4 ute and the nation’s second most popular new vehicle.

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Indeed Ford’s Australian-designed and developed PX Ranger has been a smash hit since it was launched in 2011 and then facelifted in 2015.

So it’s no surprise that, as you can see from these images of a fully undisguised Ranger Wildtrak spotted near Ford’s Dearborn HQ in the US, the cosmetic upgrade is limited to new frontal styling, with all panels and even the wheels continuing unchanged.

But like all 2019 Rangers, the revised Wildtrak will bring LED daytime running lights integrated into its RANGER-badged headlights, plus a more aggressive new bumper with reshaped two-bar black grille, squared-off fog lights and more prominent silver lower insert.

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Gone is the full-width black bumper graphic, and the wing mirrors now appear to be body-colour, but the technical upgrades remain sketchy.

We expect at least the Wildtrak to come standard with autonomous emergency braking (AEB), matching the freshly launched Mercedes-Benz X-Class.

AEB should join the Ranger’s carryover safety systems including forward collision warning, adaptive cruise control, lane keeping aid, lane departure warning, automatic high-beam and driver impairment monitor, which is standard on Wildtrak and optional on XLT.

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Under the bonnet, the good news is the Ranger’s beefy 3.2-litre inline five-cylinder turbo-diesel and six-speed automatic combo will continue.

However, although there’s bound to be improvements to the 2019 Ranger’s (and Everest’s) noise, vibration and harshness package, the five-pot TDCi engine’s 147kW/470Nm outputs are unlikely to change.

That’s because the 157kW/500Nm outputs of the Ranger Raptor’s new twin-turbo 2.0-litre four-cylinder ‘EcoBlue’ diesel, which is matched with Ford’s new 10-speed auto, are only 10kW/30Nm higher.

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However, we understand a lower-output (circa-140kW) version of the Raptor’s new 2.0-litre EcoBlue will be offered in mainstream 2019 Rangers – perhaps to replace the current 118kW/385Nm 2.2-litre four-cylinder oil-burner.

As for the 2019 Ford Range Wildtrak, it will continue to bring extras like a bedliner with a 12V socket, retractable roller-style tonneau cover, 18-inch alloy wheels with 265/60 tyres and a bevy of interior and exterior design cues.

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