Ford Ranger Raptor review

The interior is possibly the best upgrade to the Raptor in terms of day-to-day usability. The middle of the dash is dominated by a 12-inch portrait touchscreen with a 12.4in driver’s display in front, and it’s held together by Ford’s excellent SYNC 4 multimedia system. It all works very well, and isn’t too confusing.

There are also physical air-con controls, useful buttons and a general feeling of quality, both in terms of tactility and materials. Possibly a touch posh for a rugged vehicle like this, but we’re not complaining.

Any best bits?

Oh the seats, which look and feel great. Supportive where they need to be, but not too racy so that they can’t cope with a longer journey, apparently inspired by the Raptor jet fighter. But there’s no ejection handle that we could find.

Seating for five is fine, with the rear seat passengers slightly pew-like, but none the worse for that. The Raptor will happily handle a car seat too, though loading and unloading your sprog while balanced on a tread plate that high up takes skills most often found in a circus.

And yes, there’s still a bed out back for hauling stuff. The metal cover is operated by a button inside the cabin, so you won’t throw your back out operating it manually.

It feels more upmarket… is it still a pickup truck?

Well, there’s still a pickup bed, so yes. Although to be honest, the interior of the Raptor is actually one of the best Ford currently makes.

One of the things that keeps cropping up though is that the bed now incorporates Ford’s ProPower on-board system, which gives you a couple of domestic sockets in the back of the load bay: these are super useful for camping, running an electric stove, even power tools if you’re on a site with no electricity.

In fact, the only real criticism is that with all the nice stuff on the inside, you might be wary of jumping into it covered in workday crud. But that’s a small price to pay.