2024 Ford Ranger TOTY Review: Can It Take the Strain?

The all-new 2024 Ford Ranger has a leg up on other 2025 MotorTrend Truck of the Year entrants, the XLT version having already taken down the 2024 TOTY champ, Chevrolet’s Colorado (along with another TOTY ’25 entrant, the Toyota Tacoma) in a comparison test. But the 2023 UAW strike kept the Ranger out of last year’s competition, and we thought this handsome midsize pickup truck deserved an orderly shot at the title.

The Ranger made a strong and positive first impression. Judges praised its roomy cabin, firm but comfortable-enough ride, precise handling, and power from both the 270-hp turbo-four and 315-hp twin-turbo V-6, though the 10-speed automatic didn’t always shift smoothly. The midlevel XLT’s cabin felt plasticky, but the top-of-the-line Lariat increased the luxe factor, though the beige seats and door trim against the black cabin looked as if the color scheme was designed using Microsoft Paint. The back seat is notably roomier than either the Colorado’s or Tacoma’s, making the Ranger more usable as a family truckster.

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The Ranger proved admirably competent off-road. It lacks an automatic 4WD setting, but the truck’s rear differential can be locked in two-wheel drive, and we were amused at how far this eager Ford could climb and crawl without applying power to the front axle. There’s no particularly fancy hardware here—Ford saves that for the Ranger Raptor, which competed in our most recent Performance Vehicle of the Year evaluation rather than TOTY—but the Ranger dug in and got the job done.

When put to work hauling, though, the midsize pickup stumbled. In that aforementioned comparison test, we assigned our trucks the easygoing task of carrying office furniture, where the Ranger’s well-thought-out bed proved a boon. But TOTY requires contenders to haul and tow at or near their rated weight, and that challenged the Ranger. 

A thousand pounds of ballast in the four-cylinder Lariat’s bed hardly affected acceleration, but man, did we feel it in the brakes, which seemed like they were never going to bite. We’ve experienced funky braking action in every 2024 Ranger we’ve tested, with decent stopping distances but calamitous behavior, but driving the Ranger with the bed loaded had us wondering if the truck would ever actually stop. And although the weight in the bed didn’t point the Ranger’s nose at the sky as it did in the Tacoma, the steering lost precision, and the rear end felt like the axle was closing in on its bump stops. To be expected? Not really—when we accidentally overloaded our long-term Nissan Frontier, it barely showed signs of strain.

We towed a 4,680-pound trailer with the V-6 XLT, noting helpful towing aids like a trailer-connection checklist and Ford’s brilliant trailer backup assist, which steers the trailer in reverse with a knob on the dash (very useful in the Ranger because smaller trucks tow shorter trailers, which are trickier to reverse). Stability was good, but again the brakes and rear suspension felt taxed.

Because the Ranger has a gross combined weight rating (GCWR) some three-plus tons greater than its gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR)—meaning it maintains towing capacity even when fully loaded, something a surprising number of trucks do not—we asked it to do both things simultaneously. We connected that same trailer to the loaded Lariat, its bed ballast reduced to stay within GCWR, and it was not an exercise we’d care to repeat. Again, we noted light steering, reluctant brakes, and a struggling rear suspension. The rig felt somewhere in the neighborhood of stable on smooth pavement—and that is more than we can say for a Tacoma called to the same task—but big bumps set everything jumping in a most alarming manner. 

Overall, the Ford Ranger impressed us with its day-to-day usability and livability. While not as flashy and gimmicky as the Toyota Tacoma or as slick and luxurious as the Chevrolet Colorado, it’s a competent and comfortable daily driver that gets the job done, on-road or off, provided the job doesn’t involve extremely heavy lifting. Don’t stress the Ranger, and it will prove a good and decent servant.

This review was conducted as part of our 2025 Truck of the Year (TOTY) testing, where each vehicle is evaluated on our six key criteria: efficiency, design, safety, engineering excellence, value, and performance of intended function. Eligible vehicles must be all-new or significantly revised.

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