2025 Ford Ranger Raptor: Still fun after all these years?

2025 Jeep Gladiator Mojave vs. 2025 Toyota Tacoma TRD Off-Road Double Cab 4x4 vs. 2025 Ford Ranger Supercrew 4x4 Raptor: Midsize trucks, full-size prices.

This week: 2025 Ford Ranger Supercrew 4x4 Raptor.

Price: Starts at $55,720

Conventional wisdom: Car and Driver likes the “quickness, well-sorted suspension,” and that it “fits on tight trails.” Disappointments: “off-road tires limit grip, expect big markups.”

Marketer’s pitch: “Capable and versatile, from road to trail. Mud coat optional.”

Reality: So fun on the road, it’s OK if you never go off-road.

What’s new: The Ranger Raptor is the high-performance version of the midsize Ford pickup, with its own larger engine and larger size, and Ford notes it’s more capable than ever.

Past experience in a Ranger XLT showed me that Ford knows how to make a small pickup a real blast.

Competition: In addition to the Gladiator and Tacoma, there’s the Chevrolet Colorado, GMC Canyon, Honda Ridgeline, and Nissan Frontier.

On the road: The Ranger Raptor was parked in a difficult position in my driveway, requiring a challenging turnaround to start. Right away, I noticed the four-door shortbed truck required a wide arc for maneuvering.

“This might not be so great,” I thought to myself, singing “Turn around, bright eyes” the whole time. Would this be a total eclipse of the truck as a fun cargo hauler?

But as soon as I bounced the Ranger Raptor out of the driveway, cut the wheel, and headed onto our street, I immediately put that Bonnie Tyler bombast out of my head. Even more than its two pretty fun competitors, the Ranger Raptor gave a sense of boosting the fun factor to 11.

A short trip for dinner with Mrs. Passenger Seat on some country roads and Route 322 just made me want to go for a drive afterward, and so off we went, down some narrower passages, winding through some impossible mountain cuts next to Brandywine Creek, and then flooring it on the straightaways.

Seventeen-inch wheels and tires were among the few options, so keep an eye out for those as you test drive.

Parking the beast headfirst in a parking space was as challenging as expected from that initial driveway moment, but everything else was so fun that all was forgiven. Just use the rearview camera and back in.

I didn’t realize until almost the end of the week that the Ranger Raptor offers Sport mode and other drive adjustments. I actually thought Normal mode provided the right amount of fun and smooth driving; Sport was a little too abrupt with turns and shifts. Automatic all-wheel-drive mode also helped with some of the understeer on curves and burnouts on steep stops.

Off the road: Shifting into 4-high and 4-low for more dramatic off-roading was easy — just press the button for the level of assistance you want.

Up to speed: The Ranger Raptor also provides joyful acceleration as well. The 3-liter EcoBoost six-cylinder engine creates 405 horsepower. It brings the vehicle to 60 mph in 5.3 seconds, according to Car and Driver. Now we’re cooking; the other two took 7-plus seconds.

Shifty: The 10-speed automatic transmission features a T-bar shift lever rather than a joystick or Ford’s dastardly dial, but the electronic control allows for sliding past the gear you actually want. Perhaps practice makes perfect. Again, the performance means any flaws are forgiven.

Driver’s Seat: The Lovely Mrs. Passenger Seat pronounced her perch “really nice,” though some might find the wings a tad intrusive on their personal space. The seats seemed angular and sharp and caused me to worry at first, but I never ended up sore.

The bevy of steering wheel controls initially felt daunting, but operation never seemed complicated.

The gauges kept defaulting to minimalist, but there’s plenty of information at hand when you make some simple adjustments.

Friends and stuff: Tall Sturgis Kid 4.0 found the rear seat to be roomy and comfortable, without any complaints, which surprised me.

The seat bottom folds up as one piece, and there are small cubbies underneath.

Towing maxes out at 5,510 pounds in the Ranger Raptor, which is less than the regular Ranger’s 7,500 pounds; payload tops out at 1,375 pounds. The Gladiator wins on all counts here.

Hooks were available in reachable places, even after the bed was loaded with the usual amount of tree branches and other detritus, which is more than I could say for the other trucks.

Play some tunes: The stereo system provided the right accompaniment for the ride, a little heavy on the bass but overall nice playback. I’d call it an A.

The screen featured a giant 12-inch vertical display.

Keeping warm and cool: HVAC controls rest at the bottom of the screen, and there they offer a cumbersome approach to temperature and other changes.

Fortunately, actual buttons and dials sit just below the screen and make adjustments much easier, although one questions the logic of duplicating controls right next to each other.

Fuel economy: I averaged about 17 mpg as I slammed around Chester County, slightly better than the other two entrants.

Where it’s built: Wayne, Mich.

How it’s built: The Ranger gets a 4 out of 5 reliability rating from Consumer Reports, tops among its competitors not just in this test, but across the category.

In the end: There’s just seemingly no limit to the fun you can have in a Ranger Raptor. The competitors may serve better as a truck, but this one will make you smile every time.