Seventh Car Magazine Best Buy Title for locally-built Ford Ranger
- Locally-built Ford Ranger selected as Car Magazine Best Buy for seventh consecutive year
- Ranger leads the popular double cab pick-up segment, remains one of SA’s best-selling vehicles overall, and is among the country’s top vehicle exports
- Recently revealed Ford Ranger Raptor set to redefine off-road capability and toughness when it hits the market in 2019
PRETORIA, South Africa, 19 February 2018 – The 2018 edition of Car Magazine’s Top 12 Best Buys has once again selected the trend-setting Ford Ranger as the top choice in the crucial double cab bakkie segment. This is the 7th year in a row that the Ranger has earned the title from South Africa’s largest motoring magazine in its annual awards, which will be published in the March 2018 edition.
“We are exceptionally proud and delighted that the Ford Ranger has once again been selected by Car Magazine as the best buy in the double cab segment,” says Neale Hill, Director of Marketing, Sales and Service at Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa.
“Competition in the light commercial vehicle (LCV) category is at an all-time high, yet the Ranger continues to set the benchmark due to its Built Ford Tough credentials matched to superb performance, along with its outstanding range of comfort, luxury and safety features,” Hill adds.
The Ranger continues to evolve within its own right, while consistently raising the bar in its class with ground-breaking new features. Last year’s launch of the innovative SYNC®3 with Navigation infotainment system with its large eight-inch touch screen on all XLT and Wildtrak models brought an entirely new level of technology and sophistication to the segment.
Advanced driver assistance features such as Adaptive Cruise Control and Lane Keep Assist on the range-topping Wildtrak are still unmatched amongst its rivals, while the expansion of the exclusive Ranger Fx4 line-up across all 3.2 and 2.2 XLT models broadens its appeal to an even wider audience.
In addition, the expansion of the range to include the sophisticated six-speed automatic transmission on the mid-range 2.2 TDCi derivatives was a first for the segment, and has contributed to a significant shift in LCV buying patterns with a rapidly growing preference for automatic models.
Not surprisingly, the Ranger maintained its dominance of the popular double cab category once again in 2017, and remains one of the top-selling vehicles in South Africa in the monthly sales charts.
Set to add further lustre and excitement to the brand, the highly anticipated launch of the first-ever Ford Ranger Raptor in 2019 will once again raise the stakes by combining true Ford Performance DNA with unparalleled off-road capability.
The Ranger is assembled at Ford’s Silverton Assembly Plant in Pretoria, with its powerful range of Duratorq TDCi engines produced at the Struandale Engine Plant in Port Elizabeth. Aside from supplying the domestic market in South Africa, Ford also exports the Ranger to over 148 markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and it ranks as one of SA’s top export models.
