Six years. That’s how long it’s been since we had the Ford Ranger in our lives. It took some time and a set of fortuitous circumstances, but after waiting since 2011 for the Ranger to make its comeback in the U.S., Ford finally delivered. The Ranger is back, and it’s looking to reclaim its status as one of the best and most popular entry-level pickup trucks in the market.

It feels great to finally get the Ford Ranger back. Now we can forget about all those jokes from our friends all over the world who have never seen a world without the Ranger in their markets. In fact, international markets have had the Ranger since 1998. Its success in those markets continues to make it relevant after all these years. Now we’re getting it back, and the world is better for it.

Aesthetically, the U.S.-bound Ranger bares some similarities to its global-spec T6 counterpart. The dimensions are similar, and the overall presentation makes it a chore to determine one from the other. That’s not to say that they’re identical because they’re not. The U.S.-spec Ranger makes use of a number of styling cues that help make it stand out, including a bulging power dome hood that adds a more aggressive look to the front section and a blacked out front grille with thinner horizontal bars than the ones found on the current model. The interior also gets its own set of goodies, specifically a thick steering wheel and a high-tech instrument cluster with a pair of LCD displays.

In terms of power, the returning Ranger will use a 2.3-liter EcoBoost inline-four engine. The automaker hasn’t given a specific power rating, but the EcoBoost isn’t a new engine so we already have an idea of what it’s capable of. A different version of the same engine sits under the hood of the 2018 Ford Mustang. That bad boy produces 310 horsepower and 350 pound-feet of torque.

Regardless of what kind of power the Ranger’s 2.3-liter EcoBoost has, the important thing is that the model itself is back in our lives. Welcome home, Ford Ranger. You’ve been missed.

References

Ford Ranger

Read our full review on the 2019 Ford Ranger.

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Read more Ford news.