Stage 3's 2019 Ford Ranger Bone-Stock Overview and Driving Review!

The 2019 Rangers are out, and we here at Stage 3 Motorsports did not hesitate to go out and grab our very own 2019 Ranger Project Truck. Now, before we start throwing parts at the thing and fundamentally change how it looks, handles, drives, performs, etc., we decided to put together a much too long and much too detailed overview and basic driving review video. Watch below as Noah goes through nearly every facet of Ford's resurrected (in North America) mid-size Ranger pickup for both the highs and the lows of this so-far solid truck.

There are a couple of things Noah didn't touch on in the interest of time, and a couple of things some of the rest of us noticed when the Ranger first rolled into our possession. Some good, some bad.

The Good:

• The intercooler features a high-mount design and there's a ton of space behind the lower bumper, which is going to make it much less of hassle to mount a winch than on the EcoBoost F150s. We may also see some standalone winch plates in a greater variety than the F150s.
• The stock skid plates actually offer a lot of coverage, and not much that's critical to the driveline is left exposed.
• All driveshaft is two-piece and angled pretty high in the middle, which keeps the driveshaft from hurting breakover. This may pose some issues with lifting the truck fairly high, but we'll see.
• The rear end is a Dana M220, which is shared by a few other vehicles, so hopefully we'll see some serious upgrades for that here in the future.

The Bad:

• While Noah already mentioned it, the price. Yeah, it's comparable to other mid-size trucks, but other mid-size trucks are likewise overpriced. Not helping the situation are dealers stacking even higher price tags on the Rangers over MSRP. Because they can.
• The bed cleats look like something I can drunkenly make with a vice and a trip to the hardware store. They are positioned nicely, though.
• While not uncommon on mid-size trucks, not having a front bench option is a little annoying for me, especially since you're hurting for real estate on the interior versus an F150. I can at least put the dog up there and load the rest of the cab with people or gear in my F150.
• Why didn't we get the T6 back in 2013? It took our dear Ford overlords six years to realize the basic premise of this truck was pretty good?

Overall, we're impressed with the thing. Stay tuned for more 2019 Ford Ranger videos. We recently took the truck in its bone-stock form on the Broken Arrow 4x4 Trail in Sedona, AZ, with rather surprising results.