2020 Ford Ranger Named Detroit Free Press ‘Truck of the Year’
Ford’s latest award is based on Ranger’s impressive value combined with features found in bigger, more expensive trucks.
The return of the widely loved Ford Ranger was without a doubt highly anticipated. And luckily for Ford the Ranger has been extremely well received. Automotive reviewers have been heaping praise on the mid-size truck. Adding to the truck’s growing list of accolades, Mark Phelan of The Detroit Free Press recently awarded the Ranger with the Free Press Truck of the Year award. “You never know what you’ve got till it’s gone,” says Phelan in his article discussing why he likes the Ranger so much. “When Ford ended production of the Ranger compact pickup after a 29-year run in 2012, it never occurred to me I’d miss the little truck that had been one of the affordable new vehicles of choice as a generation graduated from hand-me-down family wheels.”
That the Ranger is winning awards and praise left and right isn’t all that surprising. The mid-size truck offers a lot of goodness with an affordable base price of $24,410. And thanks to a peppy 270 horsepower, 2.3-liter four-cylinder paired with a 10-speed automatic the Ranger offers strong performance out of the gate. “Less than a decade after they dropped the little truck, here we are, celebrating a new Ranger that makes the case for value,” says Phelan. Even loaded with off-road capability and up-to-date technology like collision alert and automatic braking, he notes that the Ranger’s price is noticeably lower than the Jeep Gladiator, another mid-size truck offering that has been a hit as well. The Gladiator came in second place for the Free Press Truck of the year award, with third place going to the Chevy Silverado 2500 and 3500 HD trucks.
