2019 Ranger vs. 2018 Tacoma: Battle for Mid-Size Supremacy

By Brett Foote - December 31, 2018

Ford’s Ranger revival is poised to claim yet another sales crown. But first, it has to beat out the reigning champ.

Just a few years ago, the mid-size truck (not to mention compacts) looked like a goner. People were flocking to full-size trucks in throes, abandoning smaller pickups altogether. So Ford, always a company that tries to be proactive, chose to abandon their once-beloved Ranger in favor of focusing its efforts and dollars on making the F-Series even better. But then, a funny thing happened.

People started buying mid-size trucks again. With average transaction pricing for full-size trucks skyrocketing, young folks and those who needed an affordable workhorse began to seek out other options. Toyota Tacoma sales began to climb steadily, prompting Chevy to develop a mid-sizer of their own — the Colorado. And now, Ford is finally reentering the segment by bringing a slightly revised version of their larger global Ranger back to the states.

This time around, it isn’t about Ford vs Chevy. The new 2019 Ranger must unseat the Tacoma to become America’s best-selling mid-sizer. And while we’ll have to wait a few months to see how that battle ultimately pans out, we do have a nice little preview of how these two trucks stack up thanks to an early comparison test completed by PickupTrucks.com. The test included a traditional pavement-based road test, loaded-up city jaunt, and some fun at an off-road park.

On paper, these two trucks are actually very similar. Both come with 5-foot beds and wheelbases only 0.6 inches apart. The biggest difference, of course, lies under the hood. The Tacoma uses a naturally-aspirated 3.5-liter V6 to produce 278 hp and 265 lb-ft of torque. The Ranger, a turbocharged 2.3-liter four-cylinder pumping out 270 hp and 310 lb-ft. Toyota likewise keeps it old school with a 6-speed automatic transmission versus the Ranger’s newfangled 10-speed box.

That big difference in torque, coupled with smart gearing, was enough to give the Ranger the edge in PT’s powertrain grades. “The more I drive the Ranger, the more I’m surprised at how powerful the four-cylinder feels,” one tester noted. “Especially when you knock the shift lever down into Sport mode. The revs stay up, throttle response gets more sensitive, and when you want to jump into or out of traffic, you practically just think and it happens.”

“The Ranger’s powertrain makes it a legitimately fun truck to drive around, even in town,” added the second test driver. “Whether it’s in Drive or Sport, the engine is eager to rev and quick to get into the power. And that’s in stark contrast to the Toyota’s V-6, which needs to be poked and prodded.”

Even though the Tacoma tested was a TRD Sport model, it lacked the Ranger FX4’s locking rear differential and Trail Control system. too. But those specialized options didn’t hinder on-road performance. “Though it’s set up for off-road, I found it to be pretty good on pavement as well,” PT noted. “Its tuning isn’t so soft that you get too much body roll.”

The testers came away disappointed with the power delivery and steering on the Tacoma, however. “The engine just takes longer to get into the power, and it feels like your foot is in the floormat all the time,” one tester said. “[The steering] is too heavy at low speeds and too light at high speeds. And that led to a bit of vagueness I didn’t like on the mountain roads.”

Those same attributes gave the Ranger the edge in PT’s off-road test, too. “When in low range, the extra gearing advantages of the Ranger’s 10-speed really helped on the rocky hill climbs with the better low-range gear (2.72:1 versus 2.57:1). Trail Control is pretty interesting technology designed to turn over throttle and braking duties to the computer. It’s technology and capability the TRD Sport couldn’t match.”

When PT loaded up both trucks to their maximum payload capacity, the gap widened even further. Despite the fact that the difference in vehicle weight is a mere 20 pounds. “To get a true payload rating, we subtracted those numbers from the factory gross vehicle weight rating and the Ranger crushed the Tacoma, 1,490 pounds to 1,060 pounds,” PT noted.

“This was probably one of the easier categories to score for me,” said the second tester. “It’s astonishing, to say the least, that Ford built the Ranger to be just as light as the other players in the class (with the help of aluminum doors, hood and tailgate). Yet it’s able to carry more than any other mid-size pickup.”

From there, the wins keep racking up. The Ranger edged out the Tacoma in interior quality, with copious headroom, comfortable seats, and better visibility. It wins with more modern technology and safety features. But there were a few details that kept this comparison from becoming a clean sweep.

The Ranger enjoys an edge in EPA fuel economy figures at 20/24/22 city/highway/combined. Which means it should theoretically beat the Tacoma, which carries ratings of 18/22/20. But in the real world, the Tacoma barely edged out the Ranger with a 21.4 mpg average versus 21.3. That’s close enough, however, that we’d call it a wash.

The Tacoma also won the bed technology battle with its two lockable storage compartments and 400-watt three-prong outlet, features that the Ranger lacks. And with a sticker price $4,000 less in this case, Toyota took home the value crown. Though PT did say that the Ranger “comes close to offering enough in terms of better on-road and off-road drivability, technology and interior quality to make up some of that difference in price.”

At the end of the day, those advantages weren’t enough to keep the Tacoma from losing its crown. The Ranger won the overall battle handily with a final score of 166 versus the Tacoma’s 149. “The Ford’s powertrain advantages and interior quality and technology really carried the day for it here,” PT concluded. “For the time being, we are comfortable saying that the Ranger was the clear winner of this competition. It looks like Ford’s time away from the mid-size class in the U.S. didn’t prevent it from making a high-quality entrant in its return.”

Surely, Toyota will address these shortcomings in the Toyota’s upcoming redesign. But if there’s one thing we know about Ford, it’s that they always works hard to stay ahead of the competition. And judging by their efforts with the new Ranger, it looks like they’re poised to claim yet another pickup sales trophy.