2025 Ford Ranger Raptor Review -- Golden Retriever Boyfriend

Sixty grand is a lot of money. These days, that sum also gets you a lot of truck from pretty much anyone you want it from. Toyota will sell you one heck of a Tacoma for that kind of money — one built for all the rigors of off-road use, overlanding, or any number of trendy outdoor activities (pickleball, anyone?). So will Chevy, and its Colorado ZR2 will functionally go anywhere anyone might need it to for around the $60,000 mark. Ford, of course, has its answer to the do-everything off-road truck equation.

The truck world has been waiting for a mid-size Raptor for more than a hot minute, and the smallest Raptor yet is the response. This one you see before you runs a cool $58,300 with its $750 of “LOOKATMEE” Raptor graphics, a $95 keyless entry pad, and a $495 spray-in bedliner. Plus the super cool and free Shelter Green paint, which is now in my personal running for the best color Ford makes on any of its current lineup. Of course, there’s also all the Raptor goods included in the truck’s $55,365 MSRP.

This is comprised of what one might call “The Raptor Sauce.” Basically, it’s a big motor, here a twin-turbo 3.0-liter V6, paired with all the off-road capability Ford can throw at it for a reasonable amount of cash. With 405 horsepower and 430 pound-feet of torque, it’s a great recipe, and one which has helped make the F-150 and Bronco Raptors some of the most fun vehicles on the market. The Ranger Raptor’s suite of upgrades consists of a 10-speed automatic transmission, four-wheel drive, locking front and rear differentials, and beefy 33-inch BFGoodrich KO3 all-terrain tires sat on a wider track (with accompanying wider fenders). Typical of the Raptor lineup, the Ranger Raptor also packs adaptive 2.5-inch internal bypass shocks and an active exhaust with three modes: loud, Loud, and Guy-Everyone-Hates. Ford knows the Raptor demographic by this point.

Thankfully, the Pit-Vipers-and-a-can-of-Skoal looks are offset by some of the most charming driving characteristics you’ll encounter in a performance vehicle. All of these Raptors are like big, floppy rally cars, and up to this point, they’ve always needed to be scaled down. The biggest problem with the F-150 and the Bronco Raptor is their size. These vehicles are much too big to truly feel like the nimble Baja/rally-driven thing the parts list presents the trucks as. This time, scaling down the Raptor turns it into a Golden Retriever Boyfriend: Happy to do anything for you at almost any cost, but a little dumb. In like, an endearing sort of way. Not a “crypto to the moon” kinda way.

Even in the firmest and most aggressive Sport suspension setting, the Ranger Raptor is soft. Those squishy KO3 tires see to that. The car bounds along over almost any terrain like it's made of rubber, the V6 cracking and popping along, wind noise accompanied by the punctuated rush of air into the turbos. The 10-speed won’t let you down, and rarely if ever denies a shift. However, if it does, you’ll get no warning, and the annoyingly small gear indicator in manual mode is hardly any help on a rough trail or dirt fire road. It’ll rock crawl with the best of them, but so will lesser off-road-oriented Rangers like the Tremor. The Ranger’s locking diffs, crazy sticky tires, and lower ranges make almost any obstacle a joke, so long as you’ve got the clearance. Don’t worry, there’s usually plenty.

Where the Raptor excels is at speed. Remember: Big rally machine. Here, the Golden Retriever Boyfriend personality is on full display. The steering happily responds to the quick, minute movements required of driving on dirt or sand at speed, and the body rolls around, feeding information through the seats and into your inner ear. It’s easy to tell when the tires will let go, and when they do, it’s still fun. The best way to drive the Raptor on a dirt road is in 2H with the traction control off, the steering at its lightest setting, and the exhaust at annoyingly high decibels. The Ranger’s footprint also leaves you more room, and this Raptor can move around on trails that would otherwise feel deeply sketchy in its larger siblings. Like the eager-to-please partner, it can also have some drawbacks. It’s not clinginess, though, but a lack thereof. The Raptor does not like to slow down. The KO3s yield good grip off-road, but on pavement, it’s all too easy to lock up all four tires due simply to their size and off-road tread pattern. It also gets about a mile per gallon, or what feels like it, with average fuel economy just kissing 14 mpg over a week of trails, high-speed off-road driving, and city use.

The rest of the complaints can be levied at the interior space. For whatever reason, rocking the shifter into Drive, Park, or anything in between is a challenge, and more often than not it’s easy to end up in Neutral instead of Drive. There’s a total lack of positive feedback to differentiate the gears, and it’s a strange oversight we never got used to. The infotainment system’s 12.4-inch vertical screen looks good, but it’s often laggy, and the standard wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto sometimes struggled to connect — especially when the remote start system was used prior. The Ranger also suffers from the same midsize truck problem competitors do: rear passenger space and visibility can best be defined as “challenging.” Thankfully, the rest of the interior does its best not to offend, and the chairs are comfy with sporty orange accents and Raptor branding sprinkled throughout.

It’s easy to forgive this, even at this price point, simply because the Raptor experience is such an entertaining one. Ford continues to nail the mix of fun, whimsical attitude, and dumbfounding speed we’ve all come to expect, and the Ranger is a fitting addition to the Raptor lineup. We’re waiting eagerly for the inevitable Maverick Raptor, which should continue to prove that the smallest Raptor is the best one. After all, the real velociraptors were really only about as big as a medium-sized dog. But this Raptor is a Golden Retriever Boyfriend, happy to do anything for you, and does so in the dumbest, most carefree way possible every time. It might just be the most fun car Ford has built since the Mustang.

[Images © 2024 Chase Bierenkoven/TTAC.com]

Become a TTAC insider. Get the latest news, features, TTAC takes, and everything else that gets to the truth about cars first by  subscribing to our newsletter.