2016 Toyota Hilux vs Ford Ranger - Offroad & Review

Here they are , South Africa's two best selling Bucky , the face lifted Ford Ranger and the all new Toyota Hilux swapping places at the top of the sales charts like Adele and Justin Bieber , they might look very different , but they are similar in so many ways .

And so we have come to clip a legendary four by four proving ground to see which one might be the better buy right on the move in the Toyota and flicking into four wheel drive really is as easy as turning a knob on .

It's like turning your oven temperature up , basically no more mucking about with the lever .

So that's a big change for the Hilux .

It's a really comfortable car to be in .

It seems to deal with the rough stuff really well .

It's maybe a bit softer than the outgoing model and it works on both tar and out here in the middle of nowhere .

So the biggest engine you can get in the Hilux is now a two point eight liter turbo diesel gone is the three liter and it's got 100 and 30 kilowatts and 420 Newton meters , which is a bit less than the 147 and four 70 Newton meters offered by the 3.2 liter in the ranger , but it never feels like you're wanting for power .

There's more than enough here for overtaking or for crawling through the jungle , which is kind of what I feel like I'm doing right now over to the Toyota's interior now .

And as you can see it is quite different to the Ford .

They've gone for a much more classier look .

There's a lot of piano black plastics and the binnacle looks like it's been stolen from Alexis .

But these are all good things .

It's very comfortable in here and quite luxurious where the Toyota and the Ford both Excel is driving positions .

It feels like you're sitting in a car really .

And the Toyota has the added benefit of being able to reach and tilt , adjust the steering wheel .

Now , I think if I'm being picky , I might give the comfort win to the Toyota , but only just , and I'm not too mad about the materials on the seat and a couple of the finishes .

But overall , this is definitely the best Hilux interior ever .

Now , if you look at the highlights from the side on , it's got a bit of an odd look to it .

It sort of has a , an over life like it's , you know , its top lip is too long , but there's a good reason for that .

There's a good reason why the bumper is oddly shaped .

It's one when you're going through water and mud , it deflects it downwards instead of upwards and two gives the car much better approach angle .

The ranger has a kind of a big chin , like a uh like a Icelandic body builder .

You know , those guys you see on the Discovery Channel , throwing blocks of ice around that sort of thing .

I'm sure you're interested in the price .

Well , interestingly , this new Hilux is actually 3000 rand cheaper than the Hilux .

It replaces the ranger remains the more expensive option with a roughly 20,000 rand price difference between these two models shown here .

The Hilux 2.8 double cab four by four radar auto will set you back 548,000 rand .

While the ranger 3.2 double cab four by four XLT auto will cost you 567,000 rand into the ranger now and it's also just really really comfortable .

Both of these cars are very difficult to pick apart when it comes to ride quality and on road comfort , I think the ranger has a more solid feel to it .

It might just be because it's heavier .

It's got a bigger engine up front , weighing the nose down , but really there's not much between them does have the big 3.2 liter five cylinder engine though , which is very popular , very talky about 50 more than that offered in the Hilux , but it is a heavier car so it does sort of need it .

It will tow a great deal too .

They reckon 3.5 1000 kg actually for the ranger .

But accessing its power and accessing all its grant is so easy .

You simply turn a knob , put it into four low and it will basically crawl over anything .

Welcome to the interior of the Ford Ranger .

Now , you'll probably spend quite a lot of time in here and you'll notice that the face lift has received a host of upgrades .

First thing being the sync two system from Ford , that's fully touch activated .

And in front of me , I only have one analog dial .

The other two screens are completely digital .

They're very customizable and it all looks very modern .

It's actually the same as you'll get in the Ford Everest .

The whole interior has gone for that modern look and what I like is there's lots of points to charge and plug in your devices .

I've got 2 , 12 volt ports down here , two USB ports and a line in .

Overall , it's a very functional , very usable cabin and the comfort is pretty good too .

It's difficult to overestimate how important Bay are to the South African motorist and it's so tough .

It must be so tough as a manufacturer to try and meet all the needs of the public .

Your bucky has to be a workhorse , has to be a family car .

It has to be a leisure vehicle has to look pretty good .

So , you know , you can brag about it to your mates .

That's tough .

Get all that into one car and it still has to be able to drive through a river bed , which I just did earlier today , we did about a 30 K loop of gravel and tar in this , the Toyota and Isuzu K B and the V W Amaro and it's so close between the Toyota and the Ranger for ride comfort .

The other two are a little far behind in terms of drive quality .

But um this ranger and that high looks have really come a long way in making bucky more comfortable and I suppose most bucky will spend most of their time on tarmac .

So that's where you need it to be comfortable .

And between the Ranger and the Hilux for me , there's just no clear winner .

So can we pick a winner in this extremely tight competition ?

Well , the ranger has always excelled at being a leisure vehicle and that hasn't changed .

It's a bit bigger in the back and it's comfy on a wider variety of road surfaces .

But the Hilux has made big strides in both of those areas .

The interior has come a long , long way .

In fact , I think if I had to pick an interior to live with , I would pick the Hilux .

But the Ford has a bigger , more powerful engine and although this new 2.8 offers better fuel economy .

It's a real , real peach of an engine , very refined .

You won't miss the three liter D four D at all .

They both tow about 3.5 1000 kg .

But we do know of Hilux legendary reputation for reliability .

We know that there are some test meals in the country with over a million kilometers on the clock .

But all of these differences , all of these wins between the two cars are so marginal .

It's so close that we think it comes down to subjective things like brand loyalty and which one you prefer the look of .

So which one should you buy either the one you like the most ?