By Khulekani Dumisa

The bakkie space is very competitive and with customers spoilt for quality choice, it is not surprising to see manufactures improving their bakkie offerings all the time. Ford has now done this with its budget conscious XL which now comes with an optional Sport Pack as well as an optional eight-inch touchscreen. The options are available on all Ranger XL Single Cab, SuperCab and Double Cab models

Sport Pack

The Sport Pack comes with 17-inch black alloy wheels, black gloss grille, tubular sports bar and a black rear bumper. Customers can also opt for dealer-fitted black side steps.  These will enhance the visual appearance of the XL which comes as standard with a plain black grille and 16-inch alloys.

This is a particularly good move by Ford to offer factory backed options of parts that customers are going for in the after-sales market often without any backing and real risk voiding their factory warranty.

Upgraded infotainment

The Ranger XL can now be ordered with Ford’s optional touchscreen infotainment system in place of the entry-level SYNC1 unit with a four-inch LCD display. The system features a large eight-inch full colour touchscreen display with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

The XL Sport Pack adds R16,500 to the base price of the Ranger XL series, while the optional eight-inch touchscreen infotainment system and dealer-fitted side steps are available for R6,080 and R5,050, respectively.

The Ranger XL is powered by Ford’s 2.2-litre four-cylinder Duratorq TDCi engine which produces 118kW of power and 385Nm of torque.