Ranger Mods

One week into owning a new 2019 Wildtrak PX3 (3,2 6spd), only done 300km so far. Traded in my 2016 Wildtrak PX2 3,2 6spd with a mere 32k on the clock.

No piccies yet, getting window-tinting done today. Only option from factory that i took was the standard blackwheels.

The 3y warranty of the old car was to expire by the end of June'19, the new one now have 5y wty. Only cost me $20 pm extra on my lease-payments to upgrade, and left me with >$4k cash in my pocket with trade-in vs payout. Comp insurance on the new one almost $300 cheaper than what it would have been if I did the rego which was due the end of this month. With all these facts it was a no-brainer to upgrade in my opinion.

Some early feedback:

Likes:
- Keyless entry with push-button start – This is not something that I would have had as high priority for my next new car, but now I love it! Still reaching for the key with my right hand to shut off the car lol.
- Steering. The steering feels a bit refined from the PX2. The PX2 was already good in my opinion, but the new one is lighter again at slow speeds and provide excellent feedback at higher speeds.
- Suspension. The PX2 already had a very nice ride quality for a ute in my opinion, especially when compared to my son’s 2016 Hilux!! But again, I detect refinement on the new one, it has an even smoother ride and almost zero body roll around roundabouts etc. Ford engineers done great work here.
- Engine responsiveness: This car feels more responsive than my older one, even though I never felt like the old one was bad in any way. Sure, it had a bit of throttle lag, but that didn’t bother me at all. From what I read about aftermarket throttle controllers such as the iDrive, the new PX3 feels like it has an iDrive installed which had been set at almost a too sensitive setting. I love it.
- Gear changes: The gearbox shifting points must have been recalibrated, it doesn’t feel like it wants to hold on to 2nd gear for too long anymore like with the old one. The shifting pattern feels snappier and at more appropriate times. Perhaps that will change as it adapts to my driving style, time will tell.
- HID low beams: So much better than the candles they used in the previous model. But why do the high beams still use candles in the PX3? I will be installing my STEDI LEDs in the high beams when I get a chance. (And sell my STEDI low beam LEDs as they are not required anymore.)
- Fogs: Are now LED fogs with a great lighting pattern which complements the HID low beams perfectly. (I only use the fogs on quiet outback roads to not annoy others)
- Active noise cancellation: The cabin certainly is quieter in the new car but hard to distinguish how effective the active noise cancelling actually is as I’m not sure if it can be disabled through a setting somewhere to test. I believe the car has an acoustic front windscreen as well which the older models did not have?
- Self-park feature: I haven’t even tried this yet, and most probably will hardly if ever be using it as I don’t really get to park in parallel parking spots these days.
- Sync3 voice – This one actually understands my Souf Efriken accent with no problems at all. I like the apple carplay, the capacitive touch and fingerprint free touchpad.
- Assisted Tailgate: I had a couple of the fairly cheap no-name tailgate assist struts on my old ute which worked well, I did remove those and as an experiment installed one only on the new car’s tailgate. The combination of the new factory torsion bar and one strut now perfectly matches the weight of the tailgate, and it now literally feels like only a few grams when closing / opening it. Have to almost push it down to open completely and it will not slam at all when it is let go at any angle.
- Dust seal in tray/ tailgate: The tubliner has been changed and now incorporates a built-in rubberseal for the tailgate. The liner on the tailgate also now go up to the top thereof where the PX2 had an inch or so gap which left the paintwork exposed on that vulnerable edge.
- Speed sign recognition: This is a great feature, especially with roadworks everywhere these days which the GPS based speed limit indicator in the old car did not know of. It does pick up 40 school-zone signs and then warn when you are doing your legal 50 or 60 outside of school-hours but that is fine and not bothersome to me. The level of warnings can be adjusted for both low speed and higher speed bands.


What I do miss a little from my PX2 (though not complaining about):
- 4 (new)vs 6 (old)tie-down points. The 2 tie-down points in the center of the tub sides are now deleted in the PX3. These were the 2 points I used 99% of the times to strap down loads from sliding all over the place. They must have removed these as I image it could try to bend the tray sides inwards when applying too much tension to them. I wonder if I could retrofit 2 x tie-down points here again as the tub liner now only has one fastener in that spot & not sure if there is still a spot for the second bolt behind the tub liner.
- Gear position Indicators next to gear-lever do not illuminate anymore. (I know it does indicate on the instrument cluster). It just sorts of feels ‘faulty’ to me when I look down that way…
- Not a big fan of the glossy dark grey panels all over the inside and better liked the more matt finish, carbon fibre looks PX2 WT panels.
- I like the full leather (pleather??) of the PX3 seats, was not the biggest fan of the orange fabric inserts of the previous one though I had neoprene seat covers on the old one. Still undecided if want to install these covers again on the new car.


Observations
- New radar position. The radar is now centered in front of the car and not tucked to the RH side close to the RH fog light. Cannot tell any difference in operation thereof (yet). I hope not to ever need to test the emergency braking which now comes with the new model.
- The row of red LEDs on top of dash for a heads-up distance indicator / collision warning is now deleted from the PX3, not that I miss it, but I didn’t mind it either in the old car.
- Turbo sound: I never heard the turbo in the PX2, in the PX3 it is audible at times as a feint whistle when it spools up at low speeds. Could it be that the PX3 has a different turbo (or variable vane settings) than the PX2 which attributes to the punchier feel / responsiveness of the throttle??
- Occasional vibration / harmonics felt through my foot on the accelerator at certain revs, I have read about this in earlier reviews of when PX2 was released, but never experienced it in my 2016 PX2.
- Ford could have added Blind Spot indicators given all the sensors already on the car, would be worth an extra hundred or so $ me thinks


Complains:
- Nothing as of yet and hope it stays this way

Wondering about:
- I was originally under the impression that the Ranger’s DPF system used AdBlue as in the Everest but apparently not. Does it inject diesel during regeneration like the Hilux?
- Too early to tell re fuel consumption, only done 200km so far

Nice write up, thanks for sharing.

Couple of notes.

- Active noise cancellation: The cabin certainly is quieter in the new car but hard to distinguish how effective the active noise cancelling actually is as I’m not sure if it can be disabled through a setting somewhere to test. I believe the car has an acoustic front windscreen as well which the older models did not have? "It can be disabled in asbuilt and is the only way"

- Active noise cancellation: The cabin certainly is quieter in the new car but hard to distinguish how effective the active noise cancelling actually is as I’m not sure if it can be disabled through a setting somewhere to test. I believe the car has an acoustic front windscreen as well which the older models did not have? "I do not beleive they are there. Parking sensors are not related to BLISS at all"

Enjoy your new ride and thank you for going to the effort of the write up.

Interesting observations. I have a 2018 PX2 and a friend has a 2018 PX3, both Wildtrack models. I'd not noticed the tie-down point removal in his tub but at least it gives me something to say mine has that his doesnt!

There must have been a few additions to the PX2 toward the end of its life as mine has the tub seal and carplay. I can also hear the turbo and wastegate quite a lot with the driver's window open. Got to get it at just the right combination of engine load and throttle position and it whistles well before giving a slight "chuff" on lift-off.

I agree with all your other points and dont think the PX3 is a better car as such, it's just evolved a little to keep up with the times.

i'm sure i read that the PX3 does reverse park parking by auto park as well?! maybe i dreamt it, but maybe more useful than parallel

PX3 only does parallel auto-park, I believe in the USA some of the cars have angle auto-park as well. I definitely recommend trying it out, just for the crack of driving a car towards another vehicle and having the steering turn itself in - quite freaky the first time and pretty cool after that. It's a good party trick, except for those people who seem inept at parallel parking, then I imagine it's really useful.

I've used it in the day a few times and it is very effective, at night I've had it try and park into another vehicle, and into a tree on another occasion. I need to play with it a bit more in the dark to see if I can make it work reliably, it happens that there is a busy parallel park spot when dropping the kids off to soccer in the dark, but futzing around with the auto-park and having it aim for a tree is somewhat embarrassing as a queue forms behind, so I'd rather just park the old fashioned way, it's just as quick if you do it right.

As for the blind spot warning, I thought that came with the tech pack and was pretty unimpressed when I found out it was missing. Seems a stupid omission to me, it's pretty common on a lot of cars now and reduces the risk of an error when lane changing. Luckily the ranger has good mirrors but the blind spot is still there.

I find if you have your mirrors adjusted correctly then there is practically no blindspot.