Less responsive than a Ranger?? how could that be? mine must use an egg timer to decide how long to wait after my foot goes down. I can't believe anything could be less responsive
Just spent the morning driving one again. Typical Toyota 4 cyl -high revving and won't let you put torque through the box so it ends up driving like a corolla - nothing going on below 2000 rpm and a couple of gear changes. I agree the Ford has the electronic throttle delay which is annoying, but in traffic if you want to go you just put your foot down and it goes. The hilux changes back a couple of gears, gets out of eco mode, spins up to about 1800 and things start to happen - and they do happen - just eventually. Not holding a gear drove me nuts with my last hilux. I can't see it towing anything like a ranger.
I can't get comfortable with my right leg catching between the steering wheel and the door, and the whole drivers cockpit being a lot smaller than the ranger - it's about the size of my last RC Colorado which wasn't great on size either. I'm not a small guy so I rate the ability to fit pretty highly.
The steering is also strange as hell after the ranger but I think that might be a subjective thing. The whole thing feels lighter and bouncier on the road than a ranger - probably because it is. This ute is also empty and on stock suspension where the ranger is on ARB all round and carries 300+ KG 'empty'.
All up it's not a bad ute at all, has a great reverse camera, good tailgate latches, stupid sports shift auto gate, good storage for crap and a cruise control.
Not enough to not buy one, not enough to want one over what I drive now. I'll probably end up with one in a couple of years when mine is due for replacement at this rate - commercial decisions and having fights with nearly every other local dealer over various fleet issues - Toyota included - just they have come back into favour recently.