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- One Ford Ranger leaves the production line every two minutes.
- There are more than 2 700 parts in each Ranger.
- A state-of-the-art paint scanner can detect coating defects smaller than a needlepoint.
The new Ford Ranger, which was introduced to South Africa at the end of 2022, has been a quantifiable success locally and internationally. Some of its awards include the first bakkie to win the South African Car of the Year competition, followed by the International Pick-up Award for the third time – establishing a new record.
A year after its launch, the Ranger again made history with its first-ever plug-in hybrid model, which will be manufactured in South Africa and exported to markets like New Zealand and Australia.
One of SA's top-selling bakkies naturally comes packed with top facts, and we've listed 10 of the best to sharpen your bakkie knowledge around the braai.
1. One Ford Ranger rolls off the production line every two minutes at Ford factories in South Africa (Silverton Assembly Plant) and Thailand (Ford Thailand Manufacturing).
2. There are almost 600 robots on the chassis line to help maintain production volumes, with each chassis taking around three hours to build.
3. There are around 3 000 to 4 000 spot welds in the body of every single Ranger, and corrosion protection is provided by dipping the body in 12 chemical baths before painting.
4. Every single Ranger is covered with approximately eight litres of Ford's innovative 3-wet High Solids Paint system, which allows the primer (3.0 litres), base coat (3.0 litres) and clear coat (2.0 litres) to be applied while each coat is still wet.
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5. The 3-wet paint process used at the Ford Silverton Assembly Plant and Ford Thailand Manufacturing ensures durability and chip resistance. These processes also reduce CO2 and VOC emissions because of savings made from reductions in the size of paint booths, decreasing numbers of paint purging, and ovens required to cure the paint. After painting, each Ranger passes through a state-of-the-art paint scanner. This electronic eye can detect coating defects as small as 0.2 mm2, smaller than a needlepoint.
6. There are more than 2 700 parts in each Ford Ranger. Each vehicle undergoes nearly 1 000 quality confirmation checks before it's allowed to be sent to a dealership. Technicians also perform 300 electronic diagnostics checks and 35 electrical current-based tests to match Ford's quality expectations.
7. One of the critical quality confirmation checks is the Water Test, which sees every Ranger sprayed with water for 20 minutes in a controlled pressure test to replicate the worst rainstorm imaginable.
After the water jets are turned off, the team visually inspect the Ranger's taillights, headlights and fog lights to ensure no water has entered the seals. The water used doesn't go to waste; it drains into the floor and is recycled for use in subsequent tests.
8. Every door is then opened, and the rubber seals are inspected for any signs of water ingress. To ensure the cabin floor remains dry, inspectors use a specially-made probe that sends an audible alert if it detects any moisture.
9. Once the final quality confirmation check has been completed inside the factory, each Ford Ranger must cross three final hurdles before it can be loaded up and sent to dealerships around the world.
These are the Squeak and Rattle Track, High-Speed Track and Rough Road Track, and each vehicle must complete one full pass to be approved for release.
10. To ensure the steering and wheels are aligned and the headlights are pointing where they need to, an example of every single Ranger variant is removed from the line randomly every day. A selection of lasers and cameras are then used to check wheel alignment and headlights, while a quick lap of the Steering Alignment Test Track shows if the steering wheel is on straight and the vehicle drives straight as an arrow.
