Very nice. Looks like it’s an early lariat before they switched the color-matched front bumper out for the grey accent.Well sadly they didn't have the raptor. They did have a lariat with the off-road package. The seats were more comfortable than the Colorado/canyons that were there. And the screen felt very comfortable to reach and looked great inside! Build date is sitting steady at 3/11. The Ford rep did say something he had heard there should be some movement within the next week or so for the okay to buy from Ford
Great hi res pics !Well sadly they didn't have the raptor. They did have a lariat with the off-road package. The seats were more comfortable than the Colorado/canyons that were there. And the screen felt very comfortable to reach and looked great inside! Build date is sitting steady at 3/11. The Ford rep did say something he had heard there should be some movement within the next week or so for the okay to buy from Ford
Chrome package does not have the gray accents.
Yeah - it's not like it's a huge thing, but I get the argument for it. I think your body position is totally different with the grab handle since you're leaned further from the vehicle. Makes it easier to swing your hips in and lead with your butt.
When I looked at it, it looked like they were on and got taken off, I assumed they were damaged at a show or in transportation.
I appreciate the verification of the shifter as a hand rest for using the screen! Thanks for such a detailed accountMy wife and I also went to the Milwaukee show tonight to validate our life choices on buying a new model year sight unseen. Verdict: Feeling very good about this!
Frame of reference here, I'm a big guy - 6'6", 300 pounds. Wanted to compare out various similar-ish vehicles. Unfortunately a bunch of them were totally dead and seats couldn't be moved around. Got to sit in the Lariat Ranger pictured above, along with a Colorado ZR2 (ZR1 was dead), Gladiator, Ridgeline, and sort-of a Frontier. There was one new Tacoma there but it was locked. The Ridgeline and Frontier weren't really in the group of stuff we're looking at but wanted to check them out anyway.
Seats - I agree that the Ranger actually had the most comfortable seat of any of these. Good range of motion in the adjustments, in particular seat pitch up and down had a lot of range.
Interior room I felt was really interesting. The ranger has OK shoulder clearance. It didn't bother me, but slouching off to your left while driving probably won't really be a thing. On the Colorado though, I really felt pinched in place, it would be genuinely uncomfortable for me to drive, I think. The Ridgeline felt very spacious in this area. Pictured below is me in the Ranger:
Speaking of driver space in general, knee room in the Ranger is fantastic - among the best vehicles I've sat in. Here, I'm including ability to move my knees left and right, under the wheel. Again this is from perspective as a tall person, this is typically a big problem point. Plus, where the ignition is even for the non-push start models the keys shouldn't be in the way either.
This is overall a huge contrast to the Colorado which really kind of sockets you deep down into a narrow tub - did not like the seating position there at all. You really are not able to move around in that thing. That goes for your arms, too. My wife said the Frontier felt similar - that one was dead so I couldn't move the seat, didn't even try it. The Ridgeline was more typical of my experience of smaller vehicles, knees being jammed into the bottom of the dash.
Headroom in all of these was honestly pretty great, I don't think I even had to have the seat dropped all the way down.
Rear seats also were interesting here. For my use case the rear is just dry, secure storage rather than somewhere humans will frequently sit. That said, below are photos of both the Ranger and the Colorado rear seats, with the driver seat in my maxed out backward position. I was actually able to cram myself into the Ranger, "behind" myself. I mean I'd probably shatter my legs in a crash and I wouldn't want to do it for more than a few miles. But the fact that I fit at all was impressive I thought.
Speaking of the rear area though - The fold down seat back wasn't as "flat" as I expected, and vertically it took up a ton of room when folded down. Actually I think something might have been broken on this display model, poking out near the rear center console. Kind of suspect I might leave these tipped up for general storage. But, you do have options.
Other thoughts on the interior:
Steering wheel is nicely shaped and proportioned. Colorado has better material wrapping it, though.
Door forms a very nice pocket for your arm and felt comfortable.
Vertical center screen is nice, I think. I really favor it over the "we glued a tablet to your dash" look. The Colorado's screen was surprisingly small, however they do have a very nice arrangement of physical buttons and toggles. That said, one thing I've really been curious about is the gear selector and screen interaction. This being a Lariat it's got the... puck thing. But I think this will be even more true for XL and XLT models- Yes, you can prop your wrist on the gear selector to stabilize your hand while you poke at the bottom of the screen:
Speaking of the screen and physical buttons though... This briefly came to life, and it looks like to change the face/feet vent selections you have to tap on a button, which then opens a menu. I couldn't figure out how to make it work before it died again... Not a fan of that. But at least there's a physical defrost button and realistically all I ever do is toggle that on and off. Incidentally I love the vents in here both in how they look and how they move.
The center console space is pretty nice. The wireless charging pad is sized well for modern phones - pictured here is a pixel 7 pro in a case, had maybe 1/2" vertical space left un-used. The flash here really does light up the Ford-brand plastic, though.
Other thoughts in no particular order:
I was a little worried the big hunk of plastic around the rear view mirror was going to bother me, it really didn't.
Rear quarter visibility over your right shoulder has a pretty big blind spot in the C pillar area. Visibility otherwise seemed pretty good.
My wife is very glad we got the running boards, I think I am too. However she was annoyed at the lack of a driver-side grab handle.
The box side step is in a really great spot I think. Sticks out less than the side-of-bumper Colorado version. I suspect this is actually going to be quite handy climbing in and out of the bed since it's in a great spot to grab the side of the box and swing your leg around - as long as you don't trip on the tailgate support cable.
The antenna whip is absolutely going to clip my garage door and I'm going to have to swap it for a stubby model.
The slide open section of the rear window looks goofy somehow from the exterior. Plus there's kind of intense bands of (I assume) heater strip around all of it. Overall though, I think the truck looks great in person.
I continue to loathe the Jeep Gladiator and 15 seconds spent inside one only reinforced my position.
Good Info - thanks for shareing.My wife and I also went to the Milwaukee show tonight to validate our life choices on buying a new model year sight unseen. Verdict: Feeling very good about this!
Frame of reference here, I'm a big guy - 6'6", 300 pounds. Wanted to compare out various similar-ish vehicles. Unfortunately a bunch of them were totally dead and seats couldn't be moved around. Got to sit in the Lariat Ranger pictured above, along with a Colorado ZR2 (ZR1 was dead), Gladiator, Ridgeline, and sort-of a Frontier. There was one new Tacoma there but it was locked. The Ridgeline and Frontier weren't really in the group of stuff we're looking at but wanted to check them out anyway.
Seats - I agree that the Ranger actually had the most comfortable seat of any of these. Good range of motion in the adjustments, in particular seat pitch up and down had a lot of range.
Interior room I felt was really interesting. The ranger has OK shoulder clearance. It didn't bother me, but slouching off to your left while driving probably won't really be a thing. On the Colorado though, I really felt pinched in place, it would be genuinely uncomfortable for me to drive, I think. The Ridgeline felt very spacious in this area. Pictured below is me in the Ranger:
Speaking of driver space in general, knee room in the Ranger is fantastic - among the best vehicles I've sat in. Here, I'm including ability to move my knees left and right, under the wheel. Again this is from perspective as a tall person, this is typically a big problem point. Plus, where the ignition is even for the non-push start models the keys shouldn't be in the way either.
This is overall a huge contrast to the Colorado which really kind of sockets you deep down into a narrow tub - did not like the seating position there at all. You really are not able to move around in that thing. That goes for your arms, too. My wife said the Frontier felt similar - that one was dead so I couldn't move the seat, didn't even try it. The Ridgeline was more typical of my experience of smaller vehicles, knees being jammed into the bottom of the dash.
Headroom in all of these was honestly pretty great, I don't think I even had to have the seat dropped all the way down.
Rear seats also were interesting here. For my use case the rear is just dry, secure storage rather than somewhere humans will frequently sit. That said, below are photos of both the Ranger and the Colorado rear seats, with the driver seat in my maxed out backward position. I was actually able to cram myself into the Ranger, "behind" myself. I mean I'd probably shatter my legs in a crash and I wouldn't want to do it for more than a few miles. But the fact that I fit at all was impressive I thought.
Speaking of the rear area though - The fold down seat back wasn't as "flat" as I expected, and vertically it took up a ton of room when folded down. Actually I think something might have been broken on this display model, poking out near the rear center console. Kind of suspect I might leave these tipped up for general storage. But, you do have options.
Other thoughts on the interior:
Steering wheel is nicely shaped and proportioned. Colorado has better material wrapping it, though.
Door forms a very nice pocket for your arm and felt comfortable.
Vertical center screen is nice, I think. I really favor it over the "we glued a tablet to your dash" look. The Colorado's screen was surprisingly small, however they do have a very nice arrangement of physical buttons and toggles. That said, one thing I've really been curious about is the gear selector and screen interaction. This being a Lariat it's got the... puck thing. But I think this will be even more true for XL and XLT models- Yes, you can prop your wrist on the gear selector to stabilize your hand while you poke at the bottom of the screen:
Speaking of the screen and physical buttons though... This briefly came to life, and it looks like to change the face/feet vent selections you have to tap on a button, which then opens a menu. I couldn't figure out how to make it work before it died again... Not a fan of that. But at least there's a physical defrost button and realistically all I ever do is toggle that on and off. Incidentally I love the vents in here both in how they look and how they move.
The center console space is pretty nice. The wireless charging pad is sized well for modern phones - pictured here is a pixel 7 pro in a case, had maybe 1/2" vertical space left un-used. The flash here really does light up the Ford-brand plastic, though.
Other thoughts in no particular order:
I was a little worried the big hunk of plastic around the rear view mirror was going to bother me, it really didn't.
Rear quarter visibility over your right shoulder has a pretty big blind spot in the C pillar area. Visibility otherwise seemed pretty good.
My wife is very glad we got the running boards, I think I am too. However she was annoyed at the lack of a driver-side grab handle.
The box side step is in a really great spot I think. Sticks out less than the side-of-bumper Colorado version. I suspect this is actually going to be quite handy climbing in and out of the bed since it's in a great spot to grab the side of the box and swing your leg around - as long as you don't trip on the tailgate support cable.
The antenna whip is absolutely going to clip my garage door and I'm going to have to swap it for a stubby model.
The slide open section of the rear window looks goofy somehow from the exterior. Plus there's kind of intense bands of (I assume) heater strip around all of it. Overall though, I think the truck looks great in person.
I continue to loathe the Jeep Gladiator and 15 seconds spent inside one only reinforced my position.
