If you visit the Ford Philippines' website today, what will first greet you is a banner image of a high-performance pickup it calls the Ranger Raptor driving on a desert floor with the phrase "Coming in 2018" underneath the model name. With an announcement like this, Ford Philippines has practically all but confirmed that it is bringing the vehicle to the Philippines in 2018 when it officially goes on sale globally.
The practice is not new to Ford Philippines; in January 2016, it did something similar with the second-generation Ford GT when it advised the site's visitors to "check back in February for application details." For the Ranger Raptor, Ford Philippines has gone so far as to say that "2018 is officially (the) 'Year of the Raptor,'" and that "the meanest and most badass 4x4 pick-up truck on the planet finally arrives next year."
While those statements doesn't officially confirm with 100-percent veracity that Ford Philippines is indeed bringing in the Ranger Raptor, it will be a mistake if it didn't do so, considering how popular the current Ford Ranger is locally. Also, teasing about the vehicle and then not making it available locally eventually would be embarrassing for Ford's local office.
So far though, Ford has confirmed the Ranger Raptor will arrive in the Asia Pacific region in 2018 and that the vehicle is a "purpose-built, desert-racing inspired pickup truck."
"We are very excited to bring Asia Pacific’s toughest and smartest pickup truck to a whole new level," said Trevor Worthington, vice president for product development for Ford Asia Pacific. "Ford Ranger Raptor will offer Ranger fans a fantastic opportunity to own an authentic off-road performance version of their favorite truck for the first time."
Inspired by its big brother, the F-150 Raptor, the Ranger Raptor "brings the thrilling off-road performance capabilities of the 'Raptor' to the Ranger for the first time ever."
"Combining the Raptor’s advanced off-road capabilities with the versatility of the Ranger is a significant accomplishment for Ford's world-class engineering and design teams," said Jamal Hameedi, chief engineer for Ford Performance, the company's in-house brand that creates its high-performance models like the aforementioned F-150 Raptor and GT, plus the Mustang Shelby, Focus RS, Focus ST, and Fiesta ST.
As for its price, the speculation based on various reports from Australia, where Ford is developing and testing the Ranger Raptor as you'll see in the video below, is that it could be close to the flagship Ranger Wildtrak which, in 4x4 MT trim, is priced at around AU$ 65,000 or over P2.67 million. For now, we'll just have to w ait and see how much Ford Philippines will ask for the local-market Ranger Raptor. Who knows, it could be priced close to the Philippine-market Ranger Wildtrak which, in similar trim, costs P1.739 million instead.
[embed>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkSgsWjmxt4[/embed>
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