TAKING DELIVERY of my Ranger Raptor! What your delivery fee covers & answering questions!

CarExpert

It's the big day! After ordering my Ranger Raptor a while back and getting the personal allocation of a dealer principal, it was time to collect my beast! Massive thanks to Miedecke Ford in Port Macquarie for accommodating us and allowing us to film the entire pre-delivery process.  More Ford content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/ford/ More Ford Ranger content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/ford/ranger  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 The Reveal 0:46 Pre-Delivery 2:36 On the road 6:48 Fuel Economy 9:35 Exhaust Test 11:58 Your Questions 12:31 Verdict 23:02  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #ford #ranger #raptor #delivery #review

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul, that is my Ranger Raptor. We're about to take delivery of it and in this video,

00:05 I obviously want to take delivery and hit the road, but I also wanted to explain

00:08 what is actually involved in pre-delivery. That is a couple of grand, maybe even more,

00:12 that you actually pay to a dealer to get your car re- and running through the entire process

00:17 and exactly what happens. I'm also going to explain how I got this car as early as I did,

00:21 plus the way that you guys can actually get your next Ranger Raptor a little earlier than what some

00:26 people are currently experiencing. And then finally, we're going to hit the road and I'm

00:29 going to answer as many questions as I can that you guys have sent through on social media.

00:34 Now, if you haven't done so already, please make sure you subscribe to the channel and hit the bell

00:37 icon. And if you do want to skip ahead to other parts of this video, you can use the time codes

00:41 on the screen, or if you're on YouTube, you can scroll down and use the chapters below.

00:44 But let's get cracking. So it is time to reveal the car. I know you know what it looks like,

00:50 but I'll run you through the spec that I chose. We'll get rid of our little ribbon over here first.

00:56 All right, let's do it. Here it comes.

00:58 Look at that. Some expert silking skills. So I went with Conquer Grey. I saw this colour when

01:06 it first launched and also with some of the pre-development cars that we drive, and I thought

01:10 it just looked really cool. And I'm glad that I chose it. It looks fantastic both in the sun and

01:15 here in the shade as well. And later on, when we talk about pre-delivery, I'll run you through how

01:18 they get it looking so good as part of that whole delivery process. There weren't really sort of any

01:23 options for me to pick with this, but I did go with the Beadlock rims. So Sean, come around here

01:28 and I'll show you what they look like. Okay, so down here, these are the Beadlock capable rims.

01:32 So this is actually just a dress kit that sits around the edge there. You have to actually get

01:37 the Beadlock accessory kit if you do want to use the Beadlock functionality. And keep in mind as

01:42 well, you can't drive on public roads with Beadlocks running on the car. So you need to

01:47 drive to your destination and then go to an off-road destination and then fit the actual

01:51 Beadlocks and it is a pain in the ass process. So why did I choose them? I don't know. I just

01:56 thought they'd look cool. Yeah, they are here. I think it actually works well with the colour.

02:00 Ford has actually just updated this in terms of pricing. So any cars that are delivered from March

02:06 2023 are now more expensive, but they also get the ability to fit an electronic roll cover on

02:11 the tray. And they've also changed the spray and bed liner here in the Raptor to just a fit-in

02:17 sort of plastic one. And that allows them to fit that electronic roll cover as well. It also means

02:21 you get the key button as well and the functionality inside the tray. So let's run through the pre-

02:27 delivery process and I'll give you a better idea of what is actually involved in preparing one of

02:31 these cars once it comes out of the factory and is ready to be picked up by the customer.

02:36 So when you pay your dealer delivery fee, what does it actually cover? Well, the first cost

02:44 component is the car being trucked from the boat to a holding yard and then from the holding yard

02:49 to your dealership. Obviously, the further the dealership from the holding yard, the more that

02:53 costs to actually achieve. Once it arrives at the dealership, one of the pre-delivery staff check

02:57 over the car to ensure it hasn't been damaged in transit. It'll then sit in the holding yard at the

03:02 dealer until it's ready for the pre-delivery process. For the Raptor in particular, it comes

03:07 into the dealership's pre-delivery area and one of the pre-delivery staff tests all door handles,

03:13 switches, USB ports and lights to ensure they're all operational.

03:17 The tyres are torque checked and then it goes up onto a hoist. Once on the hoist,

03:25 the lower engine guard is removed to ensure all the oil lugs are correctly sealed and not leaking.

03:30 There's also a visual inspection of the underbody to ensure all of the components are in their

03:34 correct position and nothing is too out of the ordinary. At this point, the car heads out for

03:38 a test drive where all of the four-wheel drive modes are checked and the driver also tests some

03:42 of the vehicle's basic safety assist functions. Once it returns back to the dealership, it's up

03:49 onto another hoist for a wheel alignment to ensure there's no deviation from factory specs.

03:54 My car actually had a slight change on the front to bring it back within specification,

03:59 but it wasn't anything too drastic. From there, it's off to the wash bay where all the stickers

04:03 are removed and the car has a set of protective chemicals sprayed onto it.

04:07 [Music]

04:13 It then finally heads into the detailing bay where all of the seat covers are removed,

04:17 the exterior and interior are detailed and then it goes off to the dealership for the customer

04:22 delivery. Okay, so now you understand how the pre-delivery process works and why they take

04:30 your money to get the car ready. Now, I'm here with this bloke that I met on social media,

04:34 George Mazzucchi. You're the dealer principal here in Port Macquarie, Ford and a stack of other

04:39 dealerships. Can you explain to everyone how I managed to get this a little bit early?

04:44 Yeah, so it's, as you say, dealer principal of the business and we're going through a bit of a

04:50 rebirth and new showroom and really reinvesting in the business and I thought it'd be great for us

04:56 to get the publicity of delivering you a car. So, I actually put my hand up and gave you mine,

05:00 you lucky bugger, but yeah, so that's how we got here really.

05:04 No, and look, that was a cool thing because I didn't want to trample on any customer's toes

05:07 and I didn't want to jump the queue and when George offered his personal car, I was like,

05:10 okay, I'm going to take it off him and he can walk.

05:13 I didn't have to twist you hard, I'm very hard.

05:16 Exactly. Now, we also had a quick chat as well. I know a lot of people are so interested in the

05:21 Raptor, they're trying to get their hands on one. Some are being told 12, 24-month wait on these.

05:27 How does the allocation process work? I keep telling people go to a regional dealer because

05:31 they may get a smaller allocation but you have less demand, right?

05:35 Yeah, exactly right. So, basically the way it works is we've got a very good history of high

05:39 series Ranger. In Port Macquarie, we've been very lucky. We've sold a lot of

05:42 Wildtracks and XLTs in the past and that feeds into the way that Ford allocates the cars and so

05:49 they see us as a high-performing, high series Ranger dealer and as a result,

05:54 we get a healthy allocation which is great for us.

05:57 Now, I don't want to promise anything but if you give these guys a call,

06:00 I'm hoping they might be able to get you a car a little early. Obviously,

06:03 if you flood them all with calls, it's not going to happen but if you can't get one through Port

06:07 Macquarie, go to your regional dealers because not only are you supporting a regional dealer,

06:11 you are likely to get a car ahead of a city dealership as well. So,

06:14 hopefully that's enough incentive for people to do it. How has the interest been so far in Ranger

06:18 and Raptor as well? Honestly, it's blown us away as you can imagine. When it was first announced,

06:24 we had a huge amount of inquiry but when they landed, it went nuts and then with Everest as

06:30 well, same thing. So, look, we've enjoyed having you, mate. To be honest, aside from allowing space

06:35 for the filming, we haven't really done anything we wouldn't do for anyone else but yeah, it's been

06:41 a pleasure to have you. Excellent, mate. Well, thank you again. Let's hit the road, Sean,

06:44 and rig up some cameras and finally go for a drive in my Raptor.

06:48 Okay, we are leaving. It's time to start her up for the first time.

06:53 Yes, love that cold start. So, we have a fair old drive ahead of us. I'm going to have to try

07:01 and make sure I don't smash anything on my way out here. But we are driving here from Port Macquarie

07:08 all the way down to Melbourne, so it is going to be some good fun to get to know the car and see

07:14 what it's actually like to live with. All right, it is time to leave the dealership and hit the

07:22 road. So, what I'm going to be doing is answering all your questions. I put a call out on social

07:27 and wanted you to fire off any questions you had about the Raptor and my experience, and I have an

07:32 absolute stack of them. So, I'm going to answer as much as I possibly can, and then we will see how we go.

07:40 So, first impressions. Yeah, look, I have driven this before a few times now, but I don't know,

07:48 it just feels a little bit different driving my own car. You know, the car that I own, that

07:53 I've actually followed like all along from the production process through to here today.

07:58 Yeah, it just does feel a little bit different. And look, the good news is it feels exactly like

08:04 all the press cars as well, which means hopefully if you buy one you're not going to have any

08:08 dramas with it. Yeah, the ride's great in these, and even on these roads here in Port Macquarie.

08:13 They had a stack of floods last year, there's heaps of potholes and stuff, and it is just cruising

08:17 along really nicely. Everything looks, feels and smells very fresh as well. So, my car has 115

08:24 kilometres on the clock, and basically it arrived here in Australia at the dealership with 50

08:30 kilometres on the clock, and as part of that pre-delivery process they do test drive with the

08:35 car and that kind of thing, so that sort of bumps your delivery kilometres up. This is all sort of

08:40 perfectly normal. Anything much higher than that, I'd have a bit of a concern, but to me this shows

08:44 me that they have actually checked the car out to make sure it's all okay and that there haven't

08:49 been any dramas. I think I mentioned before the difference between regional dealers and city

08:54 dealers. City dealers may go through a lot of these and have a lot of volume to get through and

08:58 may not spend as much time with each car, whereas here I feel like they've actually dedicated the

09:02 time to make sure that my car is ready to rumble as soon as I hop into it. And if you're watching

09:08 this outside of Australia, Port Macquarie to Melbourne is about 1100 kilometres or something

09:16 like that, so it is a fair old hike, but I am looking forward to really getting to know the car.

09:35 Now, before I get to your questions, I just wanted to quickly run through fuel economy and what I'm

09:40 experiencing so far. So the sticker on the window says 11.5 litres per 100 k's. That's on the

09:45 combined cycle. So the drive from Port Macquarie to Newcastle, which is about sort of 200-odd k's,

09:54 averaged 11.6 litres per 100 k's. That was in four-wheel drive automatic. I've now changed

10:01 it to two-wheel drive high range, and it's actually dropping down slowly. So it's at 11.5

10:07 now, and I'll keep an eye on it, but I can see that there is a slight difference because when

10:11 you do bring the little meter up ahead of the screen that shows you where the torque's going,

10:14 if you do have it in 4A, it is shuffling torque to the front sometimes. So that means you are

10:21 using energy and you're basically using fuel then as well. So yeah, it is good to see that

10:27 it is a little more efficient in two-high, but we'll see how that goes over this longer distance

10:30 drive. But yeah, comfy so far. These seats are fantastic. They hug you in beautifully

10:36 and really don't give you a great deal of fatigue.

10:58 Okay, so I look different, don't I? I've had a wardrobe change. I was just staying in Sydney

11:03 overnight. Well, a couple of nights because we had to duck over to Perth for the birthday party

11:09 of one of our investors. He has quite the car collection, so that was good fun. Now, before

11:16 I get to your questions, though, I'll run through fuel economy. So what I did was once we got to

11:22 about Newcastle, I switched it over to two-wheel drive high range, and that was interesting because

11:26 our economy went from about 11.5, 11.6 down to about 11.2. And I think that's actually pretty

11:34 big in terms of the savings there. So if you are doing a long distance highway drive and you don't

11:40 necessarily need four-wheel drive running, I think switching over to two-wheel drive high range is

11:44 probably the way to go. Now, I will get to your questions, but I will wait until we get onto a

11:48 little bit of highway where it's a little quieter.

11:50 [MUSIC]

11:58 But what better time than to put this into Baja mode and see what it sounds like. Here we go.

12:01 [ENGINE REVVING]

12:05 Yeah. All right, we'll give that one more crack.

12:08 [ENGINE REVVING]

12:17 That sounds bloody unreal. I just love the fact that it's a dual-cab ute that sounds

12:22 like an M3. That's fucking awesome.

12:25 [MUSIC]

12:31 So we're on the freeway, a highway, whatever it's called. We are making progress. There's like 700

12:37 something kilometres to go, so a fair bit still. But I thought I'd get through your questions now,

12:41 and I've printed them off so that we can be safe and I don't have to use my phone while I'm driving.

12:47 First one, do you really think you needed to buy this? And that is from someone that's related to

12:56 me. I married her, and she doesn't support any of the cars that I buy. So the answer is yes.

13:03 But more generally, why did I buy a ute, and will I be using a ute? I don't know,

13:09 and probably not are the two answers to that. I just, yeah, love this thing. And it's kind of the

13:15 same as the other cars that I've bought as well. I've bought them because they've been cool and

13:19 had stories behind them. And this, for me, has a really cool Aussie connection, and that is why

13:24 I've bought it. So there you go. That's why I bought it. Next one, how much horsepower with

13:29 a Stage 1 tune? That's a great question, because I know Herod Performance did a whole lot of work

13:34 to the Baja 1000 Ranger Raptor that is basically going over there to compete now, and it has a

13:40 Herod Performance stamp on it. It is stock, but they had to do some work for thermal management

13:46 and all that sort of stuff so that it doesn't overheat. So that means to me that they're

13:51 probably going to be working on something very interesting in the form of a performance tune

13:57 for this as well, and I cannot wait to see what that looks like. I've said before, this is pretty

14:02 sketchy in the wet, especially with this much power. So I can imagine what it would be like

14:07 with a bit more grunt. Perhaps I'll pair it with a set of tires, sticky tires or something like

14:12 that. But yeah, let's see what happens and see what they can extract from it. Will you jump it?

14:17 Yes, I do have a plan to do a jump in this just to see how it works and all that sort of stuff. So

14:23 yeah, we'll probably do a separate video on that, and yeah, it should be fun to see

14:28 just how well it jumps and whether Ford will back the warranty if anything breaks. I hope it doesn't.

14:34 Waiting time. Okay, so I mentioned at the start of the video there with George that

14:44 if you didn't want to get one a little bit quicker, I would go to a regional dealer.

14:48 Don't all go flooding him because he obviously wants to support his local area, but I think he's

14:55 willing to give up a little bit of stock for anyone that sort of watches this and gets in

14:59 touch with him in Port Macquarie. But yeah, I'd encourage you to go to your regional dealers. They

15:03 have a much shorter wait list, and in towns where you do have a higher supply of utes anyway like

15:10 Port Macquarie, they actually get a decent allocation of Raptors without a huge

15:14 order log, if you get what I mean, compared to a city dealer where you've got much bigger

15:18 population. So yeah, in terms of wait time in general, I've heard it's like 12 to 18 months

15:23 now depending on where you go. So yeah, just keep that in mind. Are you going to PPF it to avoid

15:28 stone chips? Yes, I would like to. I haven't done PPF stuff in the past, but I think it is probably

15:35 something I need to consider, especially given this is likely to be driven off-road and that

15:40 type of thing. It probably is going to be worthy of getting PPF on it just to make sure nothing

15:44 damages the vehicle because once you've got a stone chip, it's just a pain in the ass to get

15:48 it sorted. So if you do have any recommendations on PPF people, let me know in the comments section

15:54 below, or even any brands that I can use as well, let me know down there and I'll investigate that.

15:58 Are you going to put something over the top? I would like to get something though, so yeah,

16:08 let me know what you reckon. Should I get a roller cover or should I get just something basic on the

16:12 back? How many rear child anchor points? Two, so you can carry baby seats in the back. You have two

16:18 top tether points and also two ISOFIX points. Utes often feel disconnected from driver feel,

16:24 is this sorted in Raptor? Look, it is tricky to nail that down. This is probably the best

16:31 driving ute out there simply because you can absolutely rag on it in the dry and it has body

16:39 roll and that sort of stuff, but it's all very controllable, very manageable, and it doesn't

16:44 feel at any point like it's going to come back and bite you. And that to me is the sign of a

16:49 ute that's actually had a lot of engineering put into it. You jump into literally any other dual

16:54 cab ute, we tested Hilux recently, that was sloppy as it had so much body roll. The stability control

17:00 was kind of useless for faster driving. And obviously it's not built for that. This on the

17:04 other hand is built and engineered for that sort of stuff, so it needs to be good. Here on this

17:08 choppy road, like it is terrible on parts of the Hume here down to Melbourne, it actually performs

17:14 really well. That Fox suspension with that live valve tech is sensational. So it all does a great

17:19 job. And then the fact that you can change the suspension and steering feel here on the steering

17:23 wheel, I think it's pretty cool. So what do we think? Look, so far so good. It is actually really

17:42 comfortable. Those seats are fantastic. We're averaging now 11.2, which I think is pretty

17:48 impressive. So like I mentioned before, two wheel drive high range seems to be the most efficient

17:53 setting. Radar cruise control works well, the steering assistant works well as well. So yeah,

17:58 I like it. We're going to keep driving. We're going to go have a little squiz at the submarine,

18:01 do a quick wee, and then we'll hit the road again.

18:16 Are you going to modify it? I don't know. Look, I haven't really modified any of my other cars. I

18:21 put wheels on the Supra and it was just for fun, and that was with semis as well, so I had a bit

18:27 more traction. I guess I can modify this, but I probably won't. I think it's pretty capable as it

18:33 is. The second you start modifying it, you have issues with warranties and so on and so forth. So

18:37 I know a lot of people will modify them and I'm keen to see what they look like, but for me,

18:40 I'll probably keep this stock. What's the lowest time you've achieved with the Raptor V6 0 to 100?

18:45 I think it was 5.7 seconds. I remember when we were testing that, I gave it another crack when

18:48 it was dry and we did that. I reckon with a bit of perseverance and a bit more trying, I could

18:54 probably get it down to 5.6, which I reckon is pretty unreal for something this size. Keep in

18:59 mind a Ram TRX is low five seconds, and let me know in the comments section whether you want us

19:04 to drag race a TRX against this. I think it would be pretty fun. Highway exhaust drone? No, it is

19:09 sensational. So sitting on the highway at the moment doing 110-ish, and you do hear tire noise,

19:15 but with the exhaust, even if I move it now over to Baja mode, yeah, you do get drone in Baja mode,

19:22 but if I go to, if I go back here to quiet, you don't hear a thing. It literally goes dead silent

19:30 inside the car in terms of exhaust notes. So that's pretty awesome. Can auto stop start be

19:34 disabled? Unfortunately, not only you can disable it, there's a button here, but it can't be

19:38 disabled for each start. You have to manually push the button. I think it's probably like a fuse or

19:43 something you might be able to pull. I will investigate that because I pretty much switch

19:46 it off all the time. I can't stand those things anyway. So what fuel to use? E10, 91, 95 or 98,

19:54 it can support all of them. Look, I wouldn't touch E10 just in general. I'll just steer clear of that

19:59 stuff. But yeah, this will run on 91, 95 and 98. Just a bit of background there as well quickly.

20:04 Australia's unleaded fuel quality is terrible. So sulfur content in our 91 Ron and 95 Ron is,

20:13 is really bad. So it's, diesel is good. It's capped at 50 parts per million, but I think

20:19 our unleaded is, is something like 150 parts per million cap, which is third world country style

20:25 levels. So keep in mind that yes, this can run on 91 and you do get a reduction there in your

20:31 power output. But to be honest, I wouldn't run anything except 98 through this anyway,

20:37 because you're going to get peak performance. 98 fuel actually is better in terms of the sulfur

20:42 content, which means you're going to do less damage to the engine or run more efficiently

20:46 and smoothly. It's just my opinion. You can run this on whatever, but I would just stick with

20:50 the good stuff. What's happening with exhaust? Stainless steel. Is it going to be for all

20:55 Raptors? Yeah. So when we did all of our development drives to start with,

20:59 they were all blacked out and I thought it looked really cool at the back there because,

21:04 you know, it would match with the rest of the thing. But yeah, they had to change it to stainless

21:07 steel because during all that development driving, they noticed that stones were chipping away at

21:11 the black paint. And obviously for a customer, that's going to end up being annoying. So they

21:15 went to stainless steel. I'll probably look at wrapping that black somehow. And I don't know

21:19 what you would wrap it with, given it's an exhaust or paint it maybe. But yeah, I think

21:23 it definitely needs to be black. The stainless steel just doesn't look right in my opinion.

21:27 And then last question, is this the most excited you've been for a car?

21:31 It actually is. And I don't know what it is. This thing is just the ultimate, versatile weapon.

21:38 You've got, you know, room for family. You can drive it around the city. You can go camping.

21:45 I thought I would do that, but you can go camping. You can tow some stuff with it.

21:48 It's just an all-rounder. So yeah, I am seriously excited for this and just getting some quality

21:55 time behind the wheel and just having a good crack at it. So yeah.

21:58 Okay, so here's something I wasn't expecting. We are currently taking a bit of a detour because

22:16 there's been a massive accident on the road up ahead. So

22:22 we're currently, I don't even know where, at Tullarook. So yeah, we're doing this big detour

22:27 through the countryside here. It actually looks pretty bloody nice out here at the moment. It is

22:32 a little wet, but yeah, a little bit of adventure. Getting the car a bit dirty, doing a bit of gravel

22:36 road driving. I don't love that because I don't want to damage it just yet, but I'm going to tick

22:41 that one off the bucket list.

22:44 So we are all done. Finally made it back. It took ages because of all the detours and

23:07 stuff like that. So final fuel economy, 11.3 litres per 100km. It was actually trending downwards,

23:13 but when we had to take those detours, I decided to have a little bit of fun on the gravel roads

23:17 and it slightly went up a little bit. Then we had a second detour in Melbourne. It was just

23:20 an absolute disaster. So we did make it eventually. I really enjoyed just getting to know the car and

23:26 it is so comfortable. The autonomous steering stuff works really well. And just like in our

23:30 reviews where we've tested it on the banked oval, it actually works well in person too.

23:34 It doesn't sort of do anything too strange, right? Our cruise control works well. So everything was

23:38 great and I'm super happy with the purchase as well. Now I've answered as many questions as I

23:42 could, but I know there were stacks more there and I want to get a better idea as well of what else

23:46 you want us to do with the car. What other content do you want us to produce? If you scroll down

23:50 there, let me know in the comment section below what you'd like to see us do with this. And if

23:54 there are any other questions that I did miss, I'll answer as much as I possibly can. So I hope

23:58 you enjoyed this video. If you did, please make sure you like it and you share it with your mates.

24:02 And if you haven't done so already, subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon. That way you

24:06 can find out every single time we do fun stuff like this. But until next time, take it easy.

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