2023 Ford Ranger Raptor excluded from Ranger and Everest five-star safety score

Ford Australia has announced that the Ranger and Everest have both achieved a full five-star safety rating from the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP), with the ute/SUV twins scoring top marks for occupant protection and crash avoidance technology.

However, while the Ranger’s ANCAP score applies across the single-cab, extended cab and dual-cab bodystyles, the high-performance Ranger Raptor is conspicuously absent from the list of models that ANCAP's score applies to. That’s largely down to the Raptor’s 3.0-litre twin-turbo petrol engine, which is unique to the Raptor variant and different enough from the 2.0-litre diesel four and 3.0-litre diesel V6 to ensure that crash data obtained from testing those models doesn’t necessarily translate.

An ANCAP spokesperson told CarsGuide that an extension of the Ranger’s five-star score to the Raptor would be contingent on Ford supplying Raptor-specific crash data to the independent safety body, but when asked whether that information was likely to be provided by Ford in the near future, ANCAP’s spokesperson replied that it was ‘unlikely’. 

Pedestrian impact safety may also be affected by the Raptor’s increased ride height, but again, that would also need to be measured against data from Ford. 

That means the Raptor will continue to be unrated by ANCAP for the foreseeable.

But for the rest of the Ranger family, and the Everest that it shares its ladder-frame bones with, there’s a report card to be proud of, with car-like safety levels being achieved by the big ute and its SUV twin. 

Of note, the Everest itself was not crash tested, with the SUV's score derived from testing of the mechanically related Ranger ute.

Adult occupant protection was scored at 84 per cent for the Ranger – a nil rear whiplash score and 5.28 out of eight frontal offset score being the only things holding it back – with the Everest doing slightly better at 86 per cent thanks to a much better rear whiplash rating, with identical scores in all other crash protection categories. 

Child occupant protection and vulnerable road user (pedestrian and cyclist) protection scores were the same for both vehicles, with scores of 93 per cent and 74 per cent respectively. The Ranger achieved a safety assist score of 83 per cent for its comprehensive suite of electronic safety aids, while the Everest went slightly better in that discipline at 86 per cent thanks to marginally better lane-keep performance. 

Standard safety equipment on all Rangers and Everests includes a suite of nine airbags (which includes a centre airbag between the front occupants), with the ute locations including frontal driver and passenger, front-seat head, second-row head (only applicable to dual-cab and extended-cab variants), front-seat side/chest, and driver and front passenger knee.

The Everest meanwhile, features frontal driver and passenger airbags; first-, second- and third-row side/head protection; driver and front passenger knee; and front-row side/chest protection - the latter of which is not included for the second and third rows.

Elsewhere, there is also adaptive cruise control, lane-keep assist, AEB with pre-collision assist, traffic sign recognition and a stability control system that incorporates emergency brake assist, roll-over mitigation and trailer sway control. Blind-spot monitoring with cross-traffic alert and rear brake assist, rear parking sensors and a reversing camera are standard-issue in all dual-cab Ranger models, as well as the Everest.