View the 2019 Ford Ranger XLT 4x4 in Photos

The part-time four-wheel-drive system permanently locks the front and rear axles together in 4 High and 4 Low, and a button ahead of the shifter locks the rear differential. Traction control uses the brakes to keep the front diff from spinning the tire with the least grip.

To make crawling and holding a low speed easy, Trail Control acts as a sort of off-road cruise control, using the engine and brakes to keep the Ranger at a preset speed without the driver having to touch the pedals.

None of these features are quite as useful as the one that Ford doesn't offer, though. A pavement-friendly auto mode, like the one available in the Chevy Colorado, would allow the transfer case to behave like an all-wheel-drive center diff, ideal for on-road bad-weather conditions.

Back on concrete, cracks and bumps use up the FX4 suspension's initial compliance and reveal a stiff suspension and ride harshness. Those impacts send vibrations rustling through the frame, but the structure quickly attenuates them.

Driving more slowly than we do won't improve the interior. Boring and uninspired in the manner of a cheap car from 2011 (or a modern Mitsu­bishi), the design is at least simple and the controls are easy to decipher. Ford offers an 8.0-inch touchscreen, but the lines, materials, and switch­gear are straight out of Obama's first term.

At least the Ranger's cabin is much larger than before. In the new-to-this-gen SuperCrew configuration, there's plenty of space for four large adults, and the rear doors open wide to allow easy entry. This Ranger is also 3.9 inches wider than the last rear-drive SuperCab model and 7.2 inches longer.

Like the interior, the exterior design is a bit dull. But the Ranger isn't trying to be something it's not or play up its truckiness the way full-size pickups do. There isn't an offensive amount of chrome adorning our test truck, no attempt to make it look like a Class 8 tractor, and the ornamentation isn't trying to win a badge-measuring contest.

Perhaps it's the off-road-focused FX4 suspension that's to blame for the occasional shudders that disturb the peace. A $1295 option available only on 4x4 models like our Ranger XLT, the FX4 package tweaks the damper tuning and adds off-road tires, a locking rear differential, skid plates, tow hooks, Trail Control, and the Terrain Management System, which allows the driver to tailor the throttle and transmission response to four different environments.

We did notice some spotty panel fits where the hood meets the fenders, and the gap between the bed walls and the tailgate is large enough to see through. SuperCrew models, with their four full-size doors, come with a bed that's just over five feet long, while the SuperCab, with smaller half doors, has a six-foot, three-quarter-inch bed. The bed of our SuperCrew 4x4 can hold 1560 pounds of feathers, or lead, or water, should you want to make your Ranger into a mobile hot tub. That's less than half of what some F-150s will haul, which brings us to how the Ranger will fit into a world dominated by the F-150.

Even though the FX4 suspension doesn't raise the 4x4 Ranger's ride height, its standard 8.9 inches of ground clearance and the off-road package's skid plates—Ford calls the front one a "bash plate," which is awesome—make trail work and boulder humping easy.

A base rear-drive Ranger starts at $25,495, and a SuperCrew 4x4 opens at $31,875. Choose our truck's XLT trim and that jumps to $35,310. Options brought our total to $41,725, a price that doesn't include leather and would put you into a nicely equipped F-150.

The turbocharged 2.3-liter four-cylinder keeps its distance as the 10-speed automatic keeps the revs low. It's soothing up here, despite some intermittent turbulence from the independent front and live rear axles' reactions to breaks and bumps in the road.