For the fourth consecutive year, Grupo Premia, made up of specialized journalists from the automotive industry, chose the Car of the Year 2024 in Argentina and the award again went to a pickup truck: the biggest prize went to the new Ford Ranger.
The midsize truck, which is manufactured at the brand’s plant in General Pacheco, managed to prevail over the Nissan X-Trail, which finished in second place, and the new Chevrolet Montana, which completed the podium.
In this way, the Ford Ranger once again gives a consecutive award to the oval brand, since last year the Maverick pickup won, also demonstrating the importance of the truck segment in the industry and the local market.
In addition, it is once again a nationally produced product that wins this award, since previously the Volkswagen Taos and the Peugeot 208, both manufactured in Argentina, were the winners of the 2022 and 2021 editions respectively.
How to choose the best car in the country
The vehicles that competed for the most important award in the national automotive market were those who debuted in the country between January 1 and December 31, 2023. They had to be 100% new models, that is, they did not include redesigns or updates of vehicles already present on the market.
He jury It is composed of Matías Antico (TN Autos), Augusto Brugo Marcó (Parabrisas Magazine), Gabriel Silveira (Clarín), Martín Simacourbe (Argentina Autoweb), Eduardo Smok (Auto al Día), Gabriel Tomich (La Nación) and Guido Tonelli (Magazine Autotest), and José Luis Denari (Telefe) and Walter Togneri (Revista Parabrisas) were invited for this edition.
The voting system gives each of the juries 25 points to distribute among the seven candidates, with the only requirement of not scoring more than 10 units for any of these. And all finalists must receive at least one point.
In this way, in the final vote, the Ford Ranger came out on top with 65 points, followed by the Nissan X-Trail (33 points), Chevrolet Montana (30 points), Honda ZR-V (29 points), Ford Mustang Mach-E (28 points), Mercedes-Benz EQA (21 points) and Audi A3 (19 points).
The new Ford Ranger comes with a very high level of equipment.,
Other models that were in the race but did not reach the final stage were the Baic X55, the BMW 4 Series gran coupe and X1, the Chery Tiggo 8, the Haval Jolion and H6, the Honda HR-V, the Jeep Grand Cherokee, the Kia Sportage, the Land Rover Defender, the Lexus RX, the Mercedes-Benz GLC and the Ram 1500 Rebel.
Ranger, the winner
The Ford Ranger is already a historic model of the national industry. It has been manufactured uninterruptedly since 1996 in Argentina. For this new generation, the local subsidiary disbursed an investment of 580 million dollars, later expanded to 660 million, to carry out the project.
It included a complete transformation of the factory that the oval brand has in General Pacheco, including the installation of a new line of presses (four times faster than the previous ones) and the incorporation of more than 300 robots, among many other evolutions.
The arrival of the Ranger completely transformed the Ford plant in the country.The new Ranger is now bigger and looks more robust than ever. Completely renewed its range of engines and included a powerful 250 horsepower V6 turbodiesel version, as well as versions with a 10-speed automatic transmission.
In terms of safety, all versions come with 7 airbags, ABS brakes; traction control, electronic stability control with trailer sway monitoring and adaptive load control. The V6 versions also have 4-wheel disc brakes and the Limited versions add solutions such as the tire pressure monitoring system.
The top-of-the-range option (Limited Plus) comes with the Co-Pilot 360 system, which includes several driving assistance systems, such as adaptive cruise control with Stop&Go, lane keeping system with vehicle centering, rear cross traffic and autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian detection, among others.
He also debuted with the Ranger an App that allows you to control functions from your cell phone such as remote door locking and unlocking; remote vehicle ignition and climate control (instant or programmable); or access to vehicle information such as range, odometer, tire pressure and real-time location.
System updates can also be performed remotely without having to visit the dealership.