This 2026 Ford F-150 Raptor isn’t quite what you think it is. The first Ford Raptor was a trailblazer, answering a question that no one thought to ask, until Ford pre-empted the market with an absurd truck that turned everything up to eleven just because they could. It’s since spawned a whole category of vehicles that are overbuilt to the point of ridiculousness, but in doing so, I think they also - perhaps inadvertently - stealthily created a new type of product that’s the logical extension of what a (mostly) reasonable truck buyer wants.
Conjecture - a new breed
On one hand, it is a flamboyant sports car type thing with lots of power, a loud exhaust, and even louder visual cues, so everyone else knows you are for sure a very cool guy. On the other hand, it is also a truck, so everyone knows you’re not a hooligan in a dangerous sports car, you’re a down-home, unpretentious working man (or woman), who maybe likes to have fun.
But secretly, this highly conspicuous, very expensive, and strangely acceptable projection of testosterone is also among the very most comfortable vehicles on the road, at any price point. A Rolls Royce may exist on an entirely different plane of existence, but mark my words, there is nothing that devours imperfections in the road, let alone entire dunes, like one of these neo-luxury-ultra-beefy-sports-trucks.
This excessive efficacy of suspension comes along with the inherent benefits of upright captain’s chair seating, which even the finest flagship sedan can’t hold a candle to. One of the common sentiments when the Raptor first started gaining mainstream appeal in its second generation was that, as a byproduct of its long-travel, flight-centric suspension, it rode exceptionally well, and both Ford and Ram have leaned hard into that sweet softness that none of us manly men are allowed to admit we love.
What’s new for the F-150 Raptor?
Not much. Following a refresh in 2024 with an even more manly mug, even trickier suspension and the addition of a (surprisingly effective) one-pedal-drive function to its Trail Control software, it’s more or less unchanged. The only notable change for this year is the return of Avalanche paint - pictured on this presser.
Powertrain - less than, but not lesser
When the second generation F-150 Raptor launched in 2017, it infamously dropped it's heavy duty V8 engine in lieu of the more powerful, race-proven 3.5-Litre EcoBoost V6, an excellent engine whose only real crime was not being a V8. It took those devout of truck faith truck a long time to forgive this heresy, but in time, the pews moved on and accepted it, because they still wanted the Raptor’s performative righteousness and covetous comfort.
…but then Ram struck back with the TRX, an even more righteously furious and ostentatiously opulent truck, that packed a deified V8. Ford couldn’t leave this unanswered, so they summoned a supercharged Shelby V8 to maintain the favour of the devout in the form of the Raptor R. And now once again, the excellent engine in this “base model” F-150 Raptor is now the unloved pariah. It might as well be a V6 Mustang for girls. All week I was asked "is that the one with the V8?" No. It's the sensible Raptor.
It’s even more awkward now, as Ram has, at least temporarily, discontinued the TRX, with the six-cylinder RHO standing in for it - and that new Hurricane mill in its steroid-injected RHO guise is not only more powerful than Ford’s V6, but also enjoys the distinction of being a (similarly deified) straight-six engine, and enjoys the distinct auditory benefits that come with that. This EcoBoost Raptor is undermined on all fronts; even from Ford’s own website, with the very first listed feature under the F-150 Raptor being its optional supercharged V8. But, it remains formidable with 450 horsepower and 510 foot-pounds of torque, spread across a broad mesa of force-fed muscle. Paired with the smartest iteration of Ford’s 10-speed I’ve seen yet, it’s quick enough to leap to 100km/h in just over five seconds, but perhaps more impressive is it manages to be so relatively thrifty, returning an average fuel use of 15.9L/100km. (I really tried to save myself a financial penalty in the RHO and I still wasn’t even able to get close to that.)
That efficiency leans into the F-150 Raptor’s sneaky new sortie: being a good daily driver. It looks and sounds ridiculous, and is capable of insane feats of flight, but the Raptor’s stealth raison d’etre is to excel at making sure you’re taken care of while the world thinks you’re taking care of business. It’s a set of massaging seats away from being a perfect luxury truck (I can already hear the higher-ups at Ford Performance saying that would go against the Raptor brand).
Driving impressions - excellent at everything
Whether or not you like trucks, and/or conspicuous connotations of masculinity that come with a truck like this (you can delete the Raptor graphics free of charge), there is no denying it is a triumph of engineering prowess, and it shows in the drive. As I alluded to earlier, for all its projected toughness, it is not at all tough to live with. The steering is light and well dialled in, throttle and brake response are linear, the transmission is smooth, and it’s remarkably quiet - how they managed to hush the 35-inch mud tires, I’ll never know.
The raft of standard surround-view cameras that are so helpful for navigating trails also make parking less of a chore than you’d expect, and the beastly Fox shocks that can handle crashing down from flight can handle quite literally everything else like it’s not there. Despite all this that sounds so antithetical to anything resembling fun, the Raptor can hustle with the best of them. It is hilarious good fun to hoon, with that same linear pedal response paying dividends inspiring confidence at speed, and the chassis is impressively well balanced.
Yes, it rolls a bit, but it’s calibrated to, and doesn’t wallow, at all, ever. Even if your Raptor never sees any terrain more treacherous than a snowy highway or a gravel road, it’s not wasted, and it is gratifying to know there is some serious go behind all the show.
Value - The money question
The F-150 Raptor starts at an MSRP of $110,625 (before dealer fees, destination charge, luxe tax and all that), and this truck has about four grand in options, including a dual-pane moonroof, bed liner, and bed cover, bringing the total sticker for this reptilian rig to $114,775. Yes, it is 2026 and everything is expensive, but in the grand scheme, looking at what else is out there, versus what you get here… it’s almost reasonable.
Hear me out. This truck’s most obvious direct competitor is the Ram RHO. That truck starts at $117,445, and while you do get more power, you do not get a top-shelf sound system, ventilated seats, memory seats, running boards, bed utility package (ie power), hands-free adaptive cruise control, the all-important surround view cameras, or the standard cool-dude graphics that may be essential to you.
Adding those things to said RHO brings it up to about $130,000, and for that money, you could be adding the Raptor 37 package to your F-150, which ups the badass quotient significantly, and gives you even nicer suspension and fancier Recaro chairs. As much as I loved the Ram RHO, and would still be tempted to shell out for one, the value proposition falls squarely in Ford’s favour no matter how you stack the deck.
Lots of nice trucks are over a hundred grand now. This Raptor is one of the more pricey half-tons I’ve reviewed, sure, but not by much. I get why these are as popular as they are. Why wouldn’t you opt for a truck that looks the most badass, performs the best, and is also the most comfortable if you’re paying six figures on a luxury truck anyway?
Even expanding outward to the broader car industry as a whole, you have to cough up huge money for a vehicle that can perform like this, and has this much space and this much comfort. If I could pick anything for a cross country road trip, and I wasn’t being overly writer-nerd romantic and actually just wanted the best vehicle for the job, this would probably be at the top of the list.
Wraptor it up
No, it doesn’t have the new Carnivore V8 that stole the 3.5’s hard-earned good will. No, it doesn’t have the Big McLargeHuge 37-inch tires. It is not the last word in truck-based badassery. But in this new category of luxury-sports–pickup-beast that it's singe handedly popularized, this “base” 2026 Ford F-150 Raptor stands alone as one of the best trucks you’d actually want to drive every day, whether you’re going to the mall or MOAB.
