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There I was, in the midst of test-driving a seemingly endless herd of pickup trucks, which seem to have taken over the industry, even challenging SUVs in family-oriented capabilities and popularity.

A good friend noticed the tendency, and said, “OK, of all the pickups you’ve been driving, you must have a personal favorite. What is it?”

I was taken aback by the question, because while I spend much of my waking hours describing assets and criticizing liabilities of all the cars I test-drive, and I’m happy to answer any and all questions on such vehicles, my quest to remain neutral has pretty much precluded me from singling out a favorite. But when I thought about it, I could make only one declaration.

The 2024 Ford Ranger Raptor is it.

While there is a bigger Raptor in F-150 livery, and the new pickups from Ram, Toyota, and Chevrolet and Nissan are all impressive, the Raptor checks all the boxes and adds a very large one — fun to drive.

The 2024 Ranger Raptor I recently tested came in a color called “Cactus Gray,” which was peculiarly understated for the almost mystical ghost grey colors so popular currently. 

On the Ranger Raptor, that color added just the right dose of subtlety to a vehicle that could easily go over the top in outrageousness. The black lettering, including the gigantic black-on-black “F-O-R-D” spelled out on the grille, pop out among the Raptor trim items.

While lacking the all-out towing/hauling capability of the larger F-150s, the Ranger Raptor proves the midsize Ford Ranger can indeed serve as a family hauler, coming only in SuperCrew 4-door styling, with vastly upgraded but sporty interior, featuring orange stitching and orange trim on the black leather bucket seats.

The Ranger is also easier to climb into than the bigger trucks, although its use of a grab-handle on the passenger side but not on the driver’s side is curious

And maybe objectionable.

But the all-out playfulness programmed into the Ranger Raptor is one of those synergy things — surreal until it goes over the top to real, and takes you and your family along with it.

The 3.0-liter EcoBoost V6 has 405 turbocharged horsepower and a huge 430 foot-pounds of torque, which can be directed to either all four wheels or just the rears, via a 10-speed automatic. And you can regulate the power with shift paddles on the steering column.

Quite surprisingly, we also averaged 25.-7 miles per gallon overall for our week, and we were sorry to see it go. With “go” being different from the vehicle’s tendency to GO.

Hit it hard, and the Ranger Raptor springs to freeway speed in a flash. But there’s much more to it, although it takes some doing to discern all the tricks, and a week was hardly enough time to try out and evaluate all of them.

You find the vehicle settings by playing around with the mode switch and readout on the large center stack screen. 

In normal, everything works and there are no quarrels. But click it over to Sport and you get a much more impressive sound out of the twin exhaust pipes, and you also can click it over to Off-Road, which offers the advice to only use it when seriously going off-road, and out-of-earshot of neighbors and civilized residents.

You all can separately reset the steering and the suspension as well as engine revving performance. So if you set it for Sport suspension and steering and exhaust, THEN hit the gas hard you get up to freeway speed more swiftly, and the explosive sound from that turbo V6 is, in a word, exhilarating.

The Raptor’s Ranger-size body still allows plenty of interior room for four adults, maybe five, with front-seat comfort and second-row adequacy. 

And if you want to go off-roading, the Ranger Raptor has the specially-tuned Fox live-valve shock absorbers and a Watt’s-link rear suspension and giant tires on 18-inch wheels. It can put all that power and adjustments to use on rock climbs or mountain trails as well as hurtling through the Northwoods brush in Minnesota. 

And yet it is comparably docile, in a family-friendly sort of comfortable way, on the regular roadways and rough streets and highways of construction season.

With all the driver-help features such as rear BLIS cross-traffic alert, and the 360-degree camera views on the huge screen, including pre-collision alert and assist and lane-keeping. 

That all comes to a sticker price of $59,045, with the Tough-Bed spray-in Berliner, and the paint job, which added $1,495 from the base price.

But while there are features in every pickup truck, from driving comfort to power, if I was asked to pick a favorite for my family, I lapse back into my basic sports-car-loving self and pick the Ranger Raptor.