Declasse Rancher

The Rancher is the off-road workhorse: a two-door pick-up based on the Blazer K5, and the sort of vehicle that makes more sense in Grassrivers and Mount Kalaga than it does on Ocean Beach.

One of the oldest names in the series

The Rancher has been in Grand Theft Auto since the 3D era began. It was in Grand Theft Auto III, it was in San Andreas where it did a great deal of work in the countryside and in law enforcement hands, and versions of it have appeared in the mainline games since. Very few vehicle names in this series have that kind of continuity.

That longevity is largely because the thing it is based on is timeless in the same way. The Chevrolet K5 Blazer is a short two-door body on a full-size truck chassis with four-wheel drive underneath, and it has never really been improved on for the job it does.

Why it belongs in this map

Leonida is the first Grand Theft Auto map where a vehicle like this has an obvious purpose beyond flavour. Wetland tracks, park roads and the agricultural interior around Ambrosia are all places where ground clearance is worth more than power.

It is also correct for the setting in a way that goes beyond terrain. The lifted two-door truck is a genuine cultural fixture in rural Florida, and the game has already shown its interest in that world through the Thrillbilly Mud Club sequence in trailer one. A Rancher is what you arrive at a mud club in.

The practical case

Under the weapon storage system, where larger weapons travel in your vehicle, a truck that can reach places a car cannot has a new kind of value. Getting your loadout to the edge of a wetland is not something the series has previously asked you to think about.

What is not known

Whether a law enforcement variant appears, as it has in previous games, has not been shown. No specifications have been published and Rockstar has not detailed off-road handling.