• Excellent off-road • Useful boot even with 7 seats up • Lots of torque • Good road manners
• Its excellent ability does not come cheap
The top-of-the-tree Ford Everest Titanium offers room for seven, excellent off-road ability but it isn’t cheap.
Verdict: The price alone of the Ford Everest Titanium sees it compete in a different league to the other ute-derived 4x4 wagons on the market, sadly it lacks the sophistication to justify its $77k price tag. The powered third-row is big enough for adults but there’s almost no legroom and climbing across the second row into the back seats is a real pain. That said, the Everest is possibly the best of the 4x4 wagons when it comes to driving off-road.
The Ford Everest doesn’t replace the Ford Territory, but there will no doubt be some cross over between it and the Edge when it finally arrives Down Under and the Territory is out of production. Nor does the Everest, despite the ramblings of numerous auto websites and magazines, compete with the Toyota Prado.
Sure, you could possibly make an argument that buyers will cross-shop the two simply because of the price, but that’s really about as far as you can take the argument, in my humble opinion. Now, the Prado is no benchmark when it comes to interior quality and materials but it’s a large step ahead of the Everest, so, how Ford thinks it can justify the high price of the Everest really is beyond me. But enough of this…
GET UP AND GO
The Ford Everest is powered by the same 3.2-litre five-cylinder diesel engine as the Ranger ute, making 143kW at 3000rpm and 470Nm of torque between 1750-2500rpm. This is mated to a six-speed automatic transmission only and permanent four-wheel drive which is controlled by Ford’s Terrain Management System, which is more or less the same as Land Rover’s Terrain Response system. Fuel consumption is a claimed 8.5L/100km, but in our week with the thing we didn’t average less than 10L/100km.
Ford’s TMS offers four settings, Normal, Snow/Mud/Grass, Sand and Rock and each setting works by altering throttle response and traction control. While the system isn’t quite as sophisticated as the unit Land Rover uses, TMS does take some of the guess work out of tackling unfamiliar terrain. For those planning on really getting off the beaten track there’s a cross-axle differential lock and low range as well as a rear differential lock that can be engaged manually via a button forward of the gear shifter, or automatically via TMS when you select Rock Mode. And, that it works when Downhill Assist is engaged is icing on the cake, ensuring maximum grip and go in difficult situations.
Hit the road in the Everest and the 3.2L five-cylinder provides more than enough grunt to keep up with traffic, or overtake on highways or on long hills. The transmission is smooth and responsive. The steering offers decent weight at all speeds, is direct and while, in an idea world, it could do with more feel, it’s not a Porsche, and so steering feel, in the grand scheme of things, isn’t really that big a deal.
One key difference between the Ranger and the Everest is that the Everest runs coil springs under its bum rather than the ute’s leaf springs. And this set-up has an effect as speed builds. Around town the Everest manages to iron out bumps and ruts, but as speed builds the thing starts to roll in corners with the dampers struggling to settle the body after harder hits at speed.
THE INSIDE STORY
Climb inside the Everest Titanium and you’re greeted by leather seats, although the leather on our test car was already showing significant signs of wear and tear with the leather pulling out from around the seat unlock buttons on the second row. The plastics used on the dashboard, transmission tunnel and the door linings are hard and scratchy and feel like they’ve been taken from a much cheaper car.
The dashboard has very Ford Falcon feel and while the centre-mounted touch screen offers Ford’s clever SYNC2 communication and infotainment system which is easy to use, but it looks basic and the graphics are clumsy. Ford is already up to SYNC3 in the US which looks a lot better; the refreshed Everest due in a couple of years will get SYNC3.
The Everest Titanium offers a centrally-mounted speedometer with two TFT screens on either side. These are used to display infotainment and communications on one side, and off-road information or a digital tachometer on the other side.
The front seats might be broad and lacking in lateral support, but they’re pretty comfortable all the same, and the same goes for the back seat which is a 60:40 split arrangement. Only, the 40 split is on the road-side, meaning if you want to climb into the third-row you’ll need to fold down the larger section of the back seat and that’s not great (for right-hand drive markets the 40 split should be on the kerb side). And they don’t tumble forwards either.
The back seats can be slid forwards and backwards and the back rest can be tilted forwards and backwards too. There are heating and air-conditioning controls for second row passengers with roof vents and there are also vents for third-row passengers. Speaking of the third row seats, they’re large enough for an adult to sit in comfortably, but even if you push the second-row seats forwards there’s almost no legroom.
SAFE AS HOUSES
The Ford Everest gets a five-star ANCAP rating, permanent four-wheel drive, active cruise control on the Titanium as well as active lane keeping assist… on that, the lane keeping assist can be adjusted to offer more or less assistance. In our week with the Everest we adjusted it from full assistance to minimal, and minimal assistance is definitely the way to go. The system is easily tricked, so, keep it turned down.
The Everest has the usual traction and stability controls, auto locking on all doors, keyless entry and the SYNC2 system, when connected to a smartphone, is able to contact emergency services automatically in the event of a collision.
THE COMPETITION
The Ford Everest competes directly with other pick-up derived seven-seater SUVs such as the Mitsubishi Pajero Sport, Holden Colorado 7, and Toyota Fortuner. However, the Everest does cost more on average than those rivals and in return offer up levels of comfort and refinement (including active cabin noise-cancellation) that Ford has taken the trouble to emphasise.
In the Titanium spec, it also offers safety features such as autonomous emergency braking adaptive cruise control that the many others lack, giving it another leg up. Subjectively, too, the Everest does have a little more zing to its styling, which is also a comment routinely given to the Ford Ranger amongst its rivals in the pickup space.
For more on Ford vehicles, including prices and specifications, check out our Showroom.
