Ford Everest no match for Prado, says Toyota

Ford is touting its upcoming seven-seat Everest SUV as a bona-fide rival for Toyota's the just-updated Prado, which is currently Australia's top-selling large SUV.

Toyota politely disagrees.

Ford has spent huge sums of money developing the Australian-engineered Everest, which starts at $54,990 and features a range of advanced driving aids not seen on the Prado (now from $52,990), such as active lane assist that steers the car by itself for short periods of time.

The Everest can tow more -- 3000kg versus the Prado's 2500kg -- and the Ford's bigger 3.2-litre five-cylinder turbo-diesel is also more powerful than the latest Prado's downsized 2.8-litre diesel four, pumping out 143kW/470Nm versus 130kW/450Nm (420Nm for manual versions).

Despite the Everest being slightly more expensive, Toyota is convinced the vehicles are not comparable. Toyota's says its cheaper ute-based Fortuner, which arrives here around the same time as the Everest in October, is a more likely competitor.

Tony Cramb, Toyota Australia executive director of sales and marketing, told motoring.com.au at the updated Prado national launch this week that the Everest is "more a competitor to the Fortuner".

"We obviously respect all the competition in the marketplace, but we wouldn’t necessarily see that product as a competitor to Prado," he said of the Everest.

"Certainly when we're talking about Fortuner we'd consider Everest a worthy competitor," he posited.

"We wouldn't put those two vehicles in the same discussion."

Ford Australia's communications and public affairs director, Wes Sherwood, doesn't see it that way.

He recently said: "We wouldn't be going up against Prado if we didn't have the goods," when talking about the Everest's direct competitors.

There's a good chance that Ford may target Toyota and the Prado in its Everest promotions, as it has done when comparing the Ford Kuga to the Toyota RAV4, and the Ranger to the HiLux.

And if it does employ an aggressive advertising strategy, Toyota will be unperturbed said Cramb.

"Look, I think it's fantastic that they're advertising our product for us!" he laughed, but cautioned that Toyota "would never go down that path, and I don't really understand why they are".

"We like to concentrate our marketing activities on the strengths and attributes of the vehicle and how that best suits the customer. And we'll continue to do that."

The Ford Everest is a much newer vehicle than the Prado and it offers a number of features not available in the Japanese SUV, such as active lane keeping assist -- a technology which could be used to promote the Everest as a stronger candidate to buyers.

But Cramb doesn't believe customers will be swayed by such new technology.

"Just because you have a certain specification, it doesn't necessarily mean it's demanded [by customers].

"We're constantly improving our products based on the feedback we get from the customers. I don't think a customer in this particular category is going to switch vehicles because of that," asserted Cramb.

"We're pretty comfortable with the specification line-up for the Prado," he said.

Ultimately, buyers will be the judge, but watch out for our own independent take on which is the better vehicle when we put them head to head in a comparison.

Watch this space.