Ford Everest 2018 Review

The first weekend of December was one to make those Melburnians driving a vehicle like the Ford Everest very grateful. A capable off-roader which is also at home in the suburbs was definitely the vehicle to have.

Over two successive days, the heavens dumped enough rain on Melbourne to equal the monthly average. Television news reported some embarrassed bloke rescued from his 3 Series BMW after he courageously attempted to cross a ford in the bayside suburb of Williamstown, and news crews were also on the spot for a drowned Maserati stranded in an underpass closer to the city in Footscray – the water lapping around the base of the gear shifter.

The worst our long-term Everest encountered was splashing through deep, pooled water in the car park at the Blackburn pub. Laughably, the pub is one of the rare 'watering holes' in one of Melbourne's infamous 'dry' areas.

Pub staff had kindly deployed witches hats to warn motorists of the deep water. It didn't stop us merrily splashing through; it wasn't really deep enough to form a bow wave though. The Everest in this kind of situation is a lot like overkill.

On known roads and in the wet, the Everest still impressed, but it was very apparent this is a vehicle skewed more towards off-road capability than soft-road competitors such as the Hyundai Santa Fe, Kia Sorento, Mazda CX-9 and Nissan Pathfinder.

Unquestionably Ford has struck a pretty good balance with the Everest. It may be based on the Ranger LCV, but the coil-sprung live axle at the rear (with Watts link) is doggedly determined to hold on.

The flip side is the Everest will understeer on bitumen, once power is applied and the Bridgestone Dueler tyres are reaching the limits of adhesion.

That said, the understeer eases as soon as the driver backs off, and the handling trait is there to warn early rather than late. It's possible to drive the Everest right up to its optimal grip and still have something in reserve if things turn nasty. It's a safe handling SUV communicating via the chassis precisely how it's faring.

The Everest also delivers meaty steering feedback which is actually better than many passenger cars. Strong, progressive brakes can be depended on to rapidly haul the Everest down from high speeds, but they also provide enough pedal feel for seriously good soft-stopping. For a car with commercial vehicle DNA, the brakes are excellent.

There's an underlying firmness (and occasional choppiness) to the ride, but the damping is ideal for high-speed touring and the Everest will essentially glide over speed humps and larger bumps/potholes without undue pitching or tossing. At lower speeds the Everest just soaks up smaller irregularities, which is likely to be a function of the high-profile tyres as much as the suspension itself. All in all, Ford engineers can pat themselves on the back for the Everest's ride properties.

Around town (and without the Prado along for context), the Everest felt laggy and slow to get off the line, unless you gave it a good hard shake when the light changed to green. And the engine was rattly from around 2500rpm, when it was being asked to perform, with the added vibration which accompanies its odd number of cylinders. It's fine for off-road work, but the five-pot engine was not particularly refined in the suburbs. What the Everest really deserves is a modern diesel V6.

Driven gently, however, and at revs below 2000rpm, the five-cylinder could be quiet and reasonably smooth. In fact, there was little labouring or vibration at 1500 revs and lower.

And active noise cancellation made a world of difference at touring speeds. Tyre noise and wind roar were both reduced, and the five-cylinder faded into the background, ticking over at around 1700rpm with the speedo showing 100km/h.

While the Everest has the potential to be frugal at highway speeds, most of my week with the Ford was spent in very heavy traffic commuting – an hour to travel 15km one morning. In those circumstances, the posted fuel consumption figure of 12.7L/100km was understandably not-so-great – even worse than the official urban-cycle test figure of 11.2L/100km.

Ford offers automatic high-beam headlights for the Everest, but they cast a weak yellow beam when dipped.

Impressively, the Everest came with sophisticated driver-assist features not commonly expected in an SUV based on a light commercial vehicle. Chief among these were Forward Alert with Collision Mitigation and Lane Keeping Aid.

As is often the case with forward collision warning systems, the Everest's was raucous and distracting. Like Volvo's V90 Cross Country, the Lane Keeping Aid in the Everest was fairly adept at finding the line markings at the side of the road, but couldn't translate that to appropriate course corrections.

Where does all this leave the Everest as far as active safety is concerned? In pretty good shape, overall. Dynamically the Ford can't match soft-road SUVs for cornering, but it's very capable, measured against other off-roaders – until you reach that point where you're on the Land Rover Discovery's turf.