The Ford Everest is basically a Ford Ranger, but with seven seats. It actually started life as a Frankenstein car – it was half a Ranger and half a Ford Territory in early mule form. Today it's just a big version of the rough and tumble Ranger utility. But, does it feel and drive like an agricultural car? Paul Maric tests the 2020 Ford Everest Sport to see whether it's more than just a Ranger with seven seats!
Read the full review: https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-reviews/2020-ford-everest-sport-review/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=review&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=single-car-review
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 01:12
Interior: 03:32
Infotainment: 04:42
Features: 05:56
Practicality: 07:01
On the Road: 12:38
Verdict: 16:56
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#ford #review #everest #endeavour #suv @ford @fordofaustralia
Read the full review: https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-reviews/2020-ford-everest-sport-review/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=review&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=single-car-review
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 01:12
Interior: 03:32
Infotainment: 04:42
Features: 05:56
Practicality: 07:01
On the Road: 12:38
Verdict: 16:56
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!
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#ford #review #everest #endeavour #suv @ford @fordofaustralia
Category
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MotorTranscript
00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. Behind me is the Ford Everest. It's also known as the Ford Endeavour in some markets, and it's Ford's seven-seat SUV.
00:07 But I have an interesting story to tell you. The mule for this car, which you can see on the screen right now,
00:11 actually started life as the front end of a Ford Ranger and the back end of a Ford Territory.
00:18 What's a Ford Territory? If you don't know, that is the Australian designed and engineered seven-seat SUV.
00:23 So this car was a bit of a Frankenstein of those two things,
00:26 and it's how they came up with a seven-seat version of the Ford Ranger.
00:30 This one right here is called the Ford Everest Sport, and it's priced at just under
00:34 $64,000. It competes with cars like the Toyota Fortuna, the Mitsubishi Pajero Sport, and the Isuzu MUX.
00:41 It's that subset of seven-seat family SUVs. Today, we're going to be doing a detailed review of this car,
00:48 but we're not going to be doing any off-roading or towing or that kind of thing.
00:51 We're going to look at this from a day-to-day perspective.
00:53 What's it like in and around the city and out on the highway? Now,
00:56 if you do want to skip ahead to other parts of this review,
00:58 you can use the time codes up on the screen there, or if you're on YouTube, just scroll down and you'll see the chapters below.
01:03 And if you haven't done so already, I'd love it if you could hit subscribe,
01:06 press the bell icon, because that's going to tell you every single time we drive a Frankenstein.
01:10 Let's talk about the outside. So you've got five colors to choose from, and all but the base white is an extra
01:17 $650, which isn't too bad for the metallic colors that you can get.
01:23 Including this dark one here that works really well with the Sport, because the Sport gets all of these black highlights.
01:28 And just in case you ever forget what you're driving, the Everest badge on the front here.
01:33 Now, let's talk about some of the specs in terms of off-roading.
01:37 800 millimeters of wading depth. That is absolutely mammoth. Wading depth is, of course,
01:42 the first point within the car that you're going to hit electronics and other things that don't like water.
01:48 27 millimeters of ground clearance. That's the first point you're going to start hitting things underneath the car.
01:54 So you want to keep that number in mind. Approach angle of 29.5 degrees.
01:58 That is the angle of the face you can attack with the front of the car.
02:01 25 degree departure angle, which is the same angle at the back of the car. What about styling?
02:06 I really like this. So like I said, the Sport gets all the black highlights,
02:09 but I love the grille, the way that it's sort of set out. This car turns a lot of heads.
02:13 It's weird when you're driving it, people just look, because it actually looks nice and aggressive.
02:17 It's kind of like a Raptor version of the Everest.
02:20 Oh, and by the way,
02:21 we actually did a story on what the 2022 version of the Ford Everest is going to look like.
02:25 So you can click up here to watch that and get a sneak peek of the way this face is going to transform.
02:31 You get full LED headlights. These are bi-LED, so LED low beam, LED high beam, LED daytime running lights.
02:38 And if we jump around to the side here, we have our wheels. 20-inch alloy wheels. These are a nice design as well.
02:45 So black following the theme of the rest of the car. Nice chunky tires there as well.
02:50 But this is interesting. The bigger the SUV, the less wheel cladding you get.
02:53 Have you noticed how small SUVs all have that plastic cladding to show that they go off-road?
02:57 But SUVs that do actually go off-road don't have black cladding. Very strange.
03:02 We'll jump around to the back of the car. More black highlights there on the wing mirrors.
03:06 You get side steps and black roof rails. And then come around to the rear.
03:12 LED tail lamps. And a pretty decent looking design. More of those black highlights there from the Sport package.
03:18 You get front and rear parking sensors.
03:20 But yeah, look, it is quite a decent looking car. And I guess the styling hasn't changed a great deal.
03:26 Maybe they'll do a facelift before the new model comes. But for all intents and purposes, it's a pretty well-sorted design.
03:32 Let's talk interior. So on first glance, you can see this is very much a clone of the Ford Ranger, effectively.
03:39 They have put some soft touch materials along the top of the dashboard.
03:43 But the lower you go, the scratchier it is.
03:46 And look, I'm in two minds about this. Because obviously if you are a rugged adventurer, you're going out doing stuff with the kids.
03:52 It's a bit rough and tumble. You probably don't want soft materials everywhere.
03:56 You want stuff that's durable and I guess easy to keep clean as well. So from that point of view, it's okay.
04:02 What about the actual softness though? Let's test how soft it is with our durometer.
04:07 This measures hardness on a scale from 0 to 100, when 0 is soft, 100 is hard.
04:12 This is for the lulls. Let's see what it looks like.
04:16 Yeah, it's not too bad. 70 up the top there and we'll try our center armrest here. That feels really soft actually.
04:23 That's cool. So there you go. They are soft touch materials. What about build quality?
04:29 Not too bad. Everything feels okay. This car is built in Thailand.
04:36 So it is sort of, you know, it feels rigid and well built, but there are just little things like this that are a bit sloppy.
04:42 Let's talk infotainment. Ford uses an infotainment system called Sync 3.
04:46 If you do want a detailed review of this unit, click up here to watch our previous video.
04:50 But today I'll take you through a quick overview, just so you know what it's all about.
04:54 So this is what it looks like. You get shortcut buttons down the bottom there and on the audio manual you find AM/FM,
05:01 DAB plus digital radio. There's a climate menu as well for adjusting climate controls.
05:06 But you do have buttons beneath it. Phone menu. This is where you can dial contacts. Also put it on do not disturb,
05:12 so you won't get calls coming through. Check your text messages as well.
05:15 Navigation. It has inbuilt satellite navigation and it works fairly well with traffic integrated into it.
05:22 You have the ability to get mobile apps on the infotainment system and the mobile apps are things like
05:27 tune-in radio and other native Ford functions. Ford is bringing what they call Ford Pass Connect,
05:33 which is remote connectivity to the vehicle.
05:36 So I would probably hold off a little bit if you're looking to buy an Everest or a Ranger,
05:40 so you can actually get that connectivity,
05:41 because that will make it handy to check in on your car remotely, start it remotely and do other fun things like that.
05:46 It also has Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, but keep in mind it is via a cable. Works pretty well.
05:52 The integration takes up the entire screen and it's very quick as well. So enough about infotainment,
05:57 let's look at the other features you get. In terms of connectivity, you have two USB ports plus a 12-volt outlet,
06:03 but check this out. Up the top here, there is another USB port and this is for dash cam integration,
06:09 which means you don't have to run an ungainly cable all the way around the car.
06:12 You can just plug it in and away you go. So that is really clever. Dual zone climate control.
06:17 Then down here you have all of the functions that operate things like parking sensors,
06:22 traction control, rear differential lock, low range and the stop/start feature. In terms of safety technology,
06:27 you get autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian detection plus radar cruise control.
06:32 You also get a lane keeping assistant, but there's no blind spot monitoring.
06:36 You've got to step up to the top spec titanium for that.
06:39 It's a little bit disappointing, but you do get airbag coverage to the third row,
06:42 which some seven-seat SUVs don't offer. Now, what does the key look like? Here it is here. So you have lock,
06:48 unlock, boot and then on the backside you have Ford behind that little sticker. Key itself is a proximity sensing key.
06:56 So you keep that in your pocket, grab the door handle, hop inside the car and then you have push button start.
07:01 Now, what about practicality? We'll start with where you're going to store your odds and ends. So we'll start with the phone.
07:06 Fits fine in there. Fits down here as well. No wireless phone charging. Boo! Would have been nice to have that.
07:13 What about bottles? Let's see how our bottle goes. Fits fine in there. It's got little teeth as well.
07:19 Someone called out in one of our videos that our bottle is too big and we're trying to make some cars look bad.
07:26 No, it's just a normal water bottle.
07:29 Fits inside the door as well. There's also storage either side of the bottle for
07:33 stuff.
07:35 Center console, that's nice and deep, plenty of room in there.
07:39 And then let's look at the glove box. Glove box is not too bad as well with a dedicated slot there for the manual too.
07:45 And then you can put your sunglasses in there. Now, what about comfort? The seats are actually pretty comfy.
07:50 They have these perforations on them. You get the sport insignia on there. The comfort itself is quite nice.
07:56 They don't have too much bolster, so they're not hugging you in completely, but gives you a nice commanding driving position.
08:03 Oh, yeah, the driver's side is electrically adjustable as well.
08:06 It's not reach adjustment on the steering wheel. It only goes up and down.
08:09 It doesn't come in and out, but all of the controls are easy to reach and also easy to see while you're driving.
08:14 Okay, second row of the Everest. What's it like back here? So knee room is okay.
08:19 I've got my seat in my standard driving position, which is generally pretty far back. Toe room is not too bad.
08:26 Headroom is pretty decent as well.
08:28 Now, the reason you can't get a panoramic glass roof here in the Everest is because the air vents are built into the roof.
08:35 They're controlled down here with heat,
08:37 with third zone of climate and fan speed, and then you have the ability to tell the car whether you want it at your feet or
08:44 at your head.
08:44 So I guess it is good that you can redirect them and do what you need to do with them. Same with the third row,
08:49 but I don't know, it kind of limits your ability to add extra things to the roof.
08:52 Now, map pockets into the back seats and then you have a center armrest that has cup holders built in.
08:59 See how it fits our normal size bottle.
09:02 That's pretty good.
09:04 Got a little tray at the bottom there as well.
09:06 And then you have bottle storage inside the door too,
09:09 with like a coin tray type thing and then storage either side. Also fixed points on the two outboard seats.
09:15 So the seats slide forwards and backwards and they also
09:19 recline as well and the whole point of that is to give you third row more access.
09:24 But the odd thing down here is you get a 230 volt outlet that supplies 150 watts of power.
09:29 You also get a 12 volt outlet, but there's no USB connectivity back here.
09:33 I would have thought a USB slot for the kids devices would have been a smarter option to have back here.
09:37 Now the question is, can you fit an adult into the third row?
09:41 The answer is probably no because a lot of these ute based SUVs don't really have the most spacious third row,
09:47 but we're going to try anyway. With both of these seats, they fold 60/40.
09:50 You can go all the way down to give yourself more boot space, but to get into the third row,
09:56 they fold forward and then slide.
09:58 Let's give this a shot.
10:00 So the third row comes up like this, click that into position and then you climb on in.
10:07 Okay, there we are here. I have climbed in and I fit okay width wise.
10:14 Let's see what it's like once this gets locked into position.
10:17 Yeah, it's pretty tight. So keep in mind this can slide forwards, but that limits your knee room.
10:23 While I was in there before I only just had enough knee room.
10:26 So if this was slid forward, you're not going to get an adult into that position.
10:29 But I've got two cup holders here and then
10:32 enough room to just sort of relax.
10:35 I have my own air vents here as well plus a reading light too.
10:38 And then like I mentioned before airbag coverage for the third row.
10:42 So yes, you can fit adults in here, but it's not a massively spacious area.
10:47 Let's see how much boot room there is though, because that's often where these ute based SUVs suffer.
10:51 So how much room is there behind that third row? You have a powered tailgate.
10:55 It is possibly the world's slowest tailgate though.
10:58 Still going.
11:02 And there it is. It's also not very high. I only just fit under there. So be careful not to whack your head.
11:09 I don't think that can, I can go up a tiny bit higher, but probably not enough.
11:12 Now, let me show you how much space there is here with both of these third row seats up.
11:17 Ford reckons you've got 450 litres of cargo space here,
11:21 but they're a little bit cheeky because they measure all the way to the roof. That space there is fairly useless.
11:26 But anyway, there's 450 litres and under here you have a couple of storage bits and pieces.
11:30 12 volt outlet on the side plus cubby hole over there. Does it fit our bags though?
11:35 So laptop bag just fits in. Let's see if it actually fits a suitcase.
11:41 I think that will fit. Let's try it. Let's see what happens. Sorry, it's gonna take forever.
11:49 How's your day been? It's nice here. It's very nice and sunny. There it is. That fits. Perfect. Okay.
11:56 Wait for it to come back up.
11:59 Catch the game on the weekend. It was a good one.
12:02 Okay, so now let's expand this a little bit.
12:06 When you drop the third row,
12:09 space here increases to just over 1,000 litres, but you can go even further by dropping the second row. I'll show you what that looks like.
12:18 And that then increases space to just over 2,000 litres and it's almost flat.
12:32 These kind of need to go a little further flat, but you can load whatever you want in here to make it a bit like a van.
12:37 So we've hit the road in the big old Everest. What is powering this beast of a car?
12:43 So it is a fairly non-beasty engine. It's a 2 litre, 4 cylinder, turbocharged
12:49 diesel engine. Makes 157 kilowatts of power,
12:54 500 Newton meters of torque and it's made it to a 10 speed automatic transmission.
13:00 Now that may sound terrible because a lot of gears on a little engine probably isn't very good,
13:05 but because of the torque band you're able to lean on the throttle in a high gear and it really just picks up and moves
13:11 nicely. Ford claims a combined fuel economy of 7 litres per 100 kilometres.
13:16 What are we on? 8.2 litres per 100.
13:19 So close enough to that figure and pretty impressive when you consider the size of this.
13:24 Over two tons and it's quite a small diesel engine. So it's lugging around a lot of weight.
13:29 So it is pretty impressive that it's able to get such a low fuel economy figure. Unlike the Ranger,
13:34 which is a rear-wheel drive car come all-wheel drive car, the Everest in this specification is just permanent all-wheel drive.
13:41 That means you always have that surety of knowing torque is going to all four wheels.
13:45 You also have four wheel disc brakes, unlike the Ranger, unless you go to the Raptor which has drum brakes at the rear.
13:52 Down here you have terrain management system, TMS. It's Ford's drive modes for the Everest.
13:58 I'll show you how this works. Right now we're in a normal one.
14:00 You flick it across and it starts going through all the different modes.
14:03 So snow, mud, grass mode active. All this is doing is just changing torque distribution and stability control.
14:09 And if I flick it across even more, we've got sand mode and then you have rock mode.
14:15 And for that you enter low range and to do that you have to come to a complete stop and hit low range.
14:19 So this is idiot proof and this is what I like about the Everest. If you do want to do any four-wheel driving,
14:25 it's all very basic. You just twist the knob and then select the mode that you want and away you go.
14:30 There's also a hill descent mode there as well if you do find yourself going down a pretty steep descent.
14:35 Now, what does it ride like? Again, unlike the Ranger, the ride in this is actually pretty impressive.
14:40 At the back there you have coil springs and it's not a leaf spring setup like you find on most Ranger utes.
14:47 That means that it rides nicely.
14:49 It is a little on the firmer side because you can't get away from the fact that this is a ladder on frame chassis
14:53 just like the ute that it's based on.
14:56 But outside of that it feels comfortable enough for soaking up miles.
14:59 You can get this with an off-road wheel package and that's just for the titanium.
15:04 Now, let's quickly touch on towing. You have 3,100 kilograms of brake towing capacity.
15:10 But I quite like this feature. If I come to a full stop and we engage the reverse camera,
15:14 there's a little plus button in the corner. You hit that and it zooms in.
15:17 So if you are attaching a trailer or caravan or something like that,
15:21 you can use your guidelines to get in there and then you press the plus
15:24 to zoom in and see exactly when you're about to connect your trailer.
15:27 What about the steering? It's an electrically assisted steering rack,
15:32 so it's actually pretty easy to maneuver. It's not a hydraulic unit.
15:36 They can be a little tedious at low speeds.
15:38 So that means when it does come to parking,
15:40 this is pretty straightforward to get into the parking slot that you're after.
15:44 And then on that visibility, at the front it's really good.
15:46 You're sitting in quite a commanding driving position.
15:49 At the back, it's okay, but not amazing. You have quite a narrow window,
15:53 made even worse if you do have your third row in action.
15:56 But check out these wing mirrors. They are absolute whoppers.
15:59 So while you don't get blind spot monitoring, they are big enough to catch everything.
16:02 And then the outside edge is convex, cave, whatever it is.
16:07 So you can actually see a little bit more around the corner.
16:09 So what does two litres feel like when you give it a jab?
16:12 The gearbox is quick enough, 500 Newton metres of torque.
16:16 It picks up and moves okay. Like it's not tremendous, but it's enough to get it going.
16:22 You will notice that if you are towing, everything slows down a little bit.
16:25 For the most part, though, it is a decent engine.
16:27 What about noise? So there is a little bit of road noise,
16:31 but this engine is making a fair old racket. Like it's not overly intrusive,
16:36 and it's not as sort of gruff as the 3.2 litre five cylinder you can also get,
16:41 but you still do notice it. I guess that's okay.
16:43 That's kind of the character trait here with the Everest.
16:46 They try and make it a little meaty and not make it just sound all nice and quiet.
16:51 This is the adventure SUV, so they want it to sound like you're adventurous.
16:56 So Ford calling this the Ford Everest Sport is about as accurate as calling me sporty.
17:01 It's not very quick, it's not very agile, but I don't know, I still like it.
17:05 It's just a good all-rounder. The engine's nice and punchy.
17:08 The gearbox is decent. It's got enough room inside, and you can do some off-roading in it.
17:12 You know, a lot of people need a seven-seater to transport the family,
17:15 but why not have one that does off-roading and does towing and all that sort of stuff
17:19 confidently? If you want to go camping with the kids or get away from a wife or something like
17:24 that, this is going to be the car for you. In terms of downsides, look, I mean,
17:28 it is getting a little bit long in the tooth now. Ford has thrown some decent infotainment at it.
17:32 SYNC 3 is one of the best in the business, but you can tell with the inside,
17:35 this is very much based off the ute. It doesn't feel all that premium,
17:39 and if you do step up to something like a titanium, it is a lot of money to spend on
17:43 a car that is virtually just a ute inside. So let me know in the comments below,
17:47 what do you think about the Frankenstein of SUVs? Have you bought one? How's it been? Is it fun to
17:52 drive? Would love it if you could share this video and hit the like button if you enjoyed it,
17:57 and if you haven't done so already, hit subscribe and also press the bell icon so you can find out
18:01 every single time we drive something new. But until next time, drive safely.