Ford EverestEndeavour review The big Ranger-based SUV gets a tough look for 2020
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00:00G'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.
00:07But I have an interesting story to tell you. The mule for this car, which you can see on the screen right now,
00:12actually started life as the front end of a Ford Ranger and the back end of a Ford Territory.
00:18What's a Ford Territory? If you don't know, that is the Australian designed and engineered seven-seat SUV.
00:23So this car was a bit of a Frankenstein of those two things,
00:26and it's how they came up with a seven-seat version of the Ford Ranger.
00:31This 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.
00:42It's that subset of seven-seat family SUVs. Today, we're going to be doing a detailed review of this car,
00:48but we're not going to be doing any off-roading or towing or that kind of thing.
00:51We're going to look at this from a day-to-day perspective.
00:53What's it like in and around the city and out on the highway?
00:56Now, if you do want to skip ahead to other parts of this review,
00:58you can use the time codes up on the screen there.
01:01Or if you're on YouTube, just scroll down and you'll see the chapters below. And if you haven't done so already,
01:05I'd love it if you could hit subscribe, press the bell icon, because that's going to tell you every single time we drive a Frankenstein.
01:12Let's talk about the outside. So you've got five colors to choose from, and all but the base white is an extra
01:19$650, which isn't too bad for the metallic colors that you can get.
01:23Including this dark one here that works really well with the Sport, because the Sport gets all of these black highlights.
01:28And just in case you ever forget what you're driving, the Everest badge on the front here.
01:33Now, let's talk about some of the specs in terms of off-roading.
01:38800 millimeters of wading depth. That is absolutely mammoth.
01:41Wading depth is, of course, the first point within the car that you're going to hit electronics and other things that don't like water.
01:49227 millimeters of ground clearance.
01:51That's the first point you're going to start hitting things underneath the car,
01:54so you want to keep that number in mind. Approach angle of 29.5 degrees.
01:58That is the angle of the face you can attack with the front of the car.
02:0125 degree departure angle, which is the same angle at the back of the car. What about styling?
02:06I really like this. So, like I said, the Sport gets all the black highlights,
02:10but I love the grille, the way that it's sort of set out. This car turns a lot of heads.
02:13It's weird when you're driving it, people just look, because it actually looks nice and aggressive.
02:17It's kind of like a Raptor version of the Everest.
02:20Oh, and by the way,
02:21we actually did a story on what the
02:232022 version of the Ford Everest is going to look like, so you can click up here to watch that and get a sneak peek
02:29of the way this face is going to transform. You get full LED headlights. These are bi-LED,
02:34so LED low beam, LED high beam, LED daytime running lights.
02:39And if we jump around to the side here, we have our wheels. 20-inch alloy wheels. These are a nice design as well.
02:45So, black following the theme of the rest of the car. Nice chunky tires there as well.
02:50But this is interesting. The bigger the SUV, the less wheel cladding you get.
02:53Have you noticed how small SUVs all have that plastic cladding to show that they go off-road,
02:57but SUVs that do actually go off-road don't have black cladding? Very strange.
03:03We'll jump around to the back of the car. More black highlights there on the wing mirrors.
03:07You get side steps and black roof rails, and then come around to the rear.
03:12LED tail lamps, and a pretty decent looking design. More of those black highlights there from the Sport package.
03:18You get front and rear parking sensors.
03:20But yeah, look, it is quite a decent looking car, and I guess the styling hasn't changed a great deal.
03:26Maybe they'll do a facelift before the new model comes, but for all intents and purposes, it's a pretty well-sorted design.
03:32Let's talk interior. So, on first glance, you can see this is very much a clone of the Ford Ranger, effectively.
03:39They have put some soft touch materials along the top of the dashboard, but the lower you go, the scratchier it is.
03:46And 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,
03:53it's a bit rough and tumble. You probably don't want soft materials everywhere.
03:57You want stuff that's durable and, I guess, easy to keep clean as well. So from that point of view, it's okay.
04:03What about the actual softness, though? Let's test how soft it is with our durometer.
04:07This measures hardness on a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 is soft, 100 is hard.
04:13This is for the lulls. Let's see what it looks like.
04:18Yeah, it's not too bad. 70 up the top there, and we'll try our center armrest here. That feels really soft, actually.
04:24That's cool. So, there you go. They are soft touch materials. What about build quality?
04:31Not too bad.
04:33Everything feels okay. This car's built in Thailand,
04:36so 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.
04:42Let's talk infotainment. Ford uses an infotainment system called SYNC 3. If you do want a detailed review of this unit,
04:49click up here to watch our previous video. But today, I'll take you through a quick overview,
04:52just so you know what it's all about. So this is what it looks like.
04:55You get shortcut buttons down the bottom there, and on the audio manual, you find AM, FM, DAB plus digital radio.
05:03There's a climate menu as well for adjusting climate controls, but you do have buttons beneath it. Phone menu,
05:09this is where you can dial contacts. Also, put it on do not disturb,
05:12so you won't get calls coming through. Check your text messages as well. Navigation, it has in-built satellite navigation, and
05:19it works fairly well with traffic integrated into it.
05:22You have the ability to get mobile apps on the infotainment system, and the mobile apps are things like tune-in radio and other
05:30native Ford functions. Ford is bringing what they call Ford Pass Connect, which is remote connectivity to the vehicle.
05:36So, I would probably hold off a little bit if you're looking to buy an Everest or a Ranger,
05:40so you can actually get that connectivity, because that will make it handy to check in on your car remotely, start it remotely, and do
05:45other fun things like that. It also has Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, but keep in mind,
05:50it is via a cable. Works pretty well. The integration tacks up the entire screen, and it's very quick as well.
05:56So, enough about infotainment. Let's look at the other features you get. In terms of connectivity,
06:00you have two USB ports plus a 12-volt outlet, but check this out. Up the top here,
06:05there is another USB port, and this is for dash cam integration,
06:09which means you don't have to run an ungainly cable all the way around the car.
06:12You can just plug it in, and away you go. So, that is really clever. Dual zone climate control.
06:17Then down here, you have all of the functions that operate things like parking sensors, traction control, rear differential lock, low range, and the
06:25stop-start feature. In terms of safety technology, you get autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian detection, plus radar cruise control.
06:33You also get a lane-keeping assistant, but there's no blind spot monitoring. You've got to step up to the top spec titanium for that.
06:39It's a little bit disappointing, but you do get airbag coverage to the third row, which some seven-seat SUVs don't offer. Now,
06:45what does the key look like? Here it is here. So, you have
06:48lock,
06:49unlock,
06:50boot, and then on the backside, you have forward behind that little sticker. Key itself is a proximity sensing key,
06:56so you keep that in your pocket, grab the door handle, hop inside the car, and then you have push-button start. Now,
07:02what about practicality? We'll start with where you're going to store your odds and ends. So, we'll start with the phone.
07:07Fits fine in there. Fits down here as well. No wireless phone charging. Boo. Would have been nice to have that. What about bottles?
07:15Let's see how our bottle goes. Fits fine in there. It's got little teeth as well.
07:21Someone called out in one of our videos that our bottle is too big and we're trying to make some cars look bad.
07:26No, it's just a normal water bottle. Fits inside the door as well. There's also storage either side of the bottle for
07:34stuff.
07:36Center console. That's nice and deep. Plenty of room in there.
07:39And 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.
07:45And then you can put your
07:47sunglasses in there. Now, what about comfort? The seats are actually pretty comfy. They have these perforations on them.
07:52You get the sport insignia on there. The comfort itself is quite nice.
07:56They sort of don't have too much bolster, so they're not hugging you in completely, but gives you a nice commanding driving position.
08:03Oh, yeah, the driver's side is electrically adjustable as well. There's no reach adjustment on the steering wheel.
08:08It only goes up and down. It doesn't come in and out.
08:10But all of the controls are easy to reach and also easy to see while you're driving.
08:14Okay, second row of the Everest. What's it like back here? So, knee room is okay.
08:20I've got my seat in my standard driving position, which is generally pretty far back. Toe room is not too bad.
08:26Headroom is pretty decent as well.
08:29Now, the reason you can't get a panoramic glass roof here in the Everest is because the air vents are built into the roof.
08:35They're controlled down here with heat,
08:37with third zone of climate and fan speed, and then you have the ability to tell the car whether you want it at your feet
08:44or at your head.
08:45So, I guess it is good that you can redirect them and do what you need to do with them. Same with the third row,
08:49but, I don't know, it kind of limits your ability to add extra things to the roof.
08:53Yeah, mat pockets into the back seats, and then you have a center armrest that has cup holders built in.
08:59See how it fits our normal size bottle.
09:03That's pretty good.
09:04Got a little tray at the bottom there as well, and then you have bottle storage inside the door, too,
09:10with like a coin tray type thing, and then storage either side. Also fixed points on the two outboard seats.
09:16So, the seats slide forwards and backwards, and they also recline as well,
09:20and the whole point of that is to give you a third row more access.
09:24But the odd thing down here is you get a 230 volt outlet that supplies 150 watts of power.
09:29You also get a 12 volt outlet, but there's no USB connectivity back here.
09:33I would have thought a USB slot for the kids devices would have been a smarter option to have back here.
09:38Now, the question is, can you fit an adult into the third row?
09:42The answer is probably no, because a lot of these ute based SUVs don't really have the most spacious third row,
09:47but we're going to try anyway. With both of these seats, they fold 60-40.
09:50You can go all the way down to give yourself more boot space, but to get into the third row,
09:56they fold forward and then slide.
09:59Let's give this a shot. So, the third row comes up like this.
10:03You click that into position, and then you climb on in.
10:09Okay, there we are here. I have climbed in and I fit okay width-wise.
10:15Let's see what it's like once this gets locked into position.
10:19Yeah, it's pretty tight. So, keep in mind this can slide forwards,
10:22but that limits your knee room. While I was in there before, I only just had enough knee room.
10:26So, if this was slid forward, you're not going to get an adult into that position.
10:30But, I've got two cup holders here and then
10:33enough room to just sort of relax.
10:35I have my own air vents here as well, plus a reading light too.
10:39And then, like I mentioned before, airbag coverage for the third row.
10:42So, yes, you can fit adults in here, but it's not a massively spacious area.
10:47Let's see how much boot room there is though, because that's often where these ute based SUVs suffer.
10:52So, how much room is there behind that third row? You have a powered tailgate. It is possibly the world's slowest tailgate though.
11:01Still going.
11:02And there it is. It's also not very high. I only just fit under there. So, be careful not to whack your head.
11:09I don't think that can... I can go up a tiny bit higher, but probably not enough.
11:12Now, let me show you how much space there is here with both of these third row seats up.
11:18Ford reckons you've got 450 litres of cargo space here,
11:21but they're a little bit cheeky because they measure all the way to the roof. That space there is fairly useless.
11:26But anyway, there's 450 litres, and under here you have a couple of storage bits and pieces,
11:3112-volt outlet on the side, plus cubby hole over there.
11:34Does it fit our bags though? So, laptop bag just fits in.
11:38Let's see if it actually fits a suitcase.
11:43I think that will fit. Let's try it. Let's see what happens. Sorry, that's going to take forever.
11:51How's your day been? It's nice here. It's very nice and sunny.
11:54There it is. That fits. Perfect. Okay, I'm waiting for it to come back up.
11:59Catch the game on the weekend. That was a good one. Okay, so now let's expand this a little bit.
12:08When you drop the third row, space here increases to just over 1,000 litres,
12:15but you can go even further by dropping the second row. I'll show you what that looks like.
12:24And that then increases space to just over 2,000 litres, and it's almost flat. These kind of need
12:31to go a little further flat, but you can load whatever you want in here to make it a bit like
12:35a van. So, we've hit the road in the big old Everest. What is powering this beast of a car?
12:42So, it is a fairly non-beasty engine. It's a two-litre, four-cylinder, turbo-charged
12:50diesel engine. It makes 157 kilowatts of power, 500 newton metres of torque, and it's made into
12:57a 10-speed automatic transmission. Now, that may sound terrible because a lot of gears on a little
13:04engine probably isn't very good, but because of the torque band, you're able to lean on the throttle
13:09in high gear, and it really just picks up and moves nicely. Ford claims a combined fuel economy
13:14of seven litres per 100 kilometres. What are we on? 8.2 litres per 100. So, close enough to that
13:21figure, and pretty impressive when you consider the size of this. It's over two tonnes, and it's
13:26quite a small diesel engine, so it's lugging around a lot of weight. So, it is pretty impressive that
13:30it's able to get such a low fuel economy figure. Unlike the Ranger, which is a rear-wheel drive
13:36car come all-wheel drive car, the Everest in this specification is just permanent all-wheel drive.
13:42That means you always have that surety of knowing torque is going to all four wheels. You also have
13:46four-wheel disc brakes, unlike the Ranger, unless you go to the Raptor, which has drum brakes at
13:52the rear. Down here, you have Terrain Management System, TMS. It's Ford's drive modes for the
13:58Everest. I'll show you how this works. Right now, we're in a normal one. You flick it across,
14:02and it starts going through all the different modes. So, snow, mud, grass mode active.
14:06All this is doing is just changing torque distribution and stability control,
14:10and if I flick it across even more, we've got sand mode, and then you have rock mode,
14:15and for that, you enter low range, and to do that, you have to come to a complete stop and hit low
14:19range. So, this is idiot-proof, and this is what I like about the Everest. If you do want to do any
14:24four-wheel driving, it's all very basic. You just twist the knob, and then select the mode that you
14:29want, and away you go. There's also a hill descent mode there as well, if you do find yourself going
14:33down a pretty steep descent. Now, what is it ride like? Again, unlike the Ranger, the ride in this
14:39is actually pretty impressive. At the back there, you have coil springs, and it's not a leaf spring
14:44set up like you find on most Ranger utes. That means that it rides nicely. It is a little on
14:50the firmer side because you can't get away from the fact that this is a ladder-on-frame chassis,
14:54just like the ute that it's based on, but outside of that, it feels comfortable enough for soaking
14:59up miles. You can get this with an off-road wheel package, and that's just for the titanium.
15:04Now, let's quickly touch on towing. You have 3,100 kilograms of braked towing capacity,
15:10but I quite like this feature. If I come to a full stop and we engage the reverse camera,
15:14there's a little plus button in the corner. You hit that, and it zooms in, so if you are
15:18attaching a trailer or caravan or something like that, you can use your guidelines to get in there,
15:23and then you press the plus to zoom in and see exactly when you're about to connect your trailer.
15:29What about the steering? It's an electrically assisted steering rack, so
15:33it's actually pretty easy to manoeuvre. It's not a hydraulic unit. They can be a little tedious at
15:38low speeds, so that means when it does come to parking, this is pretty straightforward to get
15:42into the parking slot that you're after, and then on that, visibility. At the front, it's really
15:46good. You're sitting in quite a commanding driving position. At the back, it's okay,
15:51but not amazing. You have quite a narrow window, made even worse if you do have your third row
15:55in action, but check out these wing mirrors. They are absolute whoppers, so while you don't get
16:00blind spot monitoring, they are big enough to catch everything, and then the outside edge is
16:05convex, cave, whatever it is, so you can actually see a little bit more around the corner.
16:09So, what does two litres feel like when you give it a jab? The gearbox is quick enough, 500Nm of
16:16torque. It picks up and moves okay. It's not tremendous, but it's enough to get it going.
16:22You will notice that if you are towing, everything slows down a little bit. For the most part, though,
16:26it is a decent engine. What about noise? So, there is a little bit of road noise,
16:32but this engine is making a fair old racket. Like, it's not overly intrusive, and it's not
16:37as sort of gruff as the 3.2-litre five-cylinder you can also get, but you still do notice it.
16:43I guess that's okay. That's kind of the character trait here with the Everest. They try and make it
16:47a little meaty and not make it just sound all nice and quiet. This is the adventure SUV,
16:53so they want it to sound like you're adventurous. So, Ford calling this the Ford Everest Sport is
16:59about as accurate as calling me sporty. It's not very quick, it's not very agile, but I don't know,
17:04I still like it. It's just a good all-rounder. The engine's nice and punchy, the gearbox is decent,
17:09it's got enough room inside, and you can do some off-roading in it. You know, a lot of people need
17:14a seven-seater to transport the family, but why not have one that does off-roading and does towing
17:18and all that sort of stuff confidently? If you want to go camping with the kids or get away from
17:23a wife or something like that, this is going to be the car for you. In terms of downsides,
17:27look, I mean, it is getting a little bit long in the tooth now. Ford has thrown some decent
17:31infotainment at it. SYNC 3 is one of the best in the business, but you can tell with the inside,
17:36this is very much based off the ute. It doesn't feel all that premium, and if you do step up to
17:40something like a titanium, it is a lot of money to spend on a car that is virtually just a ute
17:45inside. So, let me know in the comments below, what do you think about the Frankenstein of SUVs?
17:50Have you bought one? How's it been? Is it fun to drive? Would love it if you could share this
17:55video and hit the like button if you enjoyed it, and if you haven't done so already, hit subscribe
17:59and also press the bell icon so you can find out every single time we drive something new.
18:03But until next time, drive safely.