By William Kelly
Launches are hard work. Really. They are.
How do you get anything more than just a first impression with only a few hours behind the wheel of any car? The long answer expressed as shortly as possible is that you can’t. Launches are about introductions and first impressions – and generally a barrage of information and sensory overload.
Scrape this off and trying to get to actual grips with a car is sweat-inducing and headache-creating work – how do you do justice to the car and you, dear and valued reader?
Nonetheless. We struggle on in the quest for the perfect car launch review.
Having found myself in George for a whistle stop overnight for the launch of the new Ford Everest Explorer, let me start by saying that I had mixed first impressions. Our local market is a hotly contested one and in this particular segment, the battle lines are clear and well defined. It means a lot of well honed and precision driven marketing and pricing comes to the fore – targeted customer focus is incredible in its detail and how well the brands understand their customers is perhaps something we lose appreciation of.
This space where Ford finds itself is an interesting one in which all manner of brand leverage is used. Ford is, of course, a great example of what an international company can do in terms of involving itself with local community and business – the donation of dog food to a local dog shelter was in and of itself a touching moment. Positively phoenix-like.
And we should appreciate that the local Ford branch in little old South Africa is in fact doing some pretty amazing work. The Everest is completely locally built – big tick there. South Africa can build cars to international standards – and post-Covid lockdown, the sales records are looking surprisingly rosy. In fact, the supply lines for componentry seems to be the biggest issue to fulfil orders already in the pipeline… This is good news – demand is there, production now just has to keep up.
When it came to the Everest I confess that I didn’t notice if any parts, knobs, or bits were left off of it. I did notice that the really important big parts such as the gearbox – a ten speed automatic no less, and the 2.0L turbo-diesel engine were included and appeared to be in working order, along with the rest of the car. My powers of observation do me great credit…
This particular iteration of Everest is pitched at around the R700k mark for the ‘big one’ – the 4×4 mode version. The value proposition here is thus high and pretty blunt in who it’s taking aim at, fortunately, obvious for us poor motoring hacks to figure out.
That said, where does the Everest Sport actually find itself in the great Seff Efrican motoring landscape as opposed to where it wants to be? As a ‘sport’ version, the good old saffer tradition of meaning ‘budget’, the Everest finds itself a bit betwixt and between if I’m honest. R700k is a chunk of change for the ‘big’ one and at this level one really shouldn’t be nitpicking about having auto up and down electric windows on all four doors, or memory functions for the electric seats, or which light bulb went into which headlight.
It should be more about having a package that works together as a whole and can you do better with your R700k? This, of course, is the question that drives sales success or failure but Everest has a track record now, perhaps somewhat unfairly, of being underrated. The innate appeal of what is basically a closed Ranger – of which sales speak for themselves has to give Everest a decent boost in the appeal factor. Appeal, as anyone will tell you, transcends auto dip headlights and smartphone integration. It’s about where you stand and identify with the brand and this particular offering.
The car itself is solid. But it has a tough job to sell itself in this space and it’s too early to call how well the Sport derivation will find itself selling in the local market. I do think it is going to be tough – there are many options now that may see customers changing sideways, downwards or, even upwards according to informal chats. Covid has changed consumers but how remains to be seen.
If we may get back to the actual car, allow me to tell you what I did and didn’t like about the Everest Sport. You can then take your as yet undecided mind to the dealerships and figure out which colour of which vehicle you choose to order.
Right from the get-go you need to understand that this is a big vehicle. Basically it is a Ranger-size car without the exposed load bay. It’s truly massive. A Ranger with a canopy has a lot of space. A small mobile cave. It puts my Landy to shame. The Everest is basically the same thing with seven seats pinching some of the space admittedly.
If you want something to nip to the shops in or as a heavy traffic point and squirter, I’ve got bad news for you. But if you want to run over Smart cars, potholes, verges, centre islands, or even miscellaneous fauna and flora without really noticing it, I’ve got some good news for you.
The next big thing to come along is the ten speed box with which I have a love hate relationship. I think the car needs it because the 2.0L diesel burner, although competent, is only just enough for this heavy vehicle. 132kW and 420Nm sounds like plenty and yes, I know, I am always harping on about too MUCH power in SUVs but in this case, the 2.0 is only ‘just enough’.  Ford has probably chosen the correct option but for me, another 20kW would not go amiss. Of course the inevitable trade off against economy is a tricky balancing act to get right – in my case, I’d be happy to pay for it initially and would probably regret it in a few months time…
I loved the gearbox because it seemed to always be in the right gear at the right time and is reasonably responsive. I hated the box because there is no flappy paddle option and it comes with a up down button on the gear lever that is supposed to pass as a ‘manual’ gearbox override. It’s a cheap afterthought and should be taken out to the woodshed to have its head chopped off. I gave up on it and resigned myself to auto mode only, and frankly, the driving experience is better for it.
Getting onto the other big thing – the motor. On level roads, the Everest trundles along nicely with overtaking within legal limits being something that you don’t need to plan an hour in advance. But you do need to be aware that if you pull out from directly behind the car in front of you and expect to accelerate from a constant speed past a twenty wheeler you are going to need some time. Which if I’m honest, does serve you right for driving like a prat. Be better. Learn to overtake properly.
I digress. The box helps by keeping the motor in the power band more often – but I didn’t like the fact that the engine relies on it to get the job done. It feels like the motor is working all the time and it’s only when cruising that the car feels relaxed. How much of this seeps from car to driver I am not sure. As a side observation, it might go a long way to explaining why the drivers of cars equipped with hideous CVT gearboxes are always grumpy and miserable people.
The diesel does give the Everest decent pulling power thanks to that torque and the offroad grunt needed to get up the pass up to Prince Albert (which is where we went for lunch) was way more than sufficient – for the 4×4 crowd the Everest is a properly strong contender. Engine not too big, mated to a competent box and proper 4×4 capabilities. I think the Everest is better suited to gravel, snow, sand, and grit than it is to tar and, of course, tyre selection to match your relative needs goes a long way in determining your perfect mix of car to purpose. Whilst this means that the Everest Sport is a leisure vehicle more than an urban cruiser, it is nonetheless testament to the trade offs that Ford has done with it that I think I could live with it quite comfortably in my suburban daily drive. It’s versatile and you can dial in a combination that works for you and your lifestyle with little effort.
The pass up to Prince Albert is a different animal today to what it was a few years back. It has been all smoothed out and is only mildly terrifying if you’re of a nervous disposition as a passenger. After some heavy rain the day before there was enough mud to get the car into ‘drive in mud’ mode which it did with little drama or fuss. We had the 4×4 version as opposed to the 4×2 flavour and the Everest felt planted with no sense of fear that we were going to go over the edge and plunder to a grisly demise on the rocks a few miles below us.
Did I mention that it is a big vehicle? It is also consequently quite a heavy vehicle at a porkyish kerb weight of 2,387kg. The Everest thus feels the part and you know you’re in a properly big vehicle. This is comforting, which is a good thing. Solidity counts.
I started off with stating that I only had a few hours in the car. I find it hard to find fault with the Everest as tested. It is competent. It has got stuff that most of us would like and appreciate at this pricing point. The things I didn’t like are overwhelmed by the things I did like with the excellent build quality, road noise, handling and so forth. In fairness, that can only really be assessed in detail over time, but as it stands, they still managed to stand out as having excellent potential.
I suppose the worst thing you can say about the Everest is that it might be considered about as boring as its nearest competitor which is perhaps why I wouldn’t actually want either. That said, I am not the target market and if you had one I’d completely understand why you would buy it – and we could still be friends. The Everest, in Sport guise as presented here, is a solid purchase that it would be hard to go wrong with. It is also one that I suspect a lot of people are going to enjoy living with. This is more than sufficient motivation to render it worthy of a close evaluation in your own terms of reference.
Read more:
- Ford Ranger FX4: travelling wild on the Wild Coast
- Range Rover Sport SVR Carbon Edition: luxury first, speed second
