THE EDGE OF GLORY
Ford’s new SUV gears up to take on rivals
I love large SUVs. I own one and wouldn’t be without it. However, like most of these cars, the only off-road action mine sees is taking on speed bumps or tackling the occasional high kerb.
But that doesn’t stop buyers wanting them for everyday use. Maybe that’s why Ford have introduced the Edge to their range here in the UK.
This car has been available in the US for years and is a huge hit there.
But now Ford want a slice of this big and bold car segment in Europe and hoping this new generation Edge will do it for them.
For me, this type of car is hard to beat. I love the raised driving position, the interior space is always good and it’s hard to fault the storage on offer.
And the Edge delivers all of the above in abundance. It’s the largest SUV in the Ford line-up but is set to take on tiff competition, such as the Audi Q5, BMW X3 and Hyundai Santa Fe.
Having driven all of these cars, I think they will struggle to tempt people away from top-end brands.
I reckon their biggest problem will be that no matter how you dress it up, it has a premium price tag on a car with a Ford badge on the bonnet. School-runu mums with a fondness for labels might not like that at all.
I drove both the manual and automatic versions of the Edge. The manual was in the Sport trim and came packed with toys.
For £ 34,500, you get black alloy wheels, sporty body styling, sports suspension and Ford’s excellent SYNC2 infotainment system which has voice control, Bluetooth connectivity and an 8in colour touchscreen. And in standard spec terms, it does provide more than many competitors. My model also had the Lux pack which took this car’s gadgets up a notch and included heated and cooled front seats, a panorama sunroof which opens, 10- way memory seat settings for the driver and eight for the passenger and powered memory door mirrors. But these edged up the price by £2000. Other options added to my modelmo included a front view cameracam at £150 and Electric SpiceSpi paint costing £545. TheT auto version was the 2litre2lit TDCi in Titanium spec whichwh was also very wel l equipped.eq And for me the automaticau wins hands down althoughalt the manual delivers a finefi performance too. This car turns heads. More thanth once I returned to it to find someone eyeing it up. And it is easy to see why as the styling is great. A big, bold front grille and muscular body gives the car real road presence.
Head and leg room throughout the cabin is tough to fault and it also delivers excellent storage as does the big boot.
The interior was obviously Ford with many aspects shared by other models in the range. But all the materials were of good quality and the interior is very well put together. The infotainment system was easy to use and the dash well laid out.
On the road, this big brute was easy to control and the drive was decent on all types of roads. It’s not going to get your heart racing with excitement but that’s not what these cars are all about.
The big question is will this new Ford model give them the edge over their rivals? Only time will tell.