American culture has no doubt, for better or worse, contributed to the popularity of a number of modern day staples. The proliferation of fast food, bucket size servings of coffee, a gazillion TV channels and the popularity of the SUV. The SUV is probably a bit of a double edged sword. For folk like us, they can seem the antithesis of what we want out of a car. Big, heavy, with a high centre of gravity, and generally lacking in driver enjoyment. On the other hand, they can be practical family transport, which even the most die-hard petrol head can sometimes find useful.
For the majority of owners, an SUV might offer little over a conventional hatchback or estate, but for whatever reason, folk buy them in droves. Resulting in what seems like a constant stream of new incarnations of the breed. The Edge is Ford’s new full size SUV, developed in the US, and like fast food, when it comes to SUV’s, bigger is better, or so it seems.
The Edge isn’t much smaller than the current gen Range Rover, and looks like it’s taken a few styling cues from various Land Rovers – hints of Evoque anyone? It’s quite a bold looking thing, even more so in the ‘Canyon Ridge’ paint (metallic orange to you & me) of the test car. Still, I guess you wouldn’t expect an American design to be too subtle and personally, I quite like the styling (and the colour for that matter), but undoubtedly it won’t be to all tastes.
A noticeable benefit of the large footprint is the interior space, it’s pretty vast. Front and rear passenger space is excellent, as is the boot, although there isn’t an option for a third row of seats, which might be a deal breaker if you’ve got more than the average number of small people.
The interior is also very well equipped. Keyless entry/start, heated and cooled memory seats (the rears are also heated), sat nav, DAB, Bluetooth, parking sensors and rear camera, electric tailgate, panoramic roof etc. Ford’s SYNC 2 infotainment system is OK, but it’s not up there with the best on the market, being a wee bit clunky to use at times and the voice control didn’t always want to play ball. Although that could be partly due to my Brummie accent which some people can struggle to understand, never mind a computer. Overall though the interior is an improvement on previous Ford’s, with better quality materials, and an improved layout, and it’s generally a nice place to be.
When it comes to the driving, it’s all just a bit ‘meh’. The 2.0 litre diesel fitted to the test car felt lacklustre and sluggish when accelerating, and generally pretty corse, especially at higher revs. The ride is also distinctly average, being a bit fidgety and crashy at lower speeds, no doubt contributed to by the 20 inch wheels of this Sport model. While not bad, it’s not great either and generally the Edge seems happier when cruising rather than hooning. No great surprise I guess, but Ford aren’t strangers to designing cars with great chassis’ that are involving to drive so it would of been good for some of that talent to of been put to use here.
The adaptive steering adds little either. Sport mode just adds an unnatural amount of weight and introduces a horrible tendency to self centre far too much, resulting in you having to constantly make inputs to correct. Almost feeling like the tyre pressures are low. After a few minutes it was switched back to normal, and that’s how it stayed.
I didn’t really get chance to make use of the intelligent all wheel drive system (neither will the majority of the owners probably) but no doubt adds an extra degree of confidence when driving in poor weather. Hopefully not resulting in the ‘I’m unstoppable’ attitude some SUV drivers seem to have, regardless of the conditions.
The Edge also has an array of safety and driver assist systems, including lane assist & driver alert (complete with vibrating steering wheel), adaptive cruise control, pre-collision brake assist, and parking assist. The later I was keen (but slightly nervous) to try! This is where, using an armoury of sensors, the car will both parallel and perpendicular park itself. Park Assist engaged, drive slow past a row of park cars while it scans for a suitable space, then all you need to do is control the throttle and brake. It’s a strange sensation sitting there, hands off the wheel, while the car parks, but I have to say, I was impressed. I tried it a couple of times and while on the second attempt it was a bit closer to the kerb than I would of liked, it didn’t touch. Fortunately it didn’t result in an embarrassing call to Ford.
Trying to make a SUV ‘sporty’, always seems a bit unnecessary to me. Given the usual reason for purchase, plus their mass, it always seems unlikely that many owners would actually drive it in an enthusiastic manner. Therefore, the obligatory oversize wheels/tyres and harder suspension, add little and are often to the detriment of the day to day enjoyment of the car. And this is the case with the Edge, where I suspect the more comfort orientated Titanium version, with an auto ‘box would be a better choice for most buyers.
Overall it’s not a bad car, it’s just not a great one, being pretty average across the board. But if space, equipment, style are your priorities then it’s definitely worth a look.
Ford Edge Sport
PRICE: £35,250 (as tested £37,245)
ENGINE: 2.0 litre, 4 cylinder, diesel
POWER: 180 PS
TORQUE: 400 Nm
PERFORMANCE: Top speed 124 mph, 0-62 mph 9.9 secs
CONSUMPTION: 48.7 mpg (offical combined)
CO2: 149 g/km
TT Rating:
