Ford Everest Sport Review
The Ford Everest Sport has four-wheel drive, and it sounds and looks like a beast.
But it competes against other large and popular SUV rivals like the Mitsubishi Pajero Sport, Toyota Prado, and Isuzu MuX.
Ford Everest Sport Pricing
There are four variants for the Everest range, and Model M is the sport four-wheel drive, which sits second from the top in the lineup and will cost you $72,490 before on-road costs.
That also positions it second from the top compared to its rivals, which all have similar specs and that highly coveted third road for families.
Ford Everest Sport Features
The Everest Sport model comes with some lovely features like electric heated and ventilated front seats, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto built-in sat nav, as well as a full size spare wheel.
Everest always looks like it means business because of its big and brutish-looking, squared-off shaping.
Exterior Design Of Ford Sport
But the sport model takes it one step further because it has so many black accents across the car in the side mirrors, door handles, massive grille, and 20-inch alloys.
It just really ups the Beastie factor, and I love the way this SUV looks, especially in the blue paintwork, which is exclusive to the sport model.
The cabin shares the robust shaping of the exterior in the dashboard and the vertical twelve-inch multimedia system.
I also really love how cool the vents look, but there is still a workhorse vibe with the upholstery and trims.
Despite being leather accented with the upholstery and trims, there’s a strong vinyl feel to the trims themselves, and despite being soft touch points, they look really hard, like a plastic green.
That being said, the cabin is very pleasant to be in, and everything still feels like a very high quality build.
The biggest issue that I’ve had with the cabin’s practicality is just getting in and out of it because it has a 226-millimeter ground clearance.
Interior Feature
Once you get in, though, you have heaps of leg, head and elbow room up front.
The front seats are a little bit firm and you sit on top of them rather than in them, so you’re going to notice that on a longer trip, but I really like how they both have powered lumbar support and those heat and ventilation functions.
Individual storage up front is really good because you get two glove boxes as well as four cup holders, two of which are the old school retractable cup holders that you actually get in the dash. Very old school, but super practical.
And I also like that you get a sunglasses holder in this too. The charging options are really good throughout the car.
The front gets a wireless charging pad and there’s a total of 312 volts ports throughout the car.
First & Second Row
The first two rows also get a single USB A and USB C port too.
The twelve inch touchscreen multimedia system is fairly easy to use once you get used to it, but the positioning is a little bit lower so accessing it while on the go can be a little bit annoying, especially since you don’t have dedicated buttons for airflow or the seat functions.
The wireless Apple CarPlay is a real bonus though, and super easy to connect to. In the middle row there is plenty of head and legroom.
Amenities are okay in this row, but you don’t have any luxury factors backside, but I do like that you have roof mounted directional air vents as well as fan control.
Storage is pretty average for a car of this size, with mat pockets, door pockets as well as a fold down armrest with retractable cup holders.
There are isofix child seat mounts on the outboard seats plus three top tethers, and you can definitely get three car seats in here, which is fantastic when you fit a zero to four rearward facing child seat.
The front legroom is compromised a little bit.
Third Row Seat
Access to the third row is actually pretty good even for an adult, but to fit an adult’s legs, you do have to push the middle row forward quite a bit, which compromises the legroom for any middle rowers.
I would still consider this row suitable only for kids for long term use.
Amenities in this row are a little bit bare, but I do like that you get directional air vents as well as cup holders, and it’s a really big bonus for families that you get two top tether points back side too which means that you can fit two child seats if needed.
Ford Everest Sport Storage
When the third row is in use, you get 259 liters of capacity, But when the third row is stored, that jumps up to 898 liters.
Because it’s such a tall car, the boot lip does sit quite high, which can be annoying if you have to load in heavy items or climb in to fix a top tether point.
But other than that, the boot is actually quite user friendly.
There’s a small pocket underneath the floor which could house your manual and logbook if you wanted to free up your glovebox.
And like I mentioned earlier, you get a full size spare wheel in this and a very handy power tailgate function.
Ford Everest Sport Engine Specs
The sport model is the four wheel drive variant, which means that it has the three liter v six turbo diesel engine that produces a power output of 184 torque & 600 newton meter torque .
Pretty hefty power, which is good because it has a 3.5 ton brake towing capacity, which means that you can have your weekend adventure pursuits and still haul the family around.
Overall, the Everest Sport delivers its power pretty responsively once you’re up to speed, so overtaking or keeping your speed consistent on hills is no issue.
It’s just going to remind you of its size when you have to start moving from a standstill.
Because it’s not quick, there’s a serious lull from when you accelerate to when you actually shoot forward, so just take a little bit more time when you hit roundabouts.
When you have to cross traffic, the steering feels right in the middle of firm and loose, which means that it actually feels quite nimble to maneuver in the city And that’s helped by a very good 11.8 meter turning circles.
Efficiency
The ride comfort can feel a little bit truckish at times.
Not totally unexpected given its tall center of gravity, but there is a consistent vibration through the seats and the suspension can feel a little bit bouncy in corners. Cabin noise is pretty low key most of the time.
You do get some fairly high wind noise at high speeds, but other than that, you can chat easily with all three roads, which is great.
One of the best things about driving this car though, is the high seating position and the wide windows.
Despite being almost 5 meters in length with the tow bar attached, this is not a hard car to park.
You will fill out a space, but you can see everything and you have a really clear 360 degree view camera system and that small turning circle means that it’s not a big car or at least it doesn’t feel like a big car when you’re in a tight little car park.
The official combined fuel cycle figure is 8.5 liters per 100 km.
Safety Feature In Ford Everest Sport
The Ford Everest Sport has a bunch of safety systems and a maximum five star NCAP safety rating from testing done in 2022.
It also scored quite highly across all four individual assessment criteria with the child protection score at 93% which is great.
It has nine airbags including a front center airbag and the curtain airbags cover all three rows.
Ownership
Everest comes with a usual warranty term of five years and unlimited kilometers.
You can also pre purchase servicing for up to four years or 60,000 km for $1,385 or an average of dollar 347 per service which is pretty good for the class.
Servicing intervals are also reasonable at every twelve months or 15,000 kilometers, whichever occurs first.