A brand new ‘cutting edge’ SUV with maximum, driveway appeal, comfortable, practical and safe.
Styled in the USA, the new Ford Edge is ‘Transformers movie’ looking strong, bold and stylish. Around the SUV, there are some satisfying styling details, and the new strong horizontal grille will soon also make its way onto the updated Kuga.
Lately, at long last, we have had the first ever Mustangs delivered from Ford in RHD, and now the keenly anticipated Ford Edge is wending its way across the Atlantic, another of the ‘one world’ or whatever line we are being fed this week, Global Cars. Already highly popular in North America and other regions, the Ford Edge completes the line-up for the blue ovals SUV range starting with the Ecosport, then the Kuga and now EDGE. There are whispers of more to come, later this year Edge will also be joined by the premium luxury Edge Vignale.
This fastest growing sector of the market is exploding exponentially, now accounting for a quarter of all new cars sold, the globally acclaimed Edge can only become a big contender, Ford has their sights on a good slice of pie.
The SUV has been recast for our British tastes and roads. It will be available late summer with a choice of four diesel-powered outputs and three levels of trim Zetec, Titanium, and the ‘top of the hill’, Sport. No petrol engined versions will be sold here.
At the first European drives of the Ford Edge in Munich, we drove LHD versions equipped with the various power options, specs, and transmissions. Outputs varied between 180ps to 210ps, and surprisingly all cars featured Ford’s intelligent All-wheel drive for added safety and assurance, as we found out in a terrific hailstorm on a German Autobahn. Edge always felt planted and safe on the route. Ford’s safety systems have now reached a level of useful maturity rather than systems in cars gone by you would just switch off as annoyances.
Emissions are between 149-152g/km CO2, average for a vehicle of this size, with fuel consumption around 47-48mpg on the combined cycle. Expect mpg in the mid to late thirties and you will be happy.
Walking around the cars, clearly the favourite will be the slick, Sport edition, fully loaded with pretty much everything you would expect for £34500. Black wheels, 12-Speaker DAB sound system with SYNC connectivity, navigation, adaptive steering, Sports suspension, Alloy pedals and the sports body kit. You could further sign up for the £2k lux pack with the must have heated and cooling front seats, panoramic opening roof, sports dinamica trim and passengers will love ’em heated rear seats.
Recent numbers in the Ford Edge online configurator have shown the most popular species model to be the sport, fully loaded in the Oxford White, Shadow Black or Electric Spice colour with most options the car will be around £35000. The shade in our images here is the rather contemporary Electric Spice. I would, however, like to see a few brighter colours, and three whites are perhaps a bit too many to choose.
On the road, the Edge is great to drive, an imposing roomy vehicle, nearly two tonnes of Ford’s finest. The width of the Edge is more than most, perhaps not quite the nippy SUV like some of the smaller competitors but not ponderous or over large, visibility is excellent all round, and the addition of the front view camera helps with any restricted visibility at junctions. FordEU has made a decision to deliver a five-seat model only for our market, reducing the usefulness for some, but rather than a seven seater with almost useless boot space, Edge is an impressive load carrier without the extra clutter.
The prices range from £29,995 for the Zetec model, £32,245 for the Titanium and £34,500 for the Sport. Specs of all models are very high, top of the range, there isn’t much more to desire. Only perhaps a more premium sound system, the Sony system looked and sounded fine, but without the badge of say Bowers & Wilkins, Meridien, B&O or Bose and that’s just me nitpicking. There’s not much to criticise it’s all there for long enjoyable drives, connectivity, safety, and comfort. Edge is a complete package.
Diesel would always be my choice in a vehicle like this and with the smooth PowerShift automatic transmission and steering wheel paddles for overtaking. The sport models come with the 210PS Bi-turbo TDCi diesel. I enjoyed the extra power from this engine, although as always would like a bit more. It is more than satisfactory on the move, and the torque of 450Nm gives it great mid range power and would make it a good looking choice for towing. I would avoid the manual as the shift was a bit notchy but this was a very low mileage LHD and possibly not quite the edition we would have.
Off road it has all the soft roading abilities you would expect from its AWD system, don’t expect, Land-Rover style mud-plugging ability, it will get you out of a wet field and more, safely without too much embarrassment. It also keeps the price for the size of this vehicle considerably lower than some of the competitors, don’t pay for the bragging rights of an off-road transmission if you will never use it. And don’t forget these systems mainly power the front wheels until situations arise; this means lower fuel consumption, tyre wear, and lower CO2. Kia with their latest Sorento has also adopted this approach.
The adaptive steering is something I liked, Ford demonstrated it a few years ago, and it is now available on Edge. The system optimises the steering response according to vehicle speed, around carparks it’s a bonus, requiring less steering, making the car lighter and easy to manoeuvre. Also, the hands-free tailgate is always useful, key in your pocket wave your foot below the bumper to open the tailgate, available only on the more premium models. Active noise canceling is also available with privacy glass, quietening the interior to road noise.
On the whole Edge is an attractive, exciting new addition to the crowded SUV sector.
2016 Ford Edge arriving late summer
Priced from around £29,995 – £34,500
PROS AND CONS: Contemporary Looks √ Roomy √ Easy to drive √ Big and Safe √ Notchy manual gear shift X
FAST FACTS: Max speed: 131 mph, 0-62 mph: 9.4 secs, Combined mpg: 47.9
Engine layout: 2.0 Duratorq TDCi 210PS EU6, AWD Auto, Maximum power 210PS@3750rpm, Maximum torque 450Nm@2000rpm, CO2 152 g/km
The 2016 Ford Edge first European drive review by
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