Gasant Abarder, one of South Africa’s most influential media voices, tested the new Ford Everest in the weekly school run with his daughter.
I love big cars and I cannot lie! Everything about the next generation Ford Everest is massive. From its plush interior, generous cabin space, reasonable boot space after all seven seats is in use – but mostly the sound system.
The latter is after all the reason why I had a brand new, top-of-the-range, V6 diesel automatic 2023 model Ford Everest in my driveway for a week. The kind folks at Ford South Africa had reached out after seeing my tweets from the school run with my daughter. We alternate mornings when she has a playlist and the next days it’s my turn. It’s an education of sorts for both of us and I find myself enjoying the Gen-Z music more and more.
But more about that later. Let me start at the start with my relationship with Ford.
Related: Abarder’s weekly column in Cape Town Etc. Magazine
In 1978, the year I was born, the car that would define so much of my younger life was born too. It was a white Ford Cortina 1.6-litre and it became my father’s pride and joy when he bought it in 1982. Our car was the envy of our tiny street in Lentegeur, Mitchells Plain. My dad would polish that car so much it had us worried a layer of paint would come off.
The Ford Cortina XR6 was the big brother. Something my dad aspired to so much he had the trademark black stripe added between the two tail lights.
More than a decade later it was this same Cortina – still in pristine condition – that I used to learn to drive. I would use it later to get to varsity, used it as my ride for my first serious date and had a few scratches that I denied was my doing.
My point is this was a big car so I felt comfortable in this Ford Everest and it’s bigger than usual 7-seater SUV dimensions for the South African market. It is the closest to an Escalade we’ll find in these parts. It has the same grill aesthetics as the Ford Ranger Raptor and though I’m not a motoring expert I know it shares the same specs.
Related: Ford’s next-gen single cab a wondrous workhorse
Now, as the owner of an Indian made 7-seater SUV, I can compare apples with apples – albeit Indian apples with American brand apples. There is no comparison, and with a price point three times higher than my Mahindra XUV500 you would expect all the top creature comforts of the new Ford Everest.
Whoever designed the Everest (with its panoramic roof on this model) definitely has kids. Lots of kids like I do. When all seven seats are up in my Mahindra, the boot space is about 15cm. When all the seats are up in the Everest the boot size is around 45cm – enough for an overnight suitcase, golf bag, a few bags of groceries or a medium sized box of supplies.
Like any other 7-seater, the third row is probably best for kids because of limited leg room. But the front and second row seats are roomy, spacious and comfortable with heated seats all round.
Somewhere along the way, Ford lost its way for me in the South African market with some obscure models after the Cortina. But Ford is definitely back in the reckoning with vehicles like the Ranger and Everest.
Enough about all the nerdy car stuff already. The real reason we had the Everest for the week was to test its sound system with what looks like a 13-inch touch-screen display – the biggest I’ve ever seen in a vehicle. The Bang & Olufsen sound makes any song played in the Everest sound like a chart topper and probably the reason my daughter was so forgiving.
A day after giving the Everest back, there was deathly silence on the school run despite my best effort to create a top playlist. What didn’t we like about the new Ford Everest? That we had to give it back!