Ford adds AEB, LKA to Everest Ambiente

FOLLOWING in the tyre tracks of the Ranger ute, Ford Australia’s mechanically related Everest large SUV has been updated for 2019 with key advanced driver-assist systems standardised across its range.

Previously the reserve of the mid-range Trend and flagship Titanium variants, autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian detection, lane-keep assist, driver attention alert, traffic sign recognition and high-beam assist have joined the entry-level Ambiente grade’s feature list.

All Everest variants, however, remain unavailable with adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring and cross-traffic alert, among other active safety features.

“The Everest has won many accolades and we’re proud of that, but we are always looking to add the latest technology and the most advanced features for our customers,” said Ford Australia president and chief executive Kay Hart.

“The addition of AEB on every model is part of our commitment to constantly improve our products, services and ownership experiences.”

As a result of its upgrade, pricing has increased for the Ambiente grade, albeit by just $300. The rear-wheel-drive variant is now priced from $49,490 plus on-road costs, while in line with the rest of the range, its all-wheel-drive counterpart continues to attract a $5000 premium.

Meanwhile, the aforementioned Titanium grade has been given a decent price cut thanks to the rerating of its fuel consumption on the ADR 81/02 combined-cycle test.

It is now claimed to be 7.0 litres per 100 kilometres, which sees the sole Titanium variant qualify for the federal luxury-car tax (LCT) for fuel-efficient vehicles that has a threshold of $75,526 for the 2019-2020 financial year – $8001 higher than the regular LCT that it was previously subject to.

As such, the Titanium grade is now priced from $72,290 – $1700 less than it cost when it had a fuel-consumption claim of 7.1L/100km under the same testing standard.

For reference, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) defines a fuel-efficient vehicle as one that does not have a fuel-consumption claim in excess of 7.0L/100km.

The three Trend variants carryover unchanged and are priced the same as before.

The Ambiente grade is exclusively motivated by a 3.2-litre turbo-diesel five-cylinder engine that produces 143kW of power at 3000rpm and 470Nm of torque from 1750-2500rpm.

Similarly, the Titanium variant can only be had with a 2.0-litre twin-turbo four-cylinder unit that develops 157kW at 3750rpm and 500Nm from 1750-2000rpm.

Conversely, the Trend grade can be had with either engine, with the 3.2-litre exclusively mated to AWD ($59,990), while the 2.0-litre is available in RWD ($56,190) and AWD ($61,490) forms.

Both engines are only with torque-converter automatic transmissions, with the 3.2-litre paired with a six-speed unit, while the 2.0-litre ups the ante with four extra gears.

The Ambiente variants come with five seats as standard but can be upgraded to the seven-seat configuration exclusively used by the Trend and Titanium grades for $1000.

Sales of Everest have taken a hit this year, with 2591 examples sold to the end of June – a 6.8 per cent decrease over the 2779 deliveries made during the same period in 2018.

Everest is the eighth best-selling model in the sub-$70,000 large-SUV segment, trailing Toyota’s Prado (9878 units) and Kluger (5693), among others.

2019 Ford Everest pricing*

*Excludes on-road costs