Ford Everest Problems

Your towing needs will dictate a big car. Others you could consider are the Jeep Grand Cherokee, Isuzu MU-X, Holden Trailblazer, or Ford Everest.

Both two and four-wheel-drive variants of the Everest have identical towing limits of 3000kg with a braked trailer. So, on paper, there’s nothing to split them as tow-cars. And the reality is that a rear-wheel-drive vehicle should be a terrific tow-car, especially one like the Everest which is fairly heavy itself and has tough suspension and plenty of brakes.

The complications start when you tell me you want to use the vehicle to tow `mainly on road’. That suggests to me that there’ll be times when you may not be on sealed roads. At which point, the extra grip of the all-wheel-drive Everest might prove to be the difference between getting to where you want to go and not getting there at all. All-wheel-drive really comes into its own when the surface you’re driving on is less than perfectly grippy. Towing a caravan at the time only makes that difference greater and, when you’re half way along a dirt road and it starts to rain, that all-wheel-drive will be worth its weight in gold.

Products such as paint coatings and upholstery treatments are often not much more than a way for the car dealership to squeeze a few (sometimes quite a few) more dollars out of you. Don’t tell me, let me guess: Once you’d agreed on the car, colour, options and price, you were led to another office where a sales rep offered you these miracle products that would keep your car looking new forever and without which, it would be a shambles in just months. Am I close?

I’m not saying that some of the better products don’t work, and they certainly shouldn’t harm your car’s appearance, but ask yourself this: If a car maker cannot, in 2021, sell you a car that has high quality, long-lasting exterior paint, do you really want that car in the first place? If something as fundamental as the paint is questionable, what else is going to go wrong with the thing? And if the paint does somehow degrade through normal day-to-day exposure, the new-car warranty should cover it anyway. There could be exceptional cases (such as using the car underground in a mine, or parking it next to a railway line every day of its life where it will be constantly showered with small, rusty metallic particles) but for a normal car living a normal life, these dealership add-ons are a very dubious prospect.

I wouldn’t be concerned about the cylinder configuration of a particular engine. What’s more important is how much power and torque that engine makes, and how towing-friendly that power delivery is. By which we mean how smooth and flexible is the delivery. What you don’t want is a peaky engine that needs to be revved before it delivers the good as that puts a strain on everything and make the vehicle tricky and unpleasant to drive.

The good news is that all the vehicles you’ve nominated have good, solid powerplants that are well suited to towing a caravan. Modern turbo-diesels – especially with an automatic transmission – are ideal for this task.

What you should go for, however, is the vehicle with the highest towing rating. In this case, that’s any of the Grand Cherokee, MU-X or older Discovery, all of which have variants that can handle a towed load of 3.5 tonnes. The Everest is almost as good with 3.1 tonne, but only almost. The problem is that the van you’ve nominated can easily weigh between 2.2 and 2.8 tonnes which, with a 3.1-tonne limit, leaves you very little headroom for water tanks and camping gear. You’d be amazed at how much a fully loaded caravan weighs, so don’t rely on the brochure, load the van and take it to a weighbridge to make sure the vehicle you have can legally tow it.

That might do the trick, but there's actually an easier way to return the Everest's computer to the factory standard settings. It goes like this:

Start the vehicle and make sure it is in Park with the engine running. Then press 'Settings' on the SYNC screen. Then choose 'General' and scroll down to select 'Master Reset'. At this point, you should get a message on the screen that the reset will erase all previous settings and factory defaults will be restored. By pressing 'Continue' you're agreeing to this and you should then see the screen go blank for anything up to a few minutes while it reboots.

The rumours of a V6 engine option for the next Ford Everest have been swirling around for a little while now. The other expected change is the phasing out of the five-cylinder turbo-diesel, leaving the Everest (and Ranger) line-up with a four-cylinder or V6 turbo-diesel. It’s also pretty likely that you’d need to spend up big for the flagship model of the Everest to get the option of the V6. A petrol V6, meanwhile, is a possibility but would likely be packaged up with a plug-in hybrid driveline. That means that each variant (if it pans out that way) will be aimed at a very specific type of buyer, so it won’t be as simple as petrol versus diesel V6.

The rule of thumb in 2021 is all about deciding whether a diesel engine is right for you. That rule states that if all your driving is around an urban environment without regular (at least a couple of times a month) highway running at highway speeds, a modern turbo-diesel can be a bit of a maintenance headache. As far as any of these vehicles go as an investment, it’s probably a mistake to imagine they won’t – as most brand-new cars do – drop a sizeable chunk of their value the moment you leave the dealership for the first time.

The answer all depends on what you call off-road driving, Javed. The Ford Everest, being based on the Ranger, is a very competent off-roader. In fact, it’ll handle anything most owners would ever throw at it, while the Endura is more of a replacement for the Ford Territory. Meaning it has abilities better matched to a trip to the snow, not a true log-jumping, river-fording off-road journey.

The Sante Fe is more of the same (as the Endura) that is; a car that can cope with gravel roads and slippery surfaces, but not the rough and tumble of the Aussie bush. So it really comes down to how far off road you need to go. And if the answer is a long way, even if it’s just occasionally, then the Everest is your best choice.

The current-model Everest (particularly with the optional turbo-diesel V6 engine) is a great choice and is a clear class-leader in dynamic and accommodation terms. It's also a tremendously capable vehicle off road, so it should suit your needs very well indeed. On that basis, it will hold its value better than most of its competition, purely because it will remain a popular choice.

Your concern over the continued availability of conventional fuels is understandable, but should really be nothing to worry about as both petrol and diesel will continue to be available long beyond your five-year horizon. Vehicles like the Everest will also be the last bastions of conventional fuels, as the long distances in remote areas that they are so good at are the very conditions that don't suit electric vehicles at all. Yes, petrol and diesel will inevitably become more expensive, but so will electricity.

The current model Everest is rated to tow up to 3500kg (with a braked trailer) making it one of the better credentialed tow-vehicles out there. These ute-derived station-wagons sometimes lose a little of the towing capacity of their dual-cab brethren on the basis of their more complaint rear suspension (which makes for a nicer ride). But, somehow, Ford has managed to retain the full 3500kg towing capacity for the Everest.

The question then becomes which engine you choose and, on balance, the V6 turbo-diesel is the one to have. The V6 models cost a bit more, but they do get you all-wheel-drive (great for towing) and the V6 engine has a handy 30kW and 100Nm more that the four-cylinder version. All things considered, the Everest is a great vehicle with which a tow a caravan.