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What's the difference?
The Wildtrak grade in Ford’s Ranger line-up has attracted plenty of fans over the years and now the wagon version has arrived.
The Ford Everest Wildtrak replaces the Sport as the second-most expensive variant in the Everest line-up, under the top-shelf Platinum.
At more than $74,000, the Wildtrak gets some extra driver-assist tech and Wildtrak-specific wheels and styling that lower-spec versions don’t.
But under the metal it is no different to any other V6 Everest – same engine, same suspension, same everything.
So, how good is it off-road? Well, 'Bi-Turbo' and V6 Everests have proven very effective 4WDs on my tests in the past, so I wasn’t expecting any surprises – but you never know.
Read on.
SUV wagons based on their ute stablemates are by no means a new thing – just look to Toyota Fortuner (based on HiLux), Ford Everest (based on the Ranger) and Isuzu’s MU-X (based on the D-Max) for evidence of that.
But the strategy is not always a successful one and these ute-based wagons have already gone through a stage or two of tweaking and refining in an attempt by car makers to shed some of the lingering ute-related niggles (such as work-focused suspension tunes) and improve the final products so they're better suited to a life of work and play.
The 2018 Trailblazer (formerly known as Colorado7, and based on the Colorado ute) is another clear sign that these wagons are indeed getting better, but are those improvements good enough to attract the cash of an otherwise ute-fixated public?
The Everest is a very impressive seven-seat 4WD wagon, with real off-road capability.
As standard, it has a lot going for it. It’s quiet and refined on-road, very capable off-road and packed with features.
Do you need any of the Wildtrak additions? No, but if you have the cash and fancy a nice-looking, feature-packed off-road wagon you could do a lot worse than an Everest Wildtrak.
I still like the Sport, though…
The Trailblazer is a solid all-rounder and deserves the consideration of those in the market for a decent seven-seater 4WD. It does everything well without ever really excelling at any one thing.
Is it fantastic? No. Is it a game-changer? No. Does it represent pretty good value for money in the grand scheme of things? Yep.
The pick of the bunch for me is the LTZ – solid, off-road capable, and suburbs-friendly with just a hint of leather-appointed class. In the LTZ, you get everything worthwhile in the Trailblazer mob and if you’re a family man you won’t feel the need to fork out an extra $1000 for the Z71’s try-hard window dressing.
The Trailblazer is a mostly comfortable SUV wagon, stacked with features and is well worth your consideration if the Isuzu MU-X, Pajero Sport and Toyota Fortuner don’t float your boat.
The Everest Wildtrak retains the same dimensions and design as regular grades, but its few styling differences boil down to a front bumper with darker accents, LED fog lights, black wheel arch flares and window trim, as well as Wildtrak badging and branding.
As mentioned, it has 20-inch Asphalt Matt Black alloy wheels with all-season tyres – but you can option 18-inch ‘Boulder Grey’ alloys and all-terrain tyres for no extra cost.
On the inside it has 'Ebony' leather upholstery with 'Cyber Orange' stitching, a panoramic sunroof, 360-degree camera, and interior ambient lighting.
Exterior paint jobs include the no-cost 'Arctic White', or choose from 'Aluminium', 'Meteor Grey', 'Absolute Black', 'Blue Lightning', 'Equinox Bronze' and the Ranger Wildtrak’s distinctive like it or loathe it 'Luxe Yellow' paint on our test vehicle.
The Trailblazer is a solid-looking wagon – all clean, tight lines from front to back – and overall it has a real squat and substantial presence. If we’re going to get all ‘fancy Dan’ with our hyperbole: chrome-accented daytime running headlights swoop back along the chunky body to slick LED tail-lights. If we’re sticking to basics: the Trailblazer looks good.
Inside, the tweaked interior has a tidy if rather basic feel to it – but that’s not a bad thing in a wagon that will have to cop dirt and dropped ice creams amid the general chaos of day-to-day life.
The leather-trim seats add a touch of class to otherwise family friendly dimensions and environment.
The leather-appointed interior is comfortable and functional, but in the Wildtrak everything has an extra level of classiness to it.
There are plenty of storage spaces with sizeable bins, bottle holders in each door, cupholders for everyone – even third-row passengers get cupholders and places for their bits and pieces.
The driver and front passenger have access to two 12-volt sockets and two USB ports.
The portrait-style touchscreen is easy to use although there’s a confusion of choices going on and sometimes it takes a few substantial taps on the screen to activate the function you want.
The power-adjustable front seats are comfortable and supportive, without ever being too much of either.
The cabin feels a bit too cosy – narrow but tall – and second-row seating is a bit squeezy for three adults, especially in terms of hip and shoulder room for larger blokes, but it’d be fine with slighter adults and even gangly teens.
Second-row passengers get a pair of pop-out cupholders in the armrest, and can control their air con temp and fan speed, as well as open or close their air vents as they see fit, and use a 230-volt or 12-volt socket from their seat.
The second-row has a 60/40 split-fold seat back and the third-row has a 50/50 split-fold. There are five child-seat anchor points, and two ISOIX anchor points in the second row.
Third-row seats can be manually deployed or stowed away. The third row is for kids only, I reckon, with shallower room all-around.
When all seven seats are in use there’s a claimed 259 litres of cargo space in the rear; 898L when the third row is stowed away; and 1823L of cargo space when the second row is also lowered. The area behind the third row has bag hooks each side, and luggage tie-down points on the floor.
There is a 12V power outlet in the rear cargo area, plus the Wildtrak has a hands-free power tailgate.
Climbing in is easy enough with a sturdy "overhead assist handle" for all comers and goers.
All of the Trailblazer’s seats are mostly comfortable except they are quite flat and hard, which may prove a hindrance over longer trips. The driver’s seat is six-way electrically-adjustable and there is little in the way of lumbar support.
The second row will better suit two passengers than three for long-distance comfort but there is enough room all round – head, shoulders and legs – to avoid most complaints, for a little while anyway.
Third-row passengers will need to be children or those of a shorter stature to cope with the ‘back of the bus’ squeeze – and even then trips should be kept to shorter distances to avoid an in-car riot. It’s not a terrible place to be, in the third row of this thing, but it’s not ideal either – pretty much in keeping with the rear-row offerings of its rivals.
Back up the front again and the dash design is clear, user-friendly and easy to get used to with day-in, day-out use.
There is a fair bit of storage space in the cabin but some of it is awkward to access and actually use. The glove box is big enough to cope with one or two handfuls of bits and pieces. There is a sunglass holder up near the rear-view mirror.
Passengers in the back also get air vents and manual aircon control.
There are two cup holders in front of the small centre console housing the USB port which, when used, eats into that available space.
All doors have a moulded bottle bulge, which wouldn’t cop our CarsGuide water bottle without forceful encouragement.
The second-row passengers get a fold-down centre arm-rest/cup holder when there’s no one sitting in the middle. Passengers in the back also get air vents and manual aircon control.
With all seats up, if you pack to the roof, there is 235 litres of cargo space at the very rear; with the 50/50 split-folding third-row seats folded down, there is 878 litres; with the second-row (60/40 split-fold and tumble) and the third-row seats down, there is 1830 litres of cargo space. There is a retractable cargo blind stowed away under the floor at the rear.
With the second-row seats folded forward, it is easy enough to get into the third-row seats; no contortionist moves required.
There are two 12-volt outlets in the centre dash; one at the back of the centre console (for second-row passengers); and one in the rear cargo area.
Up top, the roof rails are rated to carry 100kg.
The seven-seat Ford Everest Wildtrak has a suggested retail price of $74,704 (excluding on-road costs) and is only available with the V6 turbo-diesel engine.
For your reference, at time of writing, it’s about $1100 more than the equivalent Ranger Wildtrak.
Standard Everest features include a 12.0-inch touchscreen (in portrait-style layout) with sat nav, Apple CarPlay (wireless or wired) and Android Auto, a wireless smartphone charger, dual-zone climate control, heated and ventilated power-adjustable front seats, and leather-accented trim.
Wildtrak-specific additions are mostly limited to updated styling as well as 20-inch ‘Asphalt Matt Black’ alloy wheels with all-season tyres – but you can option 18-inch ‘Boulder Grey’ alloys and all-terrain tyres for no extra cost – and there’s also a 360-degree camera and tyre pressure monitoring system.
The Trailblazer is available in three spec levels, each with a market-competitive price: base-spec LT (from $47,990, excluding on-road costs), LTZ (which we tested; from $52,490) and the limited-edition Z71 (from $53,490).
But those prices soon start to climb when you add in accessories such as all-weather floor mats ($130 for a pair), boot lip protector ($80) and a rigid cargo barrier ($960). Our test vehicle had a Power Blue (prestige paint) colour on the exterior, at a cost of $550.
All models have the 2.8-litre turbo-diesel engine and six-speed automatic transmission. The 4WD system is a dual-range part-time shift-on-the-fly set-up.
The LT’s standard features include cloth seat covers, 17-inch alloy wheels, a seven-inch touchscreen to go with its Holden MyLink infotainment system, Apple Car Play and Android Auto, Bluetooth connectivity, front fog lamps, signature daytime running lights, side steps, limited slip diff, rear parking sensors and a rear-view camera.
The LTZ gets all of that (although its touchscreen is eight inches) and more: integrated satnav, blind spot alert, forward collision alert and heated front seats and leather-appointed seat trim. It has 18-inch alloy wheels.
The Z71 has all of that gear as well as a distinctive sports look, replete with black bonnet, black mirrors, black exterior door handles, Z71 leather-appointed trim and 18-inch black alloy wheels.
The Ford Everest Wildtrak has a 3.0-litre V6 turbo-diesel engine producing 184kW at 3250rpm and an impressive 600Nm from 1750rpm to 2250rpm and a 10-speed automatic transmission.
The Wildtrak has a full-time 4WD system with selectable two-wheel drive (2H), four-wheel drive high-range (4H), four-wheel drive low-range (4L) and four-wheel drive automatic (4A = 4Auto) that sends drive to the front and rear axles as needed, and which can be used on sealed surfaces.
It has selectable drive modes including 'Normal', 'Eco', 'Tow Haul', 'Slippery', and for off-roading: 'Mud/Ruts', and 'Sand'.
These all adjust engine outputs, throttle control and transmission behaviour to best suit the terrain you’re on and the driving conditions you’re exposed to.
The Wildtrak has a locking rear diff.
The 2.8-litre turbo-diesel engine punches out 147kW at 3600rpm and its big-gun 500Nm at 2000rpm and is well-matched to a six-speed automatic transmission. This Trailblazer is, on paper, a very good tow vehicle with so much torque available and from down so low.
Its towing capacity is 3000kg (braked), but I’d prefer to see how it fared in a real-world tow test before I pass judgement.
Official fuel consumption is 8.5L/100km on a combined cycle.
Our fuel consumption on this test was 15.4L/100km after a lot of 4WDing.
The Everest has an 80-litre fuel tank, so, going by those fuel figures, if your trip involves a lot of high- and low-range 4WDing, you could reasonably expect a driving range of about 520km out of a full tank.
Claimed fuel economy is 8.6L/100km (combined). We recorded 9.6L/100km fuel consumption after 200km of mixed driving, including about 30km of gravel tracks, and 10km of hard off-roading. As mentioned earlier, it has a 76-litre fuel tank.
The Everest has always impressed me as a refined drive and it’s one of the best large SUV wagons on-road.
The V6 is a gutsy unit, consistently delivering sustained power and torque at low and high speeds. It’s torquey and plenty of its 600Nm is available across a broad rev range.
The 10-speed auto transmission has had the previous-gen’s thrashiness between ratios smoothed out – and if you want to take over duties yourself you can do so via the 'e-Shifter' in this 4WD wagon.
At 4940mm long (with tow receiver; 4914mm without) with a 2900mm wheelbase, and at 2207mm wide and 1837mm high, the Everest is a sizeable SUV, but it never feels too bloated to steer accurately, with a well-weighted helm keeping it under control.
But you do have to drive with absolute focus, otherwise it’s long undercarriage may suffer the consequences – but more about that soon.
The cabin is very quiet, with nothing much intruding in terms of NVH (noise, vibration and harshness), other than low-level wind-rush around the wing mirrors.
The suspension set-up – with coil springs at every corner – helps to produce smooth, composed ride and handling.
So, while it is impressive on-road, it’s not too shabby off-road, either.
For a large 4WD it feels nimble, even on tight overgrown tracks, but, as mentioned earlier, it requires the driver’s full attention at all times.
Approach angle is 30.2 degrees, departure angle is 25 degrees, and ramp break-over is 21.9 degrees.
The Everest has a long wheelbase making its undercarriage vulnerable to scraping rocks, tree stumps or exposed tree roots, especially during more technical 4WDing sections.
The sidesteps are also pronounced enough to be magnets for damage when off-roading.
Low-range gearing is good and the Everest has an electronic rear diff lock to enhance this wagon’s dirt-grabbing abilities.
Driver-assist tech aimed at making 4WDing safer and easier for everyone includes off-road driving modes such as Mud/Ruts and Sand, which adjust engine outputs, throttle, transmission, braking, traction and stability controls to best suit the driving conditions.
Hill descent control kept the Wildtrak to a controlled 3.0-4.0km/h while we tackled short steep downhills.
Wading depth is 800mm and while I didn’t get to test it this time – no mud around – I have tested the Everest previously through water and it has performed admirably.
The Wildtrak as standard has 20-inch alloy wheels on Goodyear Wrangler Territory HTs (255/55 R20). A 20-inch tyre doesn’t give a 4WDer much flexibility in terms of how much air you can drop out of it for off-roading and correct tyre pressures are crucial for 4WDing.
Ford offers an easy fix, though, in the shape of 18-inch black alloys on all-terrain tyres as a no-cost option.
If you’re thinking about using your Everest as a touring vehicle be mindful that the Wildtrak’s payload is 741kg, gross vehicle mass (GVM) is 3150kg, and gross combination mass (GCM) is 6250kg.
The Everest’s towing capacity is 750kg (unbraked) and 3500kg (braked).
The LTZ is 4887mm long (with a 2845mm wheelbase), 1902mm wide (excl mirrors), and 1846mm high. It has a kerb weight of 2203kg.
Its turning circle is 12m but it feels like more of a cumbersome beast when trying to manoeuvre in the bush or in the city, though not enough so for that characteristic to be any sort of deal-breaker.
The tilt-adjustable, electrically assisted steering lacks any reach-adjustment, which is annoying, but it can still be counted on to deliver a precise feel – light at low speeds, heavier at high speeds – when pushing the Trailblazer along at a fair clip on open roads or in and out of corners.
Acceleration seems livelier now; there is more off-the-mark oomph for take-offs and safe, smooth overtaking, even on long gradual climbs, than before. The torquey engine and six-speed auto – with its smooth changes and gear-holding when appropriate – make for a high-achieving combo.
Ride and handling seem better than in Colorado7 guise although the tweaked suspension – Aussie-tuned coil-spring front and coil-spring live-axle rear – and Bridgestone Dueler H/Ts tyres* may account for some of that. However, we did feel some body-roll while driving along back roads, unlike the last time we were in a Trailblazer LTZ. (*The Trailblazer has a full-sized 18-inch spare.)
The locally tuned suspension is, at times, a bit too firm; when we hit heavy bumps and deep potholes on rough gravel tracks several times, we were unsettled because the Trailblazer’s suspension bashed its way over and through.
NVH levels on open-road bitumen can still tend towards the rougher side of things with diesel engine clatter, tyre roar and wind rush clattering a tune on your ear drums.
We completed a series of emergency braking scenarios – on bitumen and dirt – and the Trailblazer’s disc brakes – 300mm at the front and 318mm at the rear – helped rip us into a controlled stop.
Off-road, we had a ball because the beefy Trailblazer seems a much better fit for gravel-track fast blasts and slow-going bush driving than it does for any jaunts in the stop-start city.
Our drive loop included a decent bit of four-wheel driving – coastal sand, bush tracks peppered with rocks of all shapes and sizes, and shallow mud in a dried-out dam. Drive modes can be switched via the centre console dial between 2H, 4H and 4L; high range modes are actually represented by an ‘up’ arrow on the dial; low range is a ‘down’ arrow. Bonus: the Trailblazer’s 500Nm of torque is readily available from way down low.
The Trailblazer has a limited slip diff, 218mm of ground clearance and a wading depth of 600mm, which was never tested as our usual creek crossings were so bone-dry they were more like puddles. Approach, departure and ramp-over angles are 28, 25, 22 respectively.
Its armoury of off-road tech – auto hill-start assist, hill-descent control and more – make it almost unstoppable, straight out of the showroom, for anything demanded of it on a light- to medium-difficulty adventure weekend.
Its 76-litre fuel tank, however, hinders any claim it has to off-road touring potential.
The Trailblazer has 3000kg towing capacity (braked); 750kg unbraked.
Note: Holden has persisted with a system which, when you open a door, the front windows automatically slide down a bit, an action aimed at reducing air pressure when you close the doors. It remains annoying but we still weren’t annoyed enough to actually bother to check the owner’s manual for a possible hack to switch it off.
The Everest has the maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating from testing in 2022.
It has nine airbags (dual front, front side, driver and passenger knee airbags, curtain airbags covering all three rows and a centre front bag to prevent head collisions).
There's also a full suite of driver-assist tech including front AEB (autonomous emergency braking), adaptive cruise control with speed sign recognition and speed adaptation, lane departure alert and lane keep assist, blind spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert.
The Everest’s AEB operates up to 130km/h, with pedestrian and cyclist detection operating up to 80km/h, according to Ford.
It has reverse brake assist (aka rear AEB), a tyre-pressure monitoring system, a 360-degree surround-view camera, front and rear parking sensors and an auto parking system.
The Trailblazer range has a five-star ANCAP rating. The LTZ has seven airbags, and electronic stability control (ABS, EBD etc), rear view camera, front park assist, rear parking sensors, forward collision alert, blind-spot alert, lane-departure warning, rear cross-traffic alert, a tyre-pressure monitoring system and trailer sway control.
The second row has three child restraint anchor points and one ISOFIX child restraint anchor point.
The Everest is covered by a five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty.
Ford offers a five-year roadside assistance, and a capped-price service plan.
Service intervals are scheduled for every 12 months or 15,000km and the maintenance cost for the first 48 months/60,000km (the first four services) is capped at $329 a pop for MY22 or MY23 Everests.
As always, check with your preferred dealer for up-to-date pricing.
The Trailblazer comes with a three-year/100,000km warranty. Lifetime capped price servicing includes a free inspection at one month, then $299 (at nine months/15,000km), $399 (18 months/30,000km), $479 (27 months/45,000km), $479 (36 months/60,000km) and so on.
(At time of writing, the LT was being offered for $45,990 driveway with a seven-year/175,000 warranty.)
Potential problems might include cumulative driveline wear and tear from people towing heavy loads (horse floats, boats etc).