Disclaimer: Ford Philippines lent us the Ford Everest (Specs | News) Titanium 4x4 with a full tank of gas, two RFID cards for the north and south, and access to its fleet gas card.  

The Ford Everest remains one of the top contenders in the seven-seater midsize SUV segment. Like its namesake, it has remained at its peak thanks to the Blue Oval brand’s dedication to giving you the latest technology it has to offer.

The 2023 Ford Everest is now on the market with more imposing new looks, new technology, and more features. The question is, can it remain at the top, especially with the new crop of SUVs entering the market?

We find out as we test the 2023 Ford Everest Titanium 4x4 with a quick trip to Baguio for this review.

Exterior

The Ford Everest Titanium gets the Blue Oval’s latest design language. The seven-seater SUV has a broad front fascia dominated by C-Clamp adaptive LED headlights, a massive grille, and a sporty bumper. 

The SUV also gets broad wheel arches, giving it a more imposing stance than its previous rounder generation. 

As with most next-generation vehicles, the Everest has grown in size. We found it would barely squeeze into some parking spots as the car is almost two meters wide (1,923mm). Maneuvering into the location wasn’t a problem, thanks to the cameras and sensors; finding the space to get out of the vehicle was difficult. 

We encountered the size problem when parking at SM Baguio, where I had to ask the rear passengers to get out as space was tight for the SUV.

Interior

The interior of the Ford Everest Titanium is spacious, but only for the first two rows of seating. Inside you are greeted by a relatively tall dashboard similar to what you can find with the Ford Ranger (Specs | News). It creates a lovely cocoon of safety for you which can be claustrophobic as the height of the dashboard to the roof of the car is relatively low. 

Interior materials are excellent, with soft-touch plastics, especially on the dashboard and door sidings.

One of the things that my passengers felt was weird about the Everest was its door handles. Instead of the pull-type handles widely available in other vehicles, the Ford SUV has a grip-type handle. It is something to get used to when using the doors for the first time, but it's easy to get used to.

One of my other passengers also pointed out that it was great for women with nail extensions as it's easy to open the doors without possibly damaging your nails. 

The Blue Oval SUV also has a power fold and power raise feature for the third row. While it is a neat and convenient feature to have, it limits the ability of the seat to recline. People in the third row will be unable to recline their seats further and will have to deal with an almost 90-degree backrest. 

It was one of the main complaints I received from my passengers when they all tried the third row of the SUV out. Because of our luggage, we had to allocate most of the space in the back for cargo. We were also five in the vehicle to maximize as much space as possible for comfort.

Technology

In terms of technology, the Ford Everest Titanium has a 12-inch portrait-style infotainment system that supports wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The touchscreen is easy to use. However, it heats up fairly quickly when exposed to the sun.

The heat from the sun makes it harder to operate, but the screen will be responsive. Another thing we noticed is that to turn off certain features, we had to menu juggle on the touchscreen; such was the case with turning on and off auto hold.

Aside from the large infotainment system, the Ford Everest Titanium also has a digital gauge cluster that displays the information you need to know and is customizable. However, it takes a lot of work to get used to at a glance, as you will likely spend a reasonable amount of time sitting in the car to get used to the controls.

This brings me to the last part: the steering wheel buttons are overwhelming. Don’t get me wrong, it's nice to have these buttons available, but it would have been better to simplify the steering wheel setup so you don’t have to take your eyes off the road to know what you are about to press.

Power

Under the hood, the 2023 Ford Everest Titanium has a 2.0-liter bi-turbo diesel engine that pushes out 210 PS and 500 Nm of torque. 

With its 2.0-liter engine, the Ford Everest remains one of the most powerful midsize SUVs you can buy today. It is matched in torque by the Toyota Fortuner (Specs | News) but not in terms of horsepower.

As we had the Titanium 4x4 model, the transmission available for it was the 10-speed automatic. It's a decent gearbox for cruising on the highway, as it helps keeps the revs low. 

However, the transmission can get confused when you need to accelerate for overtakes quickly. There were moments going up Kennon Road where our foot was pinned to the floor, but the gearbox would not send power from the engine to the wheels. 

It has smooth and seamless shifting regardless of when it finds a gear and can quickly put the power down. It's a smooth, linear acceleration curve that isn’t jarring for drivers or passengers. 

Regarding fuel economy, we got 7.2 to 10 km/l in the city and 12.1 to 17.1 km/l on the highway. These are decent numbers with not much to complain about. It's better than its rivals, such as the Montero Sport, Isuzu Mu-X (Specs | News), and Toyota Fortuner, which have slightly lower figures.

Ride quality

The ride quality of the Ford Everest is good if you sit in the first and second rows. The third row can be bumpy as the axle and suspension are right under you. 

Despite its 20-inch wheels, the suspension keeps small bumps at bay, and the vibrations don’t work their way into the cabin. 

NVH is also on par with the industry standard, as wind noise only makes its way into the cabin at around 80 to 90 km/h. The 10-speed transmission keeps engine noise low as the car will happily cruise around at the low RPMs. 

Seat comfort is excellent for the first and second rows, as the leather material is soft and supportive. It keeps you in place when taking corners at speed and can easily be adjusted to your liking, as the first row has power adjustability. 

The second row can be moved forward and backward, and it also can be reclined slightly at the cost of space for the third row. 

Safety

No complaints about the safety features of the Ford Everest Titanium 4x4. The adaptive cruise control works very well to keep you at a safe distance between you and the car ahead and is smooth to accelerate to faster speeds when the vehicle in front merges away. 

We noted that the Blue Oval SUV would only accelerate to your set cruise control speed once the sensors realize the car in front is entirely out of your lane. It's a nice touch to help keep your space. 

The lane-keep assist feature is also quite useful, as it helps keep the vehicle within the lane. However, we noticed that it likes to position the car slightly off-center and towards the right side of a lane. It's not bad, but we wished Ford engineered it so it could be in the center.

The emergency braking also works well as it can apply the brakes for you or warn you of a collision. 

However, the Everest is nose heavy under braking, with the rear wheels lifting and the ABS engaging. It can cause the wheels to screech, which is a scary experience for those not used to it. Either way, the car can stop safely without any issues. 

Price and verdict

For over ₱2.5 million, the Ford Everest is expensive. Compared to its rivals which hover around the ₱2.4 million mark, the Ford SUV is pricy, but it does make up for it in terms of its power output and technology.

A Toyota Fortuner will cost you more than Ford Everest, but it has the same amount of technology under the hood, and the Blue Oval SUV even has more power than its Toyota rival.

On the other hand, an Isuzu Mu-X will cost you less than the Everest but won’t have the interior refinement of the Ford SUV. Plus, the sensors on the Isuzu are too sensitive, which may irk a few drivers. 

So, is the Ford Everest Titanium 4x4 worth it? You don’t need the 4x4 system unless you plan to take the SUV offroad. If you do, it will work well to get you where you need to go and help you maintain traction simultaneously.

However, if you are just after the features such as adaptive cruise and lane keep assist along with the 360-degree cameras, then the 4x2 model will suit you just fine. 

The Titanium 4x4 model is great if you want to get all the bells and whistles, but if it's beyond your budget, the Sport is another great alternative with the Titanium 4x2.