FORD EVEREST WINS WHEELS CAR OF THE YEAR

WHEELS MAGAZINE EDITOR, ANDY ENRIGHT, TELLS US HOW THE EVEREST WON AUSTRALIA'S HIGHEST-REGARDED MOTORING AWARD.

- ANDY ENRIGHT

THE FORD Everest's journey to winning Wheels Car of the Year in 2023 didn't start on a wet roundabout somewhere near Gisborne, but it certainly helped its progress. You see, prior to this year, ladder-framed 4x4s were not welcome at COTY. That's why it has never been won by the sort of vehicles 4X4 Australia readers tend to gravitate to.

But back to that roundabout, glassy under a leaden Victorian winter sky. Tackle that in any other ute-derived 4x4 on A/T tyres and you'd get some grab-bag of understeer or oversteer interspersed with snatchy jolts at the stability control. The Everest was something utterly different. You could plant your right boot, the ESC would dole out exactly as much throttle as the Goodyear Wranglers could handle and then, as you opened the steering, the system would smoothly feed throttle in. Here at Wheels, we expect that sort of sophistication from a Porsche or a BMW M car, but a body-on-frame 4x4? Suddenly the rule disbarring them from COTY looked a bit beyond its sell-by.