1,000 Miles in a Ford Edge
Sep. 16th, 2024 01:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerBlue Ridge Trip '24 #26
Relaxing in Boone, NC - Fri, 6 Sep 2024. 8am
Sometime last night driving the Blue Ridge Parkway home from our last hike we crossed 1,000 miles in our rental car this trip, a 2023 Ford Edge. We've still got a few more days left on the trip, but the 1,000 mile mark seems like a good time to share my thoughts about this vehicle. (Update: we returned the car Sunday at 1,343 miles.)
Overall I like this Edge. There's nothing wrong with it. I know, that sounds like damning it with faint praise, but that's actually a relatively high bar with autos. So often a vehicle that may excel in certain areas has a "Yes, but...", a major objective weakness. This isn't quite a car I'd buy with my own money (more on that below) but I certainly don't mind drawing it in the rental car lottery.
Size and Space. The Edge is a 5-passenger wagon body SUV. The front seats have about the right amount of room. The rear seats, I can't comment on from a seating perspective. They look roomy enough for 2 adults or 3 kids. All we've stored back there is some of our gear, for which it's plenty spacious. And the cargo area in the back is plenty spacious, too. We can fit our big suitcase on its back along with our two carry-on bags on their sides.
The one very slightly uncomfortable thing about the vehicle's size is that it feels big at first, when navigating in a parking lot. It has a larger turning radius than you'd expect from a vehicle of its size. That gives you a gut feeling of, "Whoa! This thing's a boat!" I gather the wide radius is because of our model's all-wheel drive. In all other cases the vehicle feels like an easy-to-manage mid-size.
Handling. This is the area where 'Nothing wrong' most applies. Everything about the car's handling is good but not great. Power from the standard 2.0L turbocharged engine, rated at about 250 HP, is good but not great. The automatic transmission seems to manage the engine's rev band for fuel economy and low noise levels rather than performance. At least it's generally in the right gear, not leaving the car feeling flat-footed when I step on the gas. So again, good but not great. In the handling department there nothing to complain... but also nothing to write home about. The car drives smoothly and corners smartly, but you'd never confuse this crossover SUV for being genuinely sporty.
Technology. I've written before that in evaluating cars of the past few years it's critical to consider their technology integration as technology is becoming so central to the driving experience.
Technology is literally front-and-center in the Ford Edge with a big 12" touch screen in the center console. This has been a standard features since in 2021. It seems generous and is a slightly luxe touch in lower trim models.
The big touch screen drives the Apple CarPlay integration. Having the big screen for it is nice. We can see a big map when we're using a maps app and still have space on-screen to see vehicle settings such as air temperature and fan speed.
...Speaking of which, it's a little frustrating to have so many comfort controls managed only through a touch screen. I'm a fan of obvious, chunky, dedicated knobs and buttons for cabin temperature, fan speed, etc. Having to click through an on-screen menu splits my attention away from driving just a tad more than I'd like. But at least with that large screen such controls are only 1 click away in the menus, not 2 or even 3 clicks.
Oh, let me get back to CarPlay. It works. In every other car I've rented in the past year that had Apple CarPlay, it has been flaky. It won't add my phone, or sometimes it connects and sometimes it doesn't, or it stops working randomly. It's been frustrating. But in this Ford Edge it just works. This is a great example of how "Nothing wrong with it" is comparatively a good grade.
Fuel Economy. The Ford Edge has an EPA rating of 23 mpg combined (21 city/28 highway). We're getting about 27 mpg this trip, which makes sense as we're driving in mostly highway conditions. OTOH, driving up and down mountains that's actually really good. I'll bet if we lived in flatland (and I had a less heavy right foot on open highways) I could get close to 30 mpg.
Bottom Line. Overall this car's good but not great. I was a bit surprised to find as I was researching for this review that the last major revision was in 2015. So in terms of overall layout, engine, and handling, the Ford Edge is now a 9 year old design. Thus it's surprising that it's so firmly in the category of "There's nothing wrong with it". Other cars with aging designs have all felt stale in places. Heck, cars with 3-4 year old designs often feel outdated in some respects.
All that said, while I don't mind being assigned this car as a rental, I doubt I'd ever want to buy one for myself. I think the reason for that is falls in a "neither fish nor fowl" gap for me. If I'm buying an SUV for its off-road capability, I need way more than what the Ford Edge offers. And if I'm buying a car for driving strictly on the road, I want more luxury and performance. For anyone who's looking for an on-road crossover SUV with good handling, though, I'd recommend considering the Ford Edge.
Relaxing in Boone, NC - Fri, 6 Sep 2024. 8am
Sometime last night driving the Blue Ridge Parkway home from our last hike we crossed 1,000 miles in our rental car this trip, a 2023 Ford Edge. We've still got a few more days left on the trip, but the 1,000 mile mark seems like a good time to share my thoughts about this vehicle. (Update: we returned the car Sunday at 1,343 miles.)
Overall I like this Edge. There's nothing wrong with it. I know, that sounds like damning it with faint praise, but that's actually a relatively high bar with autos. So often a vehicle that may excel in certain areas has a "Yes, but...", a major objective weakness. This isn't quite a car I'd buy with my own money (more on that below) but I certainly don't mind drawing it in the rental car lottery.Size and Space. The Edge is a 5-passenger wagon body SUV. The front seats have about the right amount of room. The rear seats, I can't comment on from a seating perspective. They look roomy enough for 2 adults or 3 kids. All we've stored back there is some of our gear, for which it's plenty spacious. And the cargo area in the back is plenty spacious, too. We can fit our big suitcase on its back along with our two carry-on bags on their sides.
The one very slightly uncomfortable thing about the vehicle's size is that it feels big at first, when navigating in a parking lot. It has a larger turning radius than you'd expect from a vehicle of its size. That gives you a gut feeling of, "Whoa! This thing's a boat!" I gather the wide radius is because of our model's all-wheel drive. In all other cases the vehicle feels like an easy-to-manage mid-size.
Handling. This is the area where 'Nothing wrong' most applies. Everything about the car's handling is good but not great. Power from the standard 2.0L turbocharged engine, rated at about 250 HP, is good but not great. The automatic transmission seems to manage the engine's rev band for fuel economy and low noise levels rather than performance. At least it's generally in the right gear, not leaving the car feeling flat-footed when I step on the gas. So again, good but not great. In the handling department there nothing to complain... but also nothing to write home about. The car drives smoothly and corners smartly, but you'd never confuse this crossover SUV for being genuinely sporty.
Technology. I've written before that in evaluating cars of the past few years it's critical to consider their technology integration as technology is becoming so central to the driving experience.
Technology is literally front-and-center in the Ford Edge with a big 12" touch screen in the center console. This has been a standard features since in 2021. It seems generous and is a slightly luxe touch in lower trim models.The big touch screen drives the Apple CarPlay integration. Having the big screen for it is nice. We can see a big map when we're using a maps app and still have space on-screen to see vehicle settings such as air temperature and fan speed.
...Speaking of which, it's a little frustrating to have so many comfort controls managed only through a touch screen. I'm a fan of obvious, chunky, dedicated knobs and buttons for cabin temperature, fan speed, etc. Having to click through an on-screen menu splits my attention away from driving just a tad more than I'd like. But at least with that large screen such controls are only 1 click away in the menus, not 2 or even 3 clicks.
Oh, let me get back to CarPlay. It works. In every other car I've rented in the past year that had Apple CarPlay, it has been flaky. It won't add my phone, or sometimes it connects and sometimes it doesn't, or it stops working randomly. It's been frustrating. But in this Ford Edge it just works. This is a great example of how "Nothing wrong with it" is comparatively a good grade.
Fuel Economy. The Ford Edge has an EPA rating of 23 mpg combined (21 city/28 highway). We're getting about 27 mpg this trip, which makes sense as we're driving in mostly highway conditions. OTOH, driving up and down mountains that's actually really good. I'll bet if we lived in flatland (and I had a less heavy right foot on open highways) I could get close to 30 mpg.
Bottom Line. Overall this car's good but not great. I was a bit surprised to find as I was researching for this review that the last major revision was in 2015. So in terms of overall layout, engine, and handling, the Ford Edge is now a 9 year old design. Thus it's surprising that it's so firmly in the category of "There's nothing wrong with it". Other cars with aging designs have all felt stale in places. Heck, cars with 3-4 year old designs often feel outdated in some respects.
All that said, while I don't mind being assigned this car as a rental, I doubt I'd ever want to buy one for myself. I think the reason for that is falls in a "neither fish nor fowl" gap for me. If I'm buying an SUV for its off-road capability, I need way more than what the Ford Edge offers. And if I'm buying a car for driving strictly on the road, I want more luxury and performance. For anyone who's looking for an on-road crossover SUV with good handling, though, I'd recommend considering the Ford Edge.
