Hi, I’m Chris Wardlaw for CarGurus, and this is the 2016 Ford Edge Sport.
Can I be honest with you? I love this SUV. Not the Edge in general, just this one.
The Sport model. The one with the big 21-inch wheels and the twin-turbo V6 and the
genuinely competent handling.
I mean, I’m sure the regular-strength Edge is just fine, but I wouldn’t know,
because I haven’t driven one.
This version, however, the Edge Sport, clearly speaks to my car-enthusiast
heart while delivering on my suburban-dad needs.
Let’s go for a drive.
My test vehicle’s paint color is White Platinum.
It costs $595 extra, so just skip it.
My test vehicle’s also sitting on the optional 21-inch aluminum wheels, and
they’re wrapped in summer performance tires. I highly recommend those, so get them
Just keep one thing in mind - each one of those tires is going to cost you
$400 to replace, and that’s before factoring in things like tax, mounting, and balancing.
There's one other thing that you need to know about the Ford Edge Sport, and
that's that it only comes with a black interior.
So you'd better like that color. Now the base price is $41,295, and my
test vehicle’s got a lot of extra equipment on it, and that pushes the price to
almost $50,000. And it still doesn’t have the optional panoramic
sunroof, which would push it well over $50,000.
Now still, that’s thousands of dollars less than a smaller Audi SQ5 with less
equipment.
Yeah, I went there. Here’s why.
The Edge Sport has a twin-turbocharged 2.7-liter V6 engine.
It makes 315 horsepower at 4,750 rpm and 350 pound-feet of torque at just 2,750 rpm.
Now that helps this SUV accelerate to 60 miles per hour in about 5 and a half
seconds.
Now granted, that's less horsepower than the Audi cranks out. But the Ford makes
more torque, and the Ford’s power peaks at a lower rpm than the Audi’s. Plus, the two
SUVs weigh about the same.
And after all, the Audi SQ5 is only about a half-second quicker to 60 miles an
hour than the Ford Edge Sport. So, you could consider this to be a cut-rate
version of the Audi.
Now don't get me wrong, I do adore that Audi.
But I also love to root for an underdog.
Better yet, the Ford doesn't fall apart when you're done accelerating in a straight
line and the road ahead starts to turn twisty. You can pitch this vehicle into
S-curves with wild abandon.
And the primary limitation has nothing to do with the mechanicals,
it's the front seats. They're not bolstered enough to hold the driver securely
behind the steering wheel. Plus, thanks to the Sport’s new adaptive steering
technology,
the driver expends a lot less effort working the wheel on a favorite back road.
Now as good as the Ford Edge Sport is, there are some things that the automaker
needs to work on.
First of all, the 6-speed automatic has paddle shifters, and they're not a lot of
fun to use. The digital tachometer is way too hard to read when you’re driving
this thing hard, and there's not enough engine noise that's making its way into
the cabin.
So it's really difficult to discern what gear you might be in and when it's
appropriate to shift, either upshift or downshift. Worse than this, though, are
the Ford Edge Sport’s brakes.
I mean for what this vehicle can do, they're pretty puny. Now on my testing day,
the temperatures were in the low 80s. It was really sunny, kind of warm out.
And after a lengthy and spirited romp on local mountain roads,
I came around this bend to a stop sign and I jammed on the brakes. And instead
of stopping before the intersection, I almost ended up in the intersection.
Plus, I really can't stand how the brake pedal feels when I'm driving around town.
It's like a light switch - the brakes are either on or off. So initially when you
touch the pedal, they don't really respond very much.
And then when you push a little bit more, all of a sudden, bam! You've got all kinds
of braking power. And so the result is that there's this stickiness to the
pedal feel, and it just really makes driving the Edge Sport in urban
situations somewhat unpleasant.
I didn't spend a lot of time driving in stop-and-go traffic, but I'm sure
that the same situation exists there.
Now in spite of those two flaws,
I really do love driving this SUV. And while the front seats aren't very good
at holding me still when I'm taking corners and curves at ill-advised speeds,
they sure are comfortable in all other aspects.
Plus, I love that they've got synthetic suede inserts, yet they still have seat
ventilation for hot, sweaty summer days.
Now the rear seats are comfortable enough, with decent room for adults and
kids.
I feel like the bottom cushion’s just a little bit low, but otherwise I really
don't have any complaints about rear seat room.
my test vehicle also has four words inflatable rear seat belt option which My test vehicle also has Ford’s inflatable rear-seatbelt option, which
is really affordable, and it's designed to add a little extra cushioning to
prevent excessive bruising in an accident.
I really like the idea of them, but they make it a lot harder for me to buckle my
kids into the car.
They can't do it on their own, so I end up having to do it for them. Now when you fold
the back seats down,
you've got 73.4 cubic feet of cargo space to use, and that's on par with
other 5-passenger midsize crossover SUVs and even some of the bigger small,
compact crossovers. With the rear seats in use, you've got 39.2 cubic feet of
space, and that’s a generous amount. It offers plenty of room for several
full-size suitcases along with a compact folding stroller, a few duffel bags, what
have you.
Plus, the Edge comes with a hands-free tailgate system.
Just make sure that you're standing on solid ground before you use it, because
you actually have to stand on one foot and then wave your other foot under the
bumper to get it to operate. One thing Ford has improved on the Edge for
2016 is that it got rid of that old MyFord Touch infotainment system that
nobody liked, and it has installed a new Sync 3 infotainment system. It's
their next-generation technology,
it's supposed to respond faster to inputs, it's supposed to have more modern
easy-to-read graphics,
it supplies a pinch-to-zoom function for the navigation map and a number of other
functions. And let me tell you, it's a huge improvement over what they were
offering last year. While it's great that Ford has improved the Edge with the
addition of Sync 3, what's still missing from this vehicle is an Automatic
Emergency Braking System. And I really don't understand why the Edge still
doesn't offer that important safety technology.
It does have something called Brake Support, which is designed to provide
maximum braking power the moment that a driver reacts to the forward-collision
warning system, but the brakes won't automatically engage. And because
Automatic Emergency Braking Systems have been shown to dramatically reduce
collisions,
it really is high time that Ford offers it on this vehicle.
Another thing Ford needs to do to improve safety-wise is to make some
structural modifications so that the Edge will get a Superior rating, or a
Good rating, I should say. A Good rating in the small-overlap frontal-impact
offset crash test. Right now, it gets an Acceptable rating, which is really weird,
because this vehicle was completely redesigned for 2015, and Ford was well
aware of what they needed to do to get that Good rating. Yet the Edge only gets
an Acceptable rating. Any vehicle that you're carrying your family around in
really needs to get top-notch safety scores.
Flawed, but a hell-of-a-lot of fun,
the 2016 Ford Edge Sport is everything that I want and everything that
I need at this particular stage of my life.
Effortlessly able to carry both kids and gear, yet a thrill to drive should the
mood strike,
this version of the Edge likely represents an excellent compromise in
households where divergent values can make it hard to pick the perfect family
vehicle. Still, the less-than-perfect crash test result and the substandard
braking system are good reasons to shop elsewhere. And after all, as far as I'm
concerned, that's probably for the best.
Something tells me that I’d start getting a lot of speeding tickets if I owned one of
these.
Be sure to check out my full review of the Edge Sport on CarGurus.com. And if
you found this review helpful, please share this video and subscribe to our
YouTube channel. For all of us at CarGurus, thank you for watching.