FROM the name alone, it is easy to tell Ford had lofty ambitions for the Everest SUV. Critical acclaim has placed it at the peak of ute-derived wagons – and the Blue Oval has attached a sky-high pricetag to suit.

Instead of pitching against utes-with-boots such as the Toyota Fortuner and Mitsubishi Pajero Sport, the Everest’s crosshairs are on premium off-road wagons – primarily the LandCruiser Prado but also the Land Rover Discovery and Jeep Grand Cherokee.

At the time of writing, more affordable rear-drive Everest variants had just been announced but the top-tier, Titanium 4X4 is still in the region of $80,000 once on-road costs are taken into account.

We spent a week with the mid-range Trend and came away with our hunch that this represented the Everest range sweet-spot confirmed.

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