Ford Everest Problems

Believe it or not, this is perfectly normal behaviour from many modern vehicles with eight, nine or even 10-speed automatic transmissions. It’s even more common with torquey turbo-diesel engines which can jump one or even two gears on a light throttle without affecting performance. Put simply, there are more gears on offer than the vehicle actually needs. Don’t forget, once upon a time, a three-speed transmission was quite common.

So why have nine or ten gears in the first place? Because when the vehicle is heavily loaded or towing three tonnes of caravan, those extra gears come in very handy for keeping the engine in its torque zone and ensuring it can still go up hills at highways speeds and take off from a red light without over-exerting itself. And when cruising on the highway, the vehicle can select a really high gear and lower its engine speed, which reduces fuel consumption markedly.

The last decade of dual-cab four-wheel-drive utes have emerged as the tow-vehicles of choice, and you see them everywhere filling roles exactly like the one you have planned. Popular models include the Ford Ranger you’ve nominated, Toyota HiLux, Mazda BT-50, VW Amarok, Mitsubishi Triton, Nissan Navara and Isuzu D-Max. But there are also cheaper alternatives including makes like the South-Korean made Ssangyong and various Chinese brands like LDV and Great Wall.

Just make sure you know exactly how much you need to tow before making a decision as some of the cheaper models don’t have the same outright towing capacity and even if they do, some of them don’t have the engine performance to make towing as easy as it should be. For parts availability, the Toyota would be king in really remote areas, but any of the major brands are pretty well covered in Australia.

Meantime, don’t rule out ute-based wagons such as the Ford Everest, Isuzu MU-X, Mitsubishi Pajero Sport and Toyota Fortuna. These offer better ride comfort when unladen thanks to more sophisticated rear suspensions and most have as much or almost as much towing capacity as their ute brethren.

It doesn’t sound right, does it? While it’s possible for an engine to be perfect one minute and blown up the next, you’d expect some sort of warning that this was about to happen. Which begs the question of why didn’t the Ford mechanic spot that there was a problem.

Probably the best advice is to have the engine independently inspected to find out what broke or went wrong. From there, you can work out whether you were just unlucky, or the dealership missed something or somehow contributed to the engine’s demise.

For the record, these engines won’t tolerate being drained of oil for more than about ten minutes. Due to the design of the oil pump, leaving the engine drained for more than that length of time means the pump won’t work when the engine is restarted and the engine will blow up soon after. Plenty of mechanics have been caught out by this, but surely not a Ford dealership…

It sounds like your diagnosis that the vehicle went into Safe or limp-home mode is spot on. Being fully loaded and travelling at speed up a long hill on a super-hot day could certainly be enough to make the car enter limp-home mode for its own preservation. This is confirmed by the fact that after a break and downhill run, the temperature stabilised and the car came back to full functionality.

Modern turbo-diesel engines make lots of power and torque these days, but they do that by burning fuel and that creates heat. You might also find that the limp-home mode initiation was at the behest of the transmission which would also be damaged if it got too hot.

Car-makers have designed these limp-home modes to protect the vehicle from permanent damage in severe operating conditions, and in your car, it seems to have done its job perfectly. The only unknown is whether the limp-home mode was initiated by the conditions or something actually wrong with the vehicle. It would be wise to have it checked over to make sure the cooling, fuel-injection and transmission systems don’t have a separate problem that is causing the Everest to enter Safe mode.

Your Everest would have come brand-new with a three-year/100,000km warranty which has now well and truly expired. So you can forget about Ford contributing to the cost of repairs.

Roof racks cop a pretty hard life in some cases, and damage to their coating or paint is not uncommon. Even if it's just the effects of UV radiation (rather than physical damage) roof racks are in the direct firing line of the sun's rays for a lot of the time.

The best advice would be to get an automotive spray painter to repaint the roof rails in a durable product that matches the original finish. This shouldn't be difficult for any professional shop and would return the car's appearance to new, providing the rails are the only blemished areas.

Good news; Ford Australia is indeed set to launch a new, limited edition run of the Everest Wildtrak very shortly. Although no firm sates have been set, the Wildtrak version of the Everest could be hitting showrooms in the next few weeks, maybe even sooner. The model has already been launched in New Zealand, South Africa and Thailand.

But while we don't have firm dates yet, what we can tell you is that the Wildtrak Everest will slot in between the Sport and Platinum trim levels and will use the 3.0-litre V6 turbo-diesel engine mated to the 10-speed automatic transmission. Price is expected to be $73,090 plus on-road costs.

There's been plenty of talk in recent years about the future of diesel engines in vehicles like the Ranger and Everest. And while there's a school of thought that suggests that they'll switch to petrol and petrol-electric hybrid drivelines, that hardly makes a diesel-engined version a dinosaur overnight. Take the Toyota Corolla, for instance: While the latest Corolla is available with a hybrid powertrain (and it's a very popular format) there are still plenty of people happily driving around in their 20-year-old Corollas with conventional drivelines.

The point being that progress is a fact of life. Every time a new piece of tech arrives that is seen as an improvement, car-makers will adopt it. Which means the previous technology is out of date, but not necessarily beyond its useful life.

If you think a plug-in hybrid Ranger or Everest would suit you, then by all means wait until 2024 (the rumoured launch date). But bear in mind that, by then, there may be talk of the next big thing in Rangers and Everests; an advance that could make even the plug-in hybrid look a bit yesterday.

There's been plenty of talk in recent years about the future of diesel engines in vehicles like the Ranger and Everest. And while there's a school of thought that suggests that they'll switch to petrol and petrol-electric hybrid drivelines, that hardly makes a diesel-engined version a dinosaur overnight. Take the Toyota Corolla, for instance: While the latest Corolla is available with a hybrid powertrain (and it's a very popular format) there are still plenty of people happily driving around in their 20-year-old Corollas with conventional drivelines.

The point being that progress is a fact of life. Every time a new piece of tech arrives that is seen as an improvement, car-makers will adopt it. Which means the previous technology is out of date, but not necessarily beyond its useful life.

If you think a plug-in hybrid Ranger or Everest would suit you, then by all means wait until 2024 (the rumoured launch date). But bear in mind that, by then, there may be talk of the next big thing in Rangers and Everests; an advance that could make even the plug-in hybrid look a bit yesterday.

The current model Everest is rated to tow up to 3500kg (with a braked trailer) making it one of the better credentialed tow-vehicles out there. These ute-derived station-wagons sometimes lose a little of the towing capacity of their dual-cab brethren on the basis of their more complaint rear suspension (which makes for a nicer ride). But, somehow, Ford has managed to retain the full 3500kg towing capacity for the Everest.

The question then becomes which engine you choose and, on balance, the V6 turbo-diesel is the one to have. The V6 models cost a bit more, but they do get you all-wheel-drive (great for towing) and the V6 engine has a handy 30kW and 100Nm more that the four-cylinder version. All things considered, the Everest is a great vehicle with which a tow a caravan.

The current-model Everest (particularly with the optional turbo-diesel V6 engine) is a great choice and is a clear class-leader in dynamic and accommodation terms. It's also a tremendously capable vehicle off road, so it should suit your needs very well indeed. On that basis, it will hold its value better than most of its competition, purely because it will remain a popular choice.

Your concern over the continued availability of conventional fuels is understandable, but should really be nothing to worry about as both petrol and diesel will continue to be available long beyond your five-year horizon. Vehicles like the Everest will also be the last bastions of conventional fuels, as the long distances in remote areas that they are so good at are the very conditions that don't suit electric vehicles at all. Yes, petrol and diesel will inevitably become more expensive, but so will electricity.