FAMILY CAR REVIEW: 2021 Ford Everest Trend

How big is the boot of the 2021 Ford Everest Trend?

The boot section of this review is brought to you by Bugaboo.

From empty, I could fit eighteen shopping bags in the boot of the Everest when using just five seats, which is the same as the Land Rover Discovery, one more than the Toyota Land Cruiser Prado and one less than the Isuzu MU-X, which fits nineteen.

The New Bugaboo Donkey 5 twin pram, with two seats, fits in the boot of the Ford Everest with the two seats attached, with nine shopping bags…

…or with the two seats separated and ten shopping bags.

The New Bugaboo Donkey 5 Duo, with basinet and seat, fits neatly in the boot of the Ford Everest with the seat and bassinet attached or removed, with ten shopping bags.

The New Bugaboo Donkey 5 Mono, with seat and basket, fits in the boot of the Ford Everest with the seat and basket either attached or separated, with eleven shopping bags.

The New Bugaboo Donkey 5 Mono, with basinet and basket, fits in the boot of the Ford Everest with the basinet and basket attached with ten shopping bags…

…or with the bassinet and basket separated and eleven shopping bags.

The Bugaboo Bee 6 compact stroller fits nicely in the boot of the Ford Everest when using five seats, with thirteen shopping bags beside it.

Or you could fit a very large dog! The floor is nice and flat and carpeted, which is great for dogs and emergency nappy changes!

The boot space and its functionality are really important. I like to have a big boot space and little side wells or areas I can divide things into. So something I don’t want to move around while I’m driving such as Bub’s lunch bag or her wet swimming gear can be sectioned off in a little well where it’s not going to spill or get squashed by the rest of the things in the boot.

Hooks for securing shopping bags to are also favourites of mine, I like being able to secure the bag containing more fragile things like eggs so they don’t move around on the journey.

I measure the boot space in freezer shopping bags, prams and dogs. Not because I think all there is to a mum’s life is food shopping, prams and dogs. (Although it can feel like it sometimes!!) But because these are visually mesurable items we can all associate with. For me, the car company boot measurement of litres is not an amount I can easily visualise and 400L in one car may differ in usability to that in another due to the configuration or shape of the space.

When using all seven seats the boot space in the Ford Everest is still remarkably practical. I could fit seven shopping bags in the boot.

The New Bugaboo Donkey 5 Mono with seat or bassinet and basket fits nicely in the boot.

Or the Bugaboo Bee 6 fits neatly in the boot with a bag of shopping.

Or you can fit a small family dog.

How good is storage in the 2021 Ford Everest Trend?

Storage inside the cabin is very practical in all three rows. In the central console, there are two cup holders, they are both a really good size to hold a reusable or disposable coffee cup.

Behind the cup holders is a large central console storage box.

There is a phone charging well in front of the gear lever that has USB and 12V sockets.

The glove box is a good size and would easily hold my wallet and iPad with the manual.

There is a lined glasses case in the ceiling…

…and there are lit vanity mirrors in both front visors.

The door bins in the front are large enough for a refillable water bottle and my iPad fits in them too.

In the second row, there are map pockets in the back of both front seats. They would hold but not fully conceal an iPad. In the back of the central console box are 12V and 150W sockets.

There are two cup holders in a fold-down armrest in the central seatback. They will hold a reusable or disposable coffee cup.

The door bins in the back will also hold a refillable water bottle.

In the third row, there are cup holders on either side that will hold a reusable coffee cup or refillable water bottle.

How noisy is the 2021 Ford Everest Trend?

The 2021 Ford Everest is not an especially noisy car at all. The only one to be aware of is the child occupancy alert, which sounds as soon as you turn the car off.

The media touch screen is quite small for a modern car and the media system feels basic and easy to navigate.

The climate controls are within the media screen and you can control and lock the rear climate through this screen too.

It has Apple CarPlay and Android Auto which is great for connecting your phone easily and using your navigation, messaging and podcast or music apps.

The reversing camera image in the Ford Everest is quite pixellated, which I was disappointed with in a big car like this.

The parking sensors could be turned off easily with a button down in the central console. As could the auto engine cut-out, which I did not find particularly disturbing in the Everest.

The cruise control is on the right of the steering wheel and I found it very easy to use while driving and it stayed quite close to the set speed.

Becoming a parent I soon realised there are some noises and sounds I feel are unnecessary and I could happily live without if it meant my baby stayed asleep!!

That often the distraction of my screaming, distressed baby is more dangerous when driving than not having a lane departure warning for example.

If it is the lane departure warning beeping that creates distress with my baby then which is safest?

It’s where I think we need to be able to strike a balance and choose when we can mute the warnings or swap them to a vibration in the steering wheel or flashing light perhaps?

A lot of these noises come with the increase in technology and especially linked to safety features and alerts. For me these all have their place.

Another thing I have realised is I spend my time in a lot more places where small children roam, parks, beaches, play gyms, swimming lessons, daycare centre etc. I have become more aware that when I’m reversing or manouvering in the car parks I have to tripple check for small children running around behind me or being in my blind spot when reversing. For this I LOVE reversing cameras, I just don’t like their beeping sounds!!

I have become so much more aware of safety and potential accidents or hazards since having a child and so I love the peace of mind that I get from the cameras and sensors combined with my own vision from windows and mirrors as I don’t trust cameras alone.

The doors and windows of the Ford Everest were not loud to open and close and did not disturb my sleeping baby. You can lock the doors and windows separately from the front driver's door panel.

Road and engine noise was quite tractor-like in the 2021 Ford Everest Trend and I found on motorways I needed to turn the stereo up to compensate for it.

How many child seats fit in the 2021 Ford Everest Trend?

The child seat section of this review is brought to you by Infasecure.

FIVE child seats fit in the back of the Ford Everest! Making it one of the few seven-seaters off-roaders that can fit five child seats.

There are three top tether anchorages across all three of the second-row seatbacks, they are within plastic guides and nice and easy to connect to. There is a top tether anchorage on the back of both third-row seats, also within plastic guides and easy to connect to.

There are ISOFix points in the two outer second-row seats, they are within plastic guides and nice and easy to connect to.

I could easily fit three Infasecure child seats across the second-row seats. I tested the Infasecure Accomplish More forward-facing and two Infasecure Attain More rear-facing child seats.

In the third-row seats, there was room for two forward-facing Infasecure child seats. I found the Achieve More and Accomplish More child seats fitted well, however, there is much more legroom for the Accomplish More booster seat than the Achieve More. To find out more about the child seats used in this review, click on the link here.

To access the third-row seats you have to uninstall a child seat in the second row (behind the driver, so not on the kerb side, unfortunately) in order to climb through, also when bringing the seat forward it does knock on the other child seat installed in the centre seat.

The second-row seats slide and adjust for legroom, and with the second-row seats in their furthest back position and a rear-facing child seat installed in the second row, I found a 180cm driver could sit in front of it and I could sit in the third row behind it with enough head and legroom (I'm 162cm). Or a forward-facing Infasecure Accomplish More child seat fitted in the third-row instead.

Posting bub into their child seat from outside the car is really nice and easy in the Everest, the door openings are large and the interior is spacious. From inside, the ceiling is high enough that posting Bub into their seats from inside is good too.

Australia being a country of weather extremes; blazing sun and torrential rain, mean you may find it easier to put Bub into their seat from inside the car sometimes. If it’s hot you can get the air-con going, cool the car down and not stand out in the sun while you fasten them in or shelter from the rain and not get soaked yourself whilst you’re doing it. So it is important to test whether Bub can be easily installed from either direction!

There is room to feed Bub in the back if you have one or two child seats installed.

How comfortable is the 2021 Ford Everest Trend? And how good is the Ford Everest Trend to drive?

The front seats of the Ford Everest Trend I tested are nice and comfortable with black leather upholstery in the first two rows (pleather in the third row). The upholstery has small contrasting perforated panels that easily trap crumbs and spills.

Other than that, the seats throughout the Everest are not too fussy and would be quite easy to wipe clean, although there is light-coloured stitching.

Even the third-row seats are comfortable and the second-row slides back and forward so you can distribute the legroom.

For a mum travelling in the back with Bub, the seats are pretty comfortable. If you are sitting in the central seat there is a hump in the footwell, which you'll need to straddle.

For the first year of Bub's life when we would go out as a family, if I wasn’t driving, I would travel in the back with Bub so it’s important to check the back seat comfort as you may be spending a lot of time in them! They were never something I gave any thought to before but I definitely notice a good or bad back seat now!

The steering wheel only adjusts up and down, not in and out, which I found made it harder to find a comfy seating position. And the steering wheel is quite big too!

There are four air-conditioning vents across the front dashboard; two central ones either side of the media screen and one at either end of the dashboard.

In the rear, there are ceiling vents above the second and third-row passengers. There are fan controls in the back of the central console box…

…as well as being able to control all the aircon through the media screen, which is fantastic.

You can also lock the rear aircon controls so little fingers in the back can't fiddle with it.

You can also use a panel of buttons on the dash too.

The rear interior lights are located above the second-row doors with the air vents and I could reach the light switch behind the driver's seat.

I have found Bub does not like travelling in the dark in the car so if it gets dark whilst travelling then I reach back and turn the interior light on for her. So it’s really important for me that I can reach the rear ceiling light.

Also if I am traveling home and it is getting near to bed time and I DEFINITELY DON’T want her to fall asleep in the car as even a five-minute nap in the car means bed time is all over!!!! I lean back and pop the light on so it’s not dark and try to keep her awake!! Along with screaming/singing at the top of my voice!!!

It is also useful when there are lights situated above the doors where the handles are usually positioned. These are good for when putting baby into their child seats when visibility is poor, so you do not have to reach across them to a light situated in the ceiling centrally etc.

There are handles above the back doors so I could hang a child's toy.

Visibility in the Everest is quite good, especially because you are sitting nice and high up. When fully loaded with child seats I couldn't really see out of the rear window but where there are forward-facing child seats installed, the view was still good out of the second-row windows.

One thing I have noticed since being a mum is I hate it when I reach a destination or get home from being out and Bub has either done really well in the car or she is screaming her head off and I have done really well to keep it together for the entire journey (usually the latter!!) and it takes 10 minutes to park the car! It can be really stressful. Usually I dread parking big cars as they take longer in our tight apartment block carpark, but the Everest was relatively easy to park for a big seven-seater SUV.

Aesthetically the Ford Everest Trend feels a little dated now and I'm looking forward to seeing the new 2022 Ford Everest and how they have updated it, watch this space!

I can see why the Ford Everest is so popular as a seven-seater family off-roader, it really does cover everything well and has good towing and off-road ability all while being a good everyday family car for school runs and suburbia!

How safe is the 2021 Ford Everest Trend?

The Ford Everest scored a five-star ANCAP safety rating in October 2015.

Scoring a total of 35.98 out of 37. This is broken down into 15.38 out of 16 for the frontal offset test. 16/16 for the side impact test, 2/2 for the pole test. Whiplash protection is rated good and pedestrian protection acceptable.

Seven airbags come as standard; there is a driver’s knee airbag as well as dual frontal airbags and front side airbags and side head curtain airbags for the front and both the rear rows of side passengers.

Some of these safety features are also features that drive me crazy as a mum! Like the lane departure and forward collision alert or the parking sensor beeping sound. I want all the safety technology AND to be able to mute the sound when Bub’s asleep!