Ford’s Everest is still a few days away from dealers’ showrooms, but the company is already making sure its gets bang for its R&D buck.
It has claimed the Everest as the first all-Aussie traditional SUV, and has started marking its territory from the get-go — slamming the Toyota Prado’s features in a press release today.
Ford has no qualms that it’s entering an extremely hard-fought market segment, but is going into it swinging.
“We’re aware of the competition in the market for this level of vehicle so we’re focused on delivering a broad message across various platforms to put the Everest SUV on customers’ shopping lists,” said Ford Australia chief executive Graeme Whickman.
“The Everest is one of our crown jewels of our nearly $2 billion in R&D investment the past six years,” he said, “something we have used to give our customer-relevant technologies and capabilities expected of an rugged off-roader.”
Features “unavailable on the Toyota Prado” that the release noted Everest does have included lane-keeping aid, auto high beam, active park assist.
“Other Everest features not found on the Prado include” continued the press pack, before listing even more.
Ford has been impressed by the online response to the new SUV, noting that 11,000 Australians have request information on the vehicle – making it second only to Ranger.
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