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So you'd be forgiven for thinking we brought the wrong Edge.
It looks a lot like the outgoing 14.
Certainly it's general shape and volumes and proportion.
But the dead give away is right here.
The 15 has this deeply sculpted side where the passenger The Edge has this kind of flat slab slide.
The grills a little different, the tail lights are very much like a Fusion which is no coincidence because the Edge is largely based on the platform shared with the Fusion.
Overall it's about an inch longer than 15, that's not dramatic by Stretch.
Now inside the new Edge, Ford's done a lot of work to bring it upscale and not be so utilitarian.
There's the real problem though.
This head unit's the equivalent of wearing a Nixon Agnew campaign button.
We're going back.
It's the my Ford touch with some SYNC technology that Ford to a drumming for for years.
It's been replaced by SYNC 3. Unfortunately this 15 Edge only offers this outgoing My Ford Touch.
The 16 will bring you the much more desirable SYNC 3 You know what to do.
Of course the good part of Ford LCD Interface is over on there in front of the driver where you've got those two helper screens alongside the speedo, and those are configurable in almost any variety on the left.
Or change to whatever focus you care about of four choices on the right and they've each got a dedicated wing controller on the wheel.
That's some of Ford's best UI and HMI, even if this is kind of the opposite.
Anyway, let's take a look at some of the controls down here.
Everything here is now a physical button.
And, they're large and pretty well-spaced.
So, this is well-done human-machine interface.
Here's something new.
This camera button is going to turn on a front-looking cam.
This is, I think, a first for Ford, overall.
It gives you that going-out-forward look when you're nudging out of a blind space.
You can even go to a really extreme fish eye here.
Our drive controls are pretty straight forward.
A conventional automatic transmission, PRNDS in this case, but S isn't a complete cohesive sport mode, it's a sport profile of holding gear shifts.
And accompanying this shifter are, of course, the almost common now paddles on the wheel.
Only one choice, though, and that is this automatic.
In the back of our edge we've got an interesting numbers story going on.
There's another inch of leg room which is nice to have in a compact ish crossover, and about another inch of shoulder room roughly per Two passengers back here.
Here's the proof in the pudding.
I sat up this passenger seat for me up there.
And now I'm able to sit behind me back here.
And it doesn't happen in a lot of cars.
Now we've got an inflatable seatbelts in the back on this vehicle.
I've also got a nice, big A panoramic roof up here that extends all the way back to the rear head rest.
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Now some things have changed in the engine bay on the new edge and some things haven't.
First of all this is how the standard engines, the two liter the little guy in line four sitting side saddle with EcoBoost technology.
That means a turbo charger and direct injection.
It used to be kind of a pricey option now it's the base engine.
It's also now got a twin scroll turbo so a turbo that has two modes of operation to be more responsive.
Additional engines include the three and a half liter V6 and the 2.7 liter four cylinder ecoboost but as your new base.
The numbers up a little bit.
It's now 245 horse power up by five.
And 275 pound feet of torque also up five.
What didn't change is the MPG.
It still comes in at 24 average.
Which is 20 city, 30 highway.
The last edge was 21 city, 30 highway, but the average comes out the same.
All of this goes out to a six V automatic transmission, we have front wheel drive.
You can also get these guys in all wheel drive.
And by the way, all it wants is regular gas.
First thing that struck me about the new Edge is the ride quality.
This is smooth and nice and liquid, very compliant.
I like that and I think it's a home run for the market they're going after.
Now the next thing you notice is the powertrain.
You say, okay how's this little two liter Ecoboost turbo doing?
Well it actually does fine as long as you don't let it get buried under car.
In other words, don't find it loafing along in six when you need to stab at the power so drop it in sport mode for example, get on those paddles and keep things cooking.
Some interesting driver assists on this car.
One that is.
This is not terribly cutting edge.
There's lane departure warning and lane departure prevention because it has an electric power steering rack they can address that digitally and tell it to nose you back in.
That's how they do it.
Perhaps the most interesting though is this new layer of self parking technology.
Now this vehicle has perpendicular on top of that and also exit mode.
So if you're too damn dumb to get out of a parking spot you parked in.
[SOUND] Don't know how that works, but this will get you out of it.
[SOUND] That front camera is useful if you're coming out of a blind spot.
You gotta hit that button, of course.
You gotta think about it manually, but it's got a good clear image.
And there are also quite an elaborate array of surround sensors that are available on this vehicle to Augment the front end rear cameras.
You have no surround camera tech however.
You get a lot of segments there on the screen as you can see along with various beeps and color coding to let you know what you're about to scrape.
And coming later, not available now as I understand it, but in mid model year production will be adaptive cruise and the forward collision automatic [INAUDIBLE] brakes.
Okay, let's do up a 15 Ford Edge CNET style, starts off at $36,495, because that's the price of admission for this titanium trim with front-wheel drive.
And this is a pretty loaded vehicle, but then we checked the box for Package 302A.
Ford's just got a way with names.
Don't they?
That brings you a lot of toys.
The power liftgate you can wag your foot to open, the panoramic roof overhead That new active parking assist, the front camera, HID headlights, blind spot warning, the lane departure and prevention I showed you on the road, voice-based navigation and those rear seat belts with air bags built in.
Now 13 hundred more brings you the driver assist package which goes further with adaptive cruise control as well as forward collision [UNKNOWN] breaking this automatic, and for some reason they lumped in a tilt, telescope wheel with that.
And my favorite option is dealer installed!
$330 for a safe in the console.
What are you gonna put in there?
You're driving an Edge!
You're not James Bond!
I'd get one to.
Anyway, we're looking at about $43,800 all in for this guy.
ere's your bottom line on the edge, looks a lot better I think but still very familiar.
More room in the back seat, always a good thing.
That technology in the dash, that's sad, you've gotta wait til 2016 I'm afraid.
And the two liter eco boost turbo engine is Is now standard.
It used to be a rather price gouging.
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More cars driven CNET style.
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