Driving a Ford Edge for the week

[Driveitlikeuboughtit]

It sucks. Steering is vague and the car wants to understeer like a fat kid wants candy.

It is nice to not have to shimmy myself over the bolstering. And I am standing up when I leave the car without any effort. And it is nice to re-calibrate myself. Driving slow cars makes driving fast cars that much sweeter.

I can't wait to rip through my gears when I get back home.

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[silverrascal]

From a CTR to a Ford Edge? That's like going from an F-16 jet fighter to a commercial airliner.

 

[Captaindicki]

It is nice to not have to shimmy myself over the bolstering. And I am standing up when I leave the car without any effort.

I don’t have the R but the Si seats are well bolstered aswell, and getting in and out could be a pain. I recently found that reclining the seatback when entering or exiting makes this a much much easier process. And no more shimming.
We have a Mazda CX-5 and although it handles better than most SUVs, it’s still handles like a pig. But I’m glad we have one, as it makes me yearn to strap in my Si that much more

 

[jred721]

I know the feeling, I travel a lot for work so I frequently rent cars and sometimes end up with Edges, Escapes, or hell even Tahoe's but I always try to go for something like a Dodge Charger instead because SUV's just don't drive as good. Then when I get back and I drive my regular Civic or BMW, it feels that much better. Even your average run of the mill sedan is so much more planted and responsive than a higher riding SUV/Crossover, let alone a Type R. My wife's Mercedes SUV is a great example, the car is built like a tank and has been bulletproof reliable, but the steering is so light and vague that you can drive it with your pinky and the steering wheel merely suggests the direction the car should be going, but you can't really tell.

 

[Zeffy94]

I remember when I had to drive a rental Corolla for 4 days. Those were 4 days of HELL.

On the plus side it made me cherish my car even more, so if you are thinking that your car has lost some luster, go rent a boring car for a few days, and then tell me your car isn’t spectacular.

 

[tungstenturtle]

Just got done driving a '92 Ford Ranger for a week while the R was under repair. It really made me appreciate the R's shifter that much more. The Ranger's felt like you were stirring a bowl of soup...

 

[Kevindust]

I find it hilarious that crossovers are so insanely popular but buyers will shun a minivan or a station wagon. They're all two box designs, based on similar architecture, with a fwd bias. "Crossover" and "Minivan" have become marketing terms for tall station wagon. A three row crossover is simply a minivan with forward opening rear doors and poorer space utilization. A two row crossover is a smaller minivan with forward opening rear doors, poorer space utilization and less seats. A compact crossover is simply a short station wagon with a high roof. Yet people are so insulted when you refer to their crossover as a minivan or station wagon.

I get that a crossover is good at hauling people and cargo and they also have a high seating position with easy ingress and egress. A CUV certainly makes a somewhat practical A to B transportation appliance. However, if you really need lots of interior space, a minivan has a similar seating position but is even better at hauling people and cargo and would make an even more practical transportation device. If you don't really need as much interior space, I'd take the lower center of gravity, vastly improved handling dynamics and slightly better fuel efficiency of a hatchback or wagon any day.

 

[heavyD]

People simply can't get over the stigma of driving a minivan. There's little doubt minivans are the only real utility vehicles available for sale today that's not a pickup truck. I feel most of the CUV/SUV sales craze has been driven by the higher seating position and the illusion of an active lifestyle involved with owning an SUV. My wife went from an SUV to a Subaru Outback which isn't exactly low to the ground and she constantly pines for her old SUV's seating position. Females especially who are typically shorter than men seem to really prefer sitting up higher and that makes some sense. The reality is that most CUV/SUV's are based on car platforms and are basically hatchbacks with a lift so really they are still cars and the "Sport Utility" part kind of plays to the crowd that loves the idea of being able to take a drive off paved roads even if they rarely ever do. How else do you explain the 200K+ people annually who willingly shell out thousands for steaming piles of hot garbage because it has a Jeep badge that never spend a day off paved roads?

 

[jred721]

I mean its a Ford edge...cant really expect much more lol.

I find it hilarious that crossovers are so insanely popular but buyers will shun a minivan or a station wagon. They're all two box designs, based on similar architecture, with a fwd bias. "Crossover" and "Minivan" have become marketing terms for tall station wagon. A three row crossover is simply a minivan with forward opening rear doors and poorer space utilization. A two row crossover is a smaller minivan with forward opening rear doors, poorer space utilization and less seats. A compact crossover is simply a short station wagon with a high roof. Yet people are so insulted when you refer to their crossover as a minivan or station wagon.

I get that a crossover is good at hauling people and cargo and they also have a high seating position with easy ingress and egress. A CUV certainly makes a somewhat practical A to B transportation appliance. However, if you really need lots of interior space, a minivan has a similar seating position but is even better at hauling people and cargo and would make an even more practical transportation device. If you don't really need as much interior space, I'd take the lower center of gravity, vastly improved handling dynamics and slightly better fuel efficiency of a hatchback or wagon any day.

I vastly prefer wagons, hatches, and sedans to SUV's but you're forgetting that hatchbacks are generally smaller with less legroom in the back and there are only a couple of wagons for sale on the market right now. In our case, we needed one bigger vehicle that had a big trunk and a good amount of legroom in the back as well, so my Wife's Mercedes ML350 makes sense for us because its a 2 row SUV with as much legroom as an E Class if not more, and a trunk thats huge because they opted for a huge trunk instead of a 3rd row in the ML350. I love wagons but there arent that many options, the VW and Subaru have a either a weak engine or a CVT or both which sucks, the E class wagon is nice but stupidly expensive, and the Volvo is great but I highly doubt the reliability of an engine that is turbocharged AND supercharged. So its no wonder people are turning to SUV's and crossovers. Like I said, i'd take a sedan any day over an SUV but its not always an option.

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