Shed a tear for the Everglades

0 0 February 17, 2022 Edit this post

What a pity.

What a crying shame the Ford Bronco is not headed our way.

Because the new Everglades special edition looks the business, named after a little swamp full of 'gators down in Florida.

They're nowhere near as big or as fearsome as our NT salties, but they are enough to make you think twice about getting out of your car to take a pee.

The Everglades special edition, Ford says, is an SUV born to breathe when the air gets thick and designed to press on when the trail turns others around.

It features confidence-building, factory-installed features such as a snorkel, integrated front bumper-mounted winch and all the off-road equipment from the Sasquatch Package (love that name).

The snorkel is a bit special because it uses two easy-to-swap plates that can change the direction of the inlet based on trail and weather conditions.

The head and reversible intake completely change the way a snorkel looks and functions.

Front and rear axles, transfer case and transmission also offer raised vents for improved water fording.

Combined, these design changes lead to water fording capability of 925mm.

For situations when Everglades or another vehicle needs extra traction beyond what the tyres and engine can provide, a heavy-duty modular front bumper by Ford Performance with ZEON 10-S WARN winch – featuring 4500kg capability and a 30m synthetic line.

Everglades also comes standard with a protective bull bar, rock rails and the same steel bash plates found on Black Diamond and Badlands models.

A unique Carbonised Grey grille with gloss black Bronco lettering enhances its functional appearance.

The Sasquatch Package features 17-inch Carbonised Grey-painted alloy wheels with 35-inch Goodyear mud-terrain tyres.

Additional exterior appointments include rock rails to protect the lower sills, plus a molded-in-color hardtop and roof rack with crossbars.

Everglades is easy to clean with standard marine-grade vinyl seats and rubberised washout flooring.

New Urban Green accents provide a subtle color touch on grab handles, air register vents and seat stitching.

The wagon is powered by a 2.3-litre EcoBoost four cylinder engine that delivers 224kW and 440Nm of torque, the most torque from a four-cylinder gas engine in its class.

It is paired to a class-exclusive SelectShift 10-speed automatic transmission with advanced 4x4 system and a maximum 67.8:1 crawl ratio.

Everglades is available in five exterior colors, including Everglades-exclusive low-volume Desert Sand, plus Eruption Green, Area 51, Shadow Black and Cactus Gray.

Bronco chief engineer, Jolanta Coffey, said Bronco customers like to explore new places, but some want to go even further off the trail than others.

“Everglades is specially equipped to enable these customers to tackle even more challenging terrains and trails – and with the front bumper-mounted winch, they can help others out of trouble while they’re at it,” he said.

Nearly forgot to mention. The reason we won't be getting the Bronco is that it is manufactured in left-hand drive only.

Sad but true, because Ford had second thoughts and decided to wind back its 2009 One Ford strategy.

As part of the plan it was going to build global models going forward, instead of separate vehicles for left- and right hand-drive markets.

Oh, what a feeling!