2019 Ford Edge Reviews, Pricing & Specs

The Ford Edge received a facelift for 2019 that includes a new grille, new headlights, and new lower front fascia. Out back, the Edge has new taillights, and the red connector between the two taillights has been replaced with a larger black panel, giving every trim of the Edge a sportier appearance.

While Ford freshened up the exterior, things remain decidedly unchanged in the cabin. It feels pretty much the same as a 2014 Edge—and to be honest, even that interior felt dated. If you told me this was the 2010 interior with a new infotainment system, I’d believe you.

Sure, the Edge’s cabin is quite useful, and there’s a new rotary shifter that replaces the conventional shifter, but it can’t outrun Ford’s heavy reliance on plastics, especially in the empty spaces that frame the touchscreen. It tries to look modern, but down to the buttons used, it feels pretty dated. A decade ago, this may have been cutting edge, but today it looks like a plastic parts-bin special.

On the plus side, the Edge has plenty of standard and available features. It comes in SE, SEL, Titanium, and ST trims, the latter being our test model. The base Ford Edge SE comes standard with 18-inch alloy wheels, keyless entry, and push-button start. Moving up to the Ford Edge SEL adds standard roof rails, heated front seats, rear parking sensors, and an available heated steering wheel and sunroof.

The range-topping Ford Edge Titanium trim adds 19-inch alloy wheels and makes features like the leather upholstery, wireless charging pad, and remote start standard equipment. It also adds a Bang & Olufsen 12-speaker premium sound system.

Of course, the Ford Edge ST takes things a step further, employing some awesome touches from Ford Performance. These tweaks include a blacked-out grille, a new front lip and side skirts, 20-inch machined aluminum wheels, and an upgraded exhaust system. It’s just different enough to indicate the ST’s added performance without being gaudy. Our test vehicle came in a dark gray, but the Ford Performance Blue that you’ll find in much of the ST’s marketing material has more visual pop.

The ST also features leather seating and ambient lighting, and it can be fitted with a dual-panel moonroof, heated and cooled front seats, and heated rear seats. These creature comforts would drive the as-tested price of our car well past $50,000 Canadian, which is pretty steep for a two-row. The SEL trim’s $38,099 starting price ($40,099 with an all-wheel drive (AWD) drivetrain) is far more agreeable, even if it means sacrificing niceties like leather upholstery. And as we pointed out, you can tack on a lot of the niceties we enjoyed in the ST. The SEL won’t deliver the performance of the ST, but CarGurus recommends it as a well-rounded vehicle that will appeal to more buyers than the ST.

Every non-ST trim of the Edge receives the same engine: Ford’s EcoBoost two-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine, making power specs of 250 horsepower and 280 pound-feet of torque. I’ve driven this engine in other applications, and it gets the job done and won’t let you down. In fact, it’s pretty darned good, and it sends power through an eight-speed automatic transmission to the front wheels or to all-wheel drive (AWD), which is optional on SEL and standard on all other trims in Canada—and yes, that’s (oddly) including the base model.

And then there’s the ST. Its powertrain features Ford’s 2.7-litre EcoBoost twin turbo V6 engine—the same one used in the Ford F-150. In the Edge, it’s tuned to put out 335 hp and 380 lb-ft of torque, sent through the same eight-speed automatic to AWD. Keeping with the ST’s under-the-radar style, the exhaust is tuned only for healthy engine breathing—it has no throaty exhaust note to wake the neighbours. That’s good or bad, depending on how you look at it.

But the ST has a bite more fearsome than its bark, offering fantastic acceleration. Rotate the new shifter into D, and you’re off. By pressing the S in the middle of the rotary shifter, you activate Sport Mode, which provides an even swifter kick in the pants.

Of course, anyone can toss a monster engine into a car and ask the driver to hold on for dear life. Making a car that is balanced, precise, and can attack corners takes far more skill. And the Edge ST delivers in these respects.

In first driving the ST, I was a little skeptical, and I wasn’t feeling its cornering abilities. But then I started taking on some curving back roads. By the end of my drive, I was amazed by how level the ST remained through those turns.

The downside of those same winding northern roads is their propensity for potholes. Over bumps in the road, the ST was smooth and compliant. Expect non-ST trims to be even smoother over those same roads, but the ST won’t force you to sacrifice comfort to have fun.

As for the tedious matter of fuel economy, the most efficient version of the Edge—the base two-litre with front-wheel drive (FWD)—consumes 10.9 litres per 100 kilometres in the city, 8.0 on the highway, and 9.6 combined. With AWD, those figures go up to 11.4 city, 8.3 highway, and 10.0 combined. The Edge ST, on the other hand, burns 12.6 L/100 km city, 9.2 highway, and 11.0 combined. In a week of spirited driving, our Edge ST test car averaged 11.8 L/100 km.

The 2019 Edge’s cabin might be dated, but it is still plenty useful. There’s a deep cargo bin in the centre console and another one at the bottom of the centre stack. The latter provides USB ports and the available wireless charger. Add the deep in-door pockets with large bottle holders, and you can find a place for all your daily gear.

The Edge has comfortable front seats, but for the Edge ST, Ford replaces them with ST-branded bucket seats from Ford Performance. Like typical bucket seats, they feature pronounced side bolsters and are designed to keep your behind planted while enduring lateral G-forces. These are common in performance cars like a Corvette or Mustang GT, but rare in a midsize SUV.

But there’s a problem—the Edge ST’s bucket seats aren’t designed for tall people. You’d expect the driver’s seat to adjust much lower than it does, yet it stops at such a high setting that my head was literally touching the roof. I’m wondering if these seats came right out of the parts bin of another performance vehicle with a lower floor. Either way, I hope the non-ST trims of the Edge have more adjustable seats.

That said, if you’re fine being a passenger, the rear seats are incredibly spacious. They provide enough headroom and legroom for my 6-foot-3-inch frame. There’s also plenty of cargo space, with 1,110 litres behind the rear seats. If you need more than that, you can drop the rear seats with a nifty quick-release button, opening up 2,078 litres of cargo space behind the liftgate. That’s not stellar when compared with many three-row SUVs, but the Edge competes more directly with crossovers like the Nissan Murano, all-new Chevy Blazer, and all-new Honda Passport. The Edge offers more space than the Murano and Blazer and falls just short of the Passport.

The base infotainment system uses a tiny little digital screen, operated by buttons that flank it. The functionality is there, including a USB port, a WiFi hotspot, streaming music, Bluetooth, and even voice recognition. But it’s all operated via a 4.2-inch non-touchscreen. At a time when you can get a base-trim Toyota Corolla with a full touchscreen and full app connections, this system feels cheap.

An 8-inch Sync 3 infotainment system is available on the SEL and standard on the Titanium and ST. It’s a great system despite middling graphics. Everything is easy to read, and the menu layouts are very intuitive. It also provides Apple CarPlay and Android Auto integration.

The 2019 Ford Edge includes a rear-view camera, traction control, and a full complement of front- and side-impact airbags as standard safety equipment. The Edge also comes standard with Ford’s Co-Pilot360 suite of driver-assistance and safety features. This includes automatic emergency braking, forward-collision warning, a lane-departure warning system, automatic high-beams, and blind-spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert.

All trims of the Edge above the SE can be upgraded with the Co-Pilot360 Assist+ package, which adds features like adaptive cruise control that can stop and go with traffic, evasive steering assist, and a lane-centreing system. As the name suggests, the latter feature senses the lane lines and keeps the Edge centred in its current lane of traffic.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) gives the 2019 Edge a five-star overall safety rating in its crash tests. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) rates the Edge as a Top Safety Pick, giving it lackluster scores for its headlights.

Base MSRP for the 2019 Ford Edge sits at $36,099 for an SE trim with AWD. Our ST test model anchored the opposite end of the lineup, starting at $49,199, but equipped with the same options, an ST in Canada would land well over $50,000. The CarGurus Recommended Trim for Canada is the SEL AWD, which starts at $40,099 and can be optioned with many of the features we enjoyed in the ST. The SE’s tech and connectivity features are pretty underwhelming, helping push our verdict toward the SEL.

But even with the incredibly fun ST trim, the Edge as a whole feels dated. The ST delivers performance, available Sync 3 delivers the tech, and Co-Pilot360 delivers the safety. Even more than that, the Edge delivers what people need, like cargo space, rear passenger space, and compartments all around. And yet, sitting behind the wheel every day, you’ll be staring at cheap, dated plastics in your new car—while the competition has far more compelling interiors.

Ford has a lot of cool initiatives in the works. We’ve heard rumblings about a new, off-road-ready Bronco, an electric Mustang-inspired performance crossover, and an ST version of the all-new Explorer. I hope the Edge ST is a stopgap as we wait for all of those interesting things that are on the way. In the meantime, the Edge ST remains a seriously fun but unassuming suburban speedster.

Note: Images and video show a US model.