by Kelly Fisher
I still remember the first Everest I drove when it landed in South Africa, and if you’d told me back then that this same nameplate would still be dominating the seven-seater body-on-frame segment a generation later, I’m not sure I’d have believed you. Bakkie-based SUVs have a habit of feeling like an afterthought. The Everest never quite did, and the 2026 update, driven here in entry-level Active guise, is proof of how far Ford has actually taken it.
The big story with the Active isn’t really the styling, though the LED headlamps, roof rails and side steps do their job of making the cheapest Everest look like it belongs next to its pricier siblings. It’s what’s under the bonnet. Ford has dropped the old bi-turbo 2.0-litre in favour of a single-turbo version with a timing chain instead of a belt, and while that sounds like a footnote, it isn’t. The wet-belt engines that plagued the outgoing entry-level cars were often a headache for owners, and Ford has clearly decided that reliability matters more than what people can see on a spec sheet. Power drops to 125 kW and 405 Nm, down from the old bi-turbo’s numbers, and you do feel it: this is not a car that wants to be hurried. But it’s also not a car that’s trying to be. Left to do what it does best- cruising, towing within reason, and soaking up bad roads- it never once feels underpowered for the job.
That’s really the theme of the Active. Ford hasn’t stripped it back to the bone in order to price it more cost-effectively. You still get adaptive cruise control with stop-go, lane centring, the full lane-keeping suite, a 12-inch touchscreen with wireless CarPlay and Android Auto, wireless charging, and a digital cluster, all things that used to be reserved for higher trims not that long ago. The seven-seat cabin is as accommodating as Everests have always been, and the ride quality is composed and comfortable, even on the kind of surfaces that make you wince in lesser SUVs.
Where it starts to show its entry-level status is in the details you only notice once you’re looking for them: cloth rather than leather, no powered tailgate, a smaller wheel size than the Sport and up. None of it feels like deprivation so much as sensible cost-cutting in places that don’t affect how the car actually lives with you day to day.
Fuel economy is claimed at 7.9 L/100 km for the 4×4, which, like most claimed figures, is worth treating as optimistic. Even allowing for real-world creep, this remains a frugal way to run a vehicle this size.
At R875 000 for the 4×4 (R825 000 if you’re happy with two driven wheels), the Active undercuts the rest of the Everest range by a wide margin while giving up little of what makes the nameplate worth choosing in the first place. It’s not the quickest, the plushest, or the most powerful Everest you can buy, but it might be the smartest one.
