The boss

The boss

On the whole the 2.2 is not a beast, but feels adequate. I think there are two factors here that helped it to make a good impression with me - first the fact that the new Endeavour handles way way better than the last, and second that I drove it before I drove the 3.2 TDCi! Before I get to that second engine, a word on the handling and overall ride feel then. This car comes as close as you can get to a monocoque without being one! Roll is much lower than the predecessor's and the suspension swallows mostly anything. There is a fair amount of wheel travel and the 225mm ground clearance serves you well, especially when you put the car off the road. It does come through as a good off-roader, and yes I did test the 2WD version too - which also managed to get out of some sticky situations with aplomb. The 4WD is a la Land Rover, with a dial that allows you to switch the car's character to respond to varying surfaces. This Terrain Management System has Rock, Snow/Mud and Sand modes, and works easily. I confess I didn't come across any snow, but did try it out on loose gravel, sand and wet surfaces. There is a display on the dash that shows you pitch and roll, so you know what's happening with the car at all times, when not on the road. The Endeavour gets going, oblivious of its massive bulk, and I have to say this car is so much better engineered than the last. The last one was the Hulk. This one is more Marvel's Avengers - the agility of Captain America, the flexibility of Black Widow, the sharp metal of Iron Man and the grunt of the Hulk It is quite neat! The car's instrument cluster is also modern and feeds you plenty of info - using two TFT screens on either side of an analogue speedo. And then there is the fact that most of the fancy stuff is on the Trend variant too - including rear parking sensors, reverse camera and the power tailgate! The Titanium even has power-folding third row of seats - but even the manual seats are easy to fold and open. The 3rd row isn't the most spacious though, however there's loads of luggage space when you keep those seats folded. All variants have 3-row air-conditioning, while the tyre pressure monitoring, front parking sensors and the sunroof are only on the Titanium.I had expected Ford to be very very aggressive on pricing by severely undercutting the Fortuner. But by offering prices that start just under 24 lakh and top off at around 28 lakh Ford has left plenty of room for Toyota to comfortably price it's upcoming next gen Fortuner with ease. A real miss I would think. Class-leading ride comfort, good - no very good equipment, plenty of grunt and looks befitting the price tag. I think Ford has a very strong flagship for its SUV range. Now if only I could really call it that - so Ford can you please hurry things along and get us the compact SUV that can sit between the EcoSport and the Endeavour The fact that the Endeavour isn't trying to be pretty, but still looks good will also help that case. Unlike other SUVs who are all trying to be George Clooney in rugged jeans, the Endeavour is happy being Dwayne Johnson or perhaps a more flattering Channing Tatum. It is well appointed, with the leather and the gadgets, and yet gives you plenty of grunt and has the bulk to stand really tall in the crop of SUVs. I especially like the leather-stitched dash - very nice touch! It also has active noise cancellation - a system that uses microphones inside the cabin to detect the levels of noise coming from outside, and actually feeds opposing sound back into the cabin to cancel the excess sound.