A college classmate, a husky guy, used to say that while he might not be the fastest man downcourt in basketball, he was a tough opponent because he had “upper body quickness.” Which I guess meant he was good at stealing the ball, but whatever it meant, it’s always stuck — this idea of someone big believing he was nimble. Such is the 2019 Ford Edge ST.
The Edge ST is Ford Performance’s first attempt at tuning up a crossover, with the 2020 Explorer ST soon to join it. And with Americans deprived of the Focus ST and soon the Fiesta ST, we imagine/hope the new Ford Escape will eventually get the ST treatment, too. When you send away all your cars, you just have to tune whatever’s left.
The Edge ST gets Ford’s excellent 2.7-liter Ecoboost twin-turbo V6, with a 20-horse boost to 335 horsepower and torque up 30 pound-feet to 380. It’s the only way to get this powerful V6 in the Edge, as lesser Edges make do with a 2.0-liter turbocharged four.
And the Edge ST gives you what no other Ford Performance vehicle can, at least until you can buy the new Explorer: 39.2 cubic feet of cargo room behind the second row, and 74.4 cubes with those seats down.
Over a week, the Edge ST registered 18 mpg in all-around driving, a bit under its EPA rating of 19 city, 26 highway, 21 combined. With an 18.5-gallon tank, you’ll need to fuel up every 330 miles or so — it seemed to happen fast. The Edge ST takes regular gas.
An Edge ST starts at $43,450 including a $1,095 destination fee, and as tested was $52,325, though Ford’s configurator showed a lease incentive that would knock $2,750 off that. That’s less than the performance SUV offerings from Germany. And it’s less than hot domestic SUVs such as the Grand Cherokee SRT or Durango SRT, though it’s also less powerful, lighter and smaller than those.
If performance is the only thing you’re after, there are lots of more traditional choices. For that money, buy a couple Focus STs or Fiesta STs before they’re all gone. But if you think you need the roomy SUV/crossover form factor, the Edge ST combines practicality with power enough to get out of its own way, and it might even inject your suburban hauling with a bit of fun.