Ford Everest Wildtrak is back, which means someone in Broadmeadows has decided the family SUV needed a little more theatre around the nostrils.
The Wildtrak name returns to the Ford Everest range as a limited-run special edition for 2026, with about 1,000 units headed for Australia and production due to start in May. It sits above the Everest Sport and wears the familiar Wildtrak uniform: darker trim, orange detailing, a more self-important face, and just enough visual swagger to make the school drop-off feel like a low-speed border crossing.
This is not a new Everest generation, nor is it pretending to be. It is a dressed-up Everest with the right engine, full-time 4WD, a long equipment list. Ford’s usual fan boys will go a bit weak at the knees when the word Wildtrak appears on something large, diesel, and orange. Fair enough, Australians have bought stranger things for worse reasons.
Ford says the Everest Wildtrak is for buyers who want an adventurous road presence without losing capability or technology. That is spiv-speak for “it looks a bit tougher in the Bunnings car park”, but the bones are good. The Everest is already one of the better big family SUVs in this country, and fitting the Wildtrak treatment to it makes more sense than sticking yet another black badge on a soft little thing that has never seen a dirt road.
The look is doing most of the early shouting. Up front, there is a gloss black H-Bar bumper, a gloss black grille bar, and signature Ignite Orange nostrils. Ford’s word, not mine. Nostrils. Once a car company starts describing its front-end treatment like a horse at the Melbourne Cup, you know the marketing room had biscuits and too much confidence.
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ABOVE: The Ford Everest Wildtrak in the sand, on the trail, and inside the cabin.
The standard wheels are 20-inch alloys finished in black with Ignite Orange inserts, wrapped in all-season tyres. They look the part, and will suit the buyers who mainly want their Everest to glower handsomely outside a café. For anyone intending to go further than a gravel winery driveway, Ford offers a no-cost swap to 18-inch alloys with all-terrain tyres. That is the sensible choice, and therefore probably the one most people will ignore until the first time they hear a 20-inch wheel meet a rock.
Inside, the Wildtrak cabin keeps the orange theme going with contrast stitching and WILDTRAK lettering on the leather-accented seats. There is a panoramic roof with a power blind, ambient lighting, Matrix LED headlamps with auto-levelling and dynamic bending, and a power-folding third row for those moments when family life turns into a furniture removal problem.
The third row will be important to some, because Everest buyers are not all flannel-shirted adventure influencers pretending to cook sausages beside a lake. They are parents, towers, travellers, and people who carry children, dogs, sports gear, camping gear, and the occasional regrettable flat-pack purchase. Ford knows this. The Everest Wildtrak is being sold as adventure wear, but the useful stuff is what will get it over the line.
Power comes from Ford’s 3.0-litre V6 turbo-diesel, matched to full-time 4WD. That is the correct engine for this kind of thing. The smaller diesel will do the job, but the V6 gives the Everest the relaxed shove big SUVs need when loaded up, towing, or climbing through sand while everyone inside pretends not to be concerned.
Ford has not tried to turn this into a pretend sports SUV, thank goodness. It remains a large diesel 4WD with a ladder-frame attitude and family-friendly manners. That is its charm. The Everest Wildtrak does not need to be quick in the way a hot hatch is quick. It needs to feel unbothered, even when the boot is full, the kids are feral, and someone has packed enough recovery gear to invade a small principality.
The price is $79,990 before on-road costs, which positions it just above the Sport. Prestige paint adds $750, while the Premium Towing Pack is $2,500. The 18-inch all-terrain wheel option is no cost, which makes it the rare factory option that is both sensible and not another little invoice-shaped slap.
There is a catch, naturally. Only about 1,000 are coming. Limited editions are the car industry’s favourite way of making people hurry, and Ford is no stranger to the trick. Still, if you were already looking at an Everest Sport and wanted the V6, a bit more theatre, and some orange garnish, the Wildtrak will make a tidy amount of sense.
It is also very Ford Australia. Slightly blokey, slightly polished, slightly theatrical, and just self-aware enough to work. The orange nostrils are silly. The wheel inserts are silly. The name has been stretched from Ranger onto Everest because buyers like it and Ford knows exactly where the money lives.
I cannot be cross about that. The Everest Wildtrak looks good, has the right engine, gets the useful cabin kit, and does not pretend to be anything daintier than a big family 4WD in a party shirt. If the 18-inch tyres are ticked and the towing pack is fitted, this could be a rather appealing bit of suburban escapism.
Ford has made the Everest Wildtrak limited, orange, and just a little bit up itself. In other words, it should sell perfectly well.
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Alan Zurvas is the founder and editor of Gay Car Boys, Australia's leading LGBTQI+ automotive publication. Before launching GCB in 2008, Alan's automotive writing was published in SameSame.com.au and the Star Observer. With over 16 years of hands-on car reviewing experience, Alan brings an honest, irreverent voice to every review — championing value and innovation over brand loyalty.
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