IT'S PEAKED

AFTER THREE MONTHS, OUR COTY WINNER IS LEFT STANDING TALL

- ANDY ENRIGHT

Price as tested $69,090

This month 2610km @ 9.7L/100km

Overall 10,147km @ 9.6L/100km

AS I WRITE THIS, a genial chap called Chris is pulling out of the Wheels Media car park in 'my' Everest Sport. It's on its way back to Ford having covered just over 10,00kms in a little over three months here. If you judge a long termer by its popularity, then the Everest Sport V6 might have been the most in-demand vehicle we've had through the garage in ages.

Everybody had a use for it, whether that was towing a race car, family days out, a trip to IKEA or an off-road jaunt that they'd long had their eye on. I was pestered for the keys way more often than when McLaren saw fit to let us run a supercar with billionaire doors.

Whenever it was returned, it drew praise. "I can't believe you get all of that for less than $70 grand," reckoned Ben, our tech guru. "We towed the MX-5 all the way to Heathcote and by the time we were out of Melbourne, we'd forgotten we had a trailer on the back," said Telf from Street Machine.