<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Somehow it&amp;#039;s been seven years since the original Ford Edge was unveiled. It&amp;#039;s definitely time for an all-new product. Enter the 2015 Ford Edge. It&amp;#039;s moved off the original mongrel underpinnings and onto the CD platform that&amp;#039;s the base for the Fusion. On the merit of the amount of refinement and tech available alone, this is a huge jump. Design Chief Moray Callum probably put it best in his opening comments: &amp;quot;Think of this as Edge the runner rather than Edge the boxer.&amp;quot; It&amp;#039;s sleeker, and it wears the global Ford face more comfortably than the old gaping maw. The body sides are designed to break up the mass of metal and give it a lighter appearance. All well and good, but the biggest changes are under the sheetmetal. The new unibody is 26 percent stiffer than the outgoing model, with extensive use of high-strength and ultra-high-strength steel. Suspension upgrades abound: The front end goes from an SLA lower control arm to a multi-link lower with a refined upper MacPherson strut design. In the rear, going from a flexing swing arm design to a sophisticated multi-link layout and coil springs with twin-tube shocks as standard and monotube shocks available for the Sport model.  READ THIS: How powerful will the Ford Mustang EcoBoost really be? At the top of the engine range is the 2.7-liter EcoBoost, almost exactly the same engine coming to the 2015 F-150. From what we&amp;#039;ve seen on background that could mean up to 350 hp (!), but that seems excessive for the Edge. Performance figures will come out in early fall. In the middle of the pack is the tried and true 3.5 TI-VCT V6 engine. A few years ago it was quite an impressive piece of work, but engine development is moving so fast that it&amp;#039;s now in the realm of &amp;#039;just okay.&amp;#039; Euro buyers get the option of a turbodiesel, but\u2014shocker\u2014no such luck for the Americas. An all-new 2.0-liter four-cylinder EcoBoost engine replaces the existing 2.0 EcoBoost and will become the standard base engine for the Edge. Piston bore centers are the only carryover aspect; beyond that, it&amp;#039;s packing a new aluminum block, new aluminum head with an integrated exhaust manifold, variable cam timing, variable output oil pump, and optional start/stop. The turbo itself is a handsome design\u2014a twin-scroll turbocharger with a slick split intake plenum integrated into the impeller housing, which reduces exhaust pulse interference and increases exhaust pressures hitting the impeller. The result, engineers claim, is more power at lower RPM with reduced fuel consumption. All engines get mated to a hydraulic six-speed automatic with manual control now accomplished via paddle shifter rather than the silly shifter-mounted thumb rocker. All versions of the Edge can now be had with all-wheel drive\u2014the previous base engine just didn&amp;#039;t have the gumption for it. If you&amp;#039;ve kept track, you&amp;#039;ll note that the Edge now has two more advanced engines than the Fusion. We fully expect to see the new 2.0 EcoBoost migrate to the Fusion when production moves from Valencia to Cleveland in a year. A more interesting question is whether or not that 2.7 EcoBoost V6 would be called upon for the Fusion ST every auto journalist has been asking about since the car&amp;#039;s debut.  READ THIS: Undercover 2015 Ford F-150s worked in a mine for years The Edge can be had with every technology Ford offers. It would likely be easier to list the things the 2015 Edge can&amp;#039;t do: drive itself, make a cup of coffee, spritz the cabin with air freshener ... that&amp;#039;s about it. Cross traffic alert, lane keep assist, adaptive cruise, backup cameras, various phone connectivity options, Sync, MyFord Touch (still MS-powered for now), custom interior lighting colors, blind spot alerts \u2026 and so on. There are a couple of legitimately interesting new features, though. A trick front camera planted under the blue oval gives a 180-degree field of view that can be activated at speeds below 7 mph. This makes getting the car out of tight alleys and blind drives a heck of a lot easier. If you watch the Internets, you&amp;#039;ve probably seen the glovebox airbag that&amp;#039;s planned for the Mustang. Well, the Edge gets it, too. It blows out to cushion contact from knees in a forward collision. As for the longstanding Parking Assist feature, which is astonishingly good in spite of its status as a sign of the driving apocalypse, the 2015 Edge adds a perpendicular parking capability. Start the system and drive past an empty spot, and the car detects it using ultrasonic sensors, then guides the driver to use brakes and gas while it steers to back the crossover into the space. Dubiously useful, but with ever-larger rear three-quarter blind spots, it may ease anxiety for the normals.  The final piece of interesting tech is what Ford&amp;#039;s calling &amp;#039;Adaptive Steering.&amp;#039; This should not be confused with variable steering effort; this is something new. From the steering shaft down to the electric power assist rack and pinion, everything is conventional, but mounted between the steering shaft and the steering wheel is a collar with an electric motor-driven worm gear. As the electric motor rotates the worm gear and the collar on the shaft, it can advance or retard steering output angle by as much as 360 degrees. What does that mean in not-dorky-engineer-speak? If it takes three complete wheel turns to go lock-to-lock with the system off, that can be reduced to just two spins with Adaptive Steering engaged. It also goes the other way; retarding steering angle at high speed means less wandering within the lane and contributes to easier long-haul piloting. For those wondering, yes, there are failsafes built into the system, and a mechanical connection to the wheels is always maintained. We can imagine some wacky applications in sports cars that could prove entertaining. Elsewhere in the cabin, Ford has backed away from its gamble on capacitive touch controls. Turns out customers like positive feedback, who knew? (Everybody. \u2014Ed.) Now there are two vertical rows of momentary buttons flanking the center stereo controls. Unfortunately, they do look a bit tacked-on. All in all, the Edge is significantly refined without completely abandoning the original silhouette. Edge buyers are a surprisingly loyal bunch, and this comprehensive remodel will probably delight return buyers. We just want to know how much juice that 2.7&amp;#039;s going to make. SEE THIS: New Ford Focus ST will debut at Goodwood "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/news/a8188/2015-ford-edge/?src=rss&src=ai&mag=roa&dom=tab>