Owners of Ford Rangers and Everests built before August 20, 2022, will need to have their car’s software updated to meet the criteria for a five-star ANCAP safety rating.
Both the new Ranger and Everest earned a five-star rating in ANCAP safety testing, driven in part by the strong performance of their active driver assists.
Those ratings only apply if the car’s software features an update automatically applied to all cars built after August 20, however.
Vehicles built before then will need to have the update at a dealer – which Ford says will be done, free of charge, at an owner’s first service. Although the Ranger and Everest are capable of receiving over-the-air updates, Ford says they’re not yet available in Australia.
The Blue Oval has confirmed approximately 15,500 examples of the Ranger and 800 examples of the Everest will require the update.
ANCAP requires lane-keeping assist automatically turns on whenever the car is started. It also stipulates it “should not be possible with a momentary single push on a button” to turn lane-keep off.
Ford has confirmed Everest and Ranger models built before August 20 do not meet these criteria. Instead, lane-keep will remain off until switched back on by the driver, regardless of whether the car is restarted.
The Ranger scored 3.5 of a possible 4.0 points for its lane-support system in ANCAP testing, while the Everest scored a perfect 4.0.
Ford isn’t the first carmaker to earn a five-star rating that carries the caveat of having to update some vehicles that have already been sold.
The GWM Ute has a five-star ANCAP rating, but vehicles built between September 2020 and July 2021 required changes to their front head restraint and steering column components to match the specification of later, five-star cars.
MORE: Everything Ford Everest
MORE: Everything Ford Ranger
