PLEDGE OF THE EDGE; Will this new crossover drive Ford to profitability or just to greater market diversity?(Ford Motor Co.)

Byline: Mark Vaughn

Here's a punishing thought: It is entirely possible that Ford chose the name Edge just to make headline writers freak out. So many choices, what to do? "Ford Edges Into the Future,'' "Ford Reaches the Edge,'' "Ford Edges Out the Competition,'' "Going Over the Edge,'' or, for the pessimistic, "The Edge of Night.''

Wordplay aside, we can begin the obligatory second paragraph where we talk about the definition of this new crossover segment. Anybody not heard that one yet? Show of hands? Okay, one guy in America hasn't heard. Everyone else, skip ahead. Sir, you continue reading.

Crossovers ride on car-based underpinnings with SUV/minivan-looking bodies, thus satisfying the utilitarian need for a minivan without getting the minivan's massive social stigma. At the same time, crossovers offer a cursory suggestion of off-road ability, thus increasing their utility. Granted, a crossover's off-road worthiness is limited to nicely graded flat dirt with less than a half-inch of snow, but still. And crossovers usually come with an all-wheel-drive option, usually in the form of a viscous center differential that doesn't do anything at all 99.99 percent of the time-until the one day a year when it snows and the diff locks up so that your rear wheels help drive the car.

Are you still with us, sir? You other guys, skip ahead another graph while we go into crossover sales: Crossovers will pass traditional SUVs in sales sometime this year.

Okay, now those who skipped ahead, pick it up here. The Edge is Ford's latest twist on the new CD3 platform, which is common to everything from the Mazda 6 and Lincoln MKZ to the Mazda CX-7 and CX-9. The Edge is closest to the CX-9, sharing almost everything except the body panels, interior trim and suspension tuning.

If you'll recall, we liked driving the CX-9 ("Sea of C-SUVs,'' Oct. 2). Ford went for more comfort in the Edge's ride ...