Whenever I pick up my boyfriend in a new test vehicle, the first words out of his mouth are: “So, how do you like it?”

Behind the wheel of the 2009 Ford Edge Sport, I shrugged and said: “I like it.”

He looked at me with brows raised, the unspoken “and” hanging in the air.

"And, I like it."

I mean, there isn’t a lot of snazz and pizzazz with the Edge, but it’s a solid vehicle with attractive styling and decent acceleration. It’s comfortable. There’s excellent visibility out all windows. You’ve got 69 cubic-feet of storage with the rear seats down.

I like it.

It’s also a little bit clunky in terms of ride and handling and a little plain on the inside, but that really wasn’t enough to turn me off completely. So maybe it didn’t sing for me, but I like it.

The test vehicle was a Sport model with all-wheel drive, and the base price was $36,375. I have to admit that was a bit startling to see in a small American crossover. I was even more surprised when I looked at the bottom line; the price was more than $40,000. The justification: This is Ford’s top-of-the-line trim level. The SE ($26,635), SEL ($29,545) and Limited ($32,300) all have more reasonable starting points.

At a standard starting point, the Edge Sport comes equipped with a 3.5-liter V-6 engine, dual exhaust tips, steering wheel audio controls, Sync, leather-trimmed seats, reverse sensing system and ambient lighting. The test vehicle then added luxury features such as the sport premium package ($1,995), panoramic vista roof ($1,595), navigation ($1,995), 22-inch wheels ($1,000) and the Audiophile system ($385). So the as-tested price was $43,350.

Personally, I think that’s a little high for what this car is. Don’t get me wrong; as I said before, I liked the Edge test vehicle. It’s attractive and comfortable, but the interior design is kind of blah and the engine noise was a little whiny for this price point.

I don’t mean to dismiss the entire interior with one blah, but there’s just nothing special going on here. The seats are comfortable but not lush and luxurious. Things are intuitively placed and clean on the center stack, but it’s simple to the point of boring.

The best thing about the interior of the Edge test vehicle was the standard Sync system. The more I use this feature, the more I like it. It’s amazing how easy it is to use. Combine it with the optional navigation (well worth the $2,000), and you have a clear winner.

In fact, I’d go so far as to say that Sync with the optional navigation would steer me toward a Ford product if I had it narrowed down to a couple vehicles from other manufacturers. In addition to being able to get weather reports and sports scores, the subscription that comes with Travel Link gives you real-time traffic and automatically shows you where the nearest gas station is when your low-fuel light pops on. Awesome.

The exterior design bears a strong resemblance to the entire Ford family with the strong masculine styling and the bold horizontal chrome grille. The taillights and clean edges help set it apart.

My favorite exterior feature on the test vehicle was the optional power lift gate included in the sport premium package. This made opening the rear hatch easy when my hands were full.

The 3.5-liter V-6 engine delivers 265 horsepower, which is perfectly fine for this smallish crossover. This happens to be the only engine in the Edge lineup, so the Sport designation definitely doesn’t come from extra engine power.

Well, until you look at the fuel economy. I would have expected mileage in the mid-20s for the highway. But the city/highway mileage for the all-wheel-drive model is 15/22. I averaged 18.4 mpg during my test period. If you get the front-wheel-drive Edge, the vehicle does end up in a more acceptable range of 17/24 mpg.

So here we have another solid offering from Ford. But I’d probably stick closer to the base SE level and make sure that I added the optional navigation system. The rest of the extras seemed a little over the top for a vehicle like the Edge and pushed the final price to an uncomfortably high number.

FORD EDGE

ENGINE: 265-horsepower 3.5-liter V-6

TRANSMISSION: six-speed automatic

DRIVETRAIN: all-wheel drive

FUEL ECONOMY: 15 city/22 highway

BASE PRICE: $36,375

AS TESTED: $43,350

WEB SITE: www.fordvehicles.com