Well... LOL... Last year I wrote that I was retiring my explorer. It never really happened because winter snow came early and the best move at that point was to just park it out of the way and wait for spring to send it to the junkyard. But we ran into a situation this fall, issues with both of our other vehicles, so I have pressed the Explorer back into service. Needed a new battery, registration, and a windshield wiper, but it is back on the road in all of it's heavily rusted glory.
It's a funny deal. I purchased a 2002 Chevy Avalanche to replace the Explorer. I would have gone with another Explorer, but I couldn't find one in my price/condition range anywhere close to home. But, in the first year, the Avalanche developed a list of issues that... well, it's really something how many things failed in a year of short daily drives. The most serious and difficult is a gas leak at the fuel pump, and the way Chevy does this, it's easier to drop the tank than cut a hatch to get to it. But, it's a big job and I figured I would just get the Explorer running again so I had something to drive to work and get parts. I'm actually working on all the Avalanche issues now. Meanwhile, we had a very odd situation with my wife's car and it is, at the moment, 5 hours away needing to be driven home. So, my wife has been driving the Explorer to work. She never drove it before this because she is short and figured she couldn't reach the pedals. But she has to get to work, so she jumped in and tried. And she absolutely loves the Explorer! It's really too bad it's so badly rusted. It's way beyond repair at this point.
Anyway, yeah... it lives!
