I have taken a few of them for a test drive and was pretty impressed with the ride. However, I did not think that the seats were comfortable at all, neither the cloth or the leather. The seat adjustment controls really suck, they are hard to reach at the bottom side of the seat which is very close to the door.
I just cannot fathom how idiotic "mistakes" like that get by the design teams. I mean, didn't anyone sit in a mock-up model and try out the controls? Totally baffling to me how something like this makes its way into production...????
And the seats not folding flat is totally unexplainable and inexcusable. Here Ford re-engineers the entire vehicle, with the IRS design allowing "room" so that they could add a "third row seat". And this is the major feature push on the new models - yet the idiots who designed this were not smart enough to make the seats fold flat. This is of course VERY inconvenient when trying to stack cargo or groceries, etc.
When I was looking to buy the '02s I tried to find some without the 3rd seat option, as the load floor was of course perfectly flat. Most dealers ordered them with the seats. One even told me that if I wanted to I could "take them out"!! Yeah, right!!
There is a lot I like about the new Explorers, but it's the stupid design flaws and quirks that changed my mind - I will be buying another SUV instead.
And I just read an article on the Ford site yesterday written by the head of the design team for the new '02s. She was bragging about how Ford "listened to their customers" when planning the '02s and even showed a list of items that were customer ideas used. She even mentioned that the Ford team monitored newsgroups to get a better feel for what the new models should be. Yeah, right again!
The bottom line it seems is that Ford did a wonderful job in the design, but then got lazy (and cheap) towards the end and just threw the rest of the vehicle together quickly. And that, unfortunately, really shows. A $38k LTD should not have the construction of a $10k import. Perhaps Ford will wake up and fix a few of the flaws, but I am sure it will take a few years. Or maybe it will even get worse. I hope for the better, as I loved the '97 Explorer I had for 4 years, it was flawless and a great vehicle.
