OK, now I'm going to hear it. I stopped at the Ford dealer in town here to ask a couple questions about my truck, as I was driving thru the lot I noticed a 2002 Explorer sitting next to the building. So being curious I stopped to look at it. Now comes the funny part, they look really good, much much better than the pictures I've seen. I even parked my Explorer next to the new one. They look very similar. Which to me is a good thing, I've always like the look of the original better than the 95-01 models. I even crawled undernieth it to see this fancy IRS. Well it deffinately is different. But to Fords credit it looks well built, the rear arms look very solid, very strong.
Overall I was impressed with it. Still don't like independent suspensions, but at least this one uses real arms, not those flimsy links, like some other Sport-Utes with IRS. Anyway I wish to retract my statements from above, the new Explorers are very good looking, and if I was in the market for another Sport-Ute I would add the 2002 Explorer to my list to look closer at.