Capable off road vehicle is such a broad term, but to be honest in the 3 times I have been down Imogene pass, and seen the street vehicles which have been driven up the back side of the hill, I have to say the new explorer may indeed be a capable "off road" vehicle, while some people might say my explorer isn't yet capable.
Has any factory explorer been rated for the Rubicon? No, but Jeeps are.
Not as many people buy a new vehicle with the intent of tearing it up off roading. Those people buy new Jeeps. And guess what. I bet they sell a lot more Explorers than jeeps.
I will even go out further on a limb and say the explorer never really did very well as an off roader from the factory. I have been here long enough to see them either sold or heavily modified, but rarely wheeled as is. The explorer never came with a factory locker. IMO a true off road vehicle will have a locker and winch as options. What? The explorer never did? OMG they let us down from the very beginning.!!!!!
Also, I will go on to say this-
If any one of you could change the design of your product to sell twice as many, you would do it, while proudly keeping the name that got you where you were.
Even if you took away some features with the goal of satisfying more people, you would be going down the correct path IMO. How can anyone not agree to a good business decision?
Everyone complains about what may be missing, at the same time forgetting the hundreds of improvements throughout the vehicle. Bottom line, is it is a much more stable vehicle on the highway ( where it counts) is more fuel efficient ( fleet averages have to go up) and has many more creature comforts. Face it, if vehicle models do not get more efficient, they will be dropped.
So, yeah "capable off roader" means "not looking good for very long" to me. I doubt anyone buys a 40k car for that. None of you guys will. Nobody here is going to wheel any 40k new vehicle. ever.
And yet they are going to sell over 75k units this year I bet. Who wants to wager?
