FORD 2012 LIMITED ECOBOOST REVIEW
I've leased a fully loaded 2012 Limited Ecoboost for about two months and put about 1800 miles on it. I live in West LA, which has some of the worst city traffic in the US. In terms of mileage it just torture. There are hills everywhere (I live on a pretty steep one) and you never make it more than one green light before having to wait at the next one. Here is my review of my experience so far, with a focus on the Ecoboost engine.
CITY MILEAGE OVERVIEW
Despite the terrible conditions I still get about 15-16 in the city, which is higher than I was expecting (for comparison my Camry Hybrid got about 22-23MPG doing the same sort of driving). When I've driven late at night with low traffic and have actually hit two green lights in a row I have gotten around 20MPG in the city, so I know it is possible, but you will likely get less if you find yourself stopping often. Still, I am amazed that just a few years ago
a vehicle this heavy would be lucky to get this kind of mileage going in a straight line at 55mph.
DRIVING THE ECOBOOST AROUND TOWN
I'm not going to lie and say that the Ecoboost is tremendously fun to drive at low speeds around the city, but it isn't a problem either. I guess I would describe the whole thing as a bit hesitant when it comes to moving forward. I have absolutely no problems with power or merging onto the freeway, even with my wife and two kids with luggage, but going from 15 to 25MPH when I want to pass someone definitely isn't as smooth as I'm used to. Power isn't a problem in the city though and I'm going 60 by the time the freeway on-ramp is done without any complaints from the engine.
This kind of looks like a negative review of city driving, but my wife and I have both commented at times how much more we enjoy driving our Explorer, even in the city, than we did our absolutely numb Camry Hybrid. That car isn't the benchmark for fun driving, but it isn't the worst and should give you some idea of where we are coming from. The ecoboost is by no means at the bottom of the pack when it comes to driving around town.
FREEWAY OVERVIEW
As you can see I don't put that many miles on the explorer (around 900 a month). Most of the mileage from our cars typically come from road trips, which I'm expecting to rack up on the Explorer this holiday season. It is an 800 mile trip (one way) to see my siblings or my wife's family (who of course live in different states from each other in opposite directions. The few 100 mile trips I've taken with the family in this baby have been superb, so I'm expecting things to go well. The drive on the freeway is smooth and quiet, I have no problems passing, and even with a full car we get around 26-27MPG pretty consistently. The EPA was not stretching on the freeway mileage because I can get a steady 28 by setting cruise control at 65 without any problems (of course I drive a bit faster than that).
I do a 100 mile drive from LA to Bakersfield occasionally and there are some steep grades in between here and there (we live around sea level and it climbs to around 4400 feet at Tejon Pass). I don't feel like there is a whole lot of *extra* power on tap when climbing, but just for kicks I've tried accelerating while going up some of the steeper grades and even with a car with two adults and two children the transmission just downshifts and the Explorer picks up speed without any complaints. Again, it is clear I'm not in a BMW M5, but I've concluded after the last two months of driving that the engineers at Ford knew what they were doing. Sure I wish I was driving a V6 Ecoboost (what man wouldn't), but this thing has plenty of power (not extra, but plenty).
EXTRAS
One of the reason we chose a new Explorer over other models was the extra features. Getting a limited and adding the more expensive option package quickly increase the price of the vehicle from the reasonable base model, but we've really considered most of them indispensable. The Xenon lights and auto wipers are fun, but probably not that important. I could even do without the moon roof, although it is a nice one. Some things I have really, really enjoyed, even in my short two months:
Auto Cruise Control
This is one of those things you can't believe you have lived without once you get it. It just works. Even if the car in front of you slams on their brakes the Explorer will slam on its brakes without any input from you. It will go all the way down to 15 MPH before turning off. Driving on the 405 without this feature makes cruise control pointless, given the constant sudden slowdowns.
Heads Up Display Distance Warning
On this same note, the heads display alarm that goes off when the car thinks you need to brake is also great. I've had it activate twice on me and both times I was grateful for the warning and braking assistance. No human can be focused at 100% all of the time and the alarm is just another nice little boost to my sense of safety.
BLIS
More and more cars are getting this feature (you can get it on the 2012 Camry for example) and I really, really love it. Especially in a big car like the Explorer, the blind spot indicator is another thing that just works. I look over my shoulder when changing lanes and those little lights have definitely kept me from changing lanes when someone was in my blind spot. This feature should be in every car in America.
Seats
Apart from the niceties of sitting on air conditioned or heated perforated leather, these are the most comfortable car seats I have ever sat my tush on. They are the perfect blend of soft and supportive. My wife has back problems and the first thing she noticed about the Explorer when we test drove it (and it remains true to this day) is how truly awesome the seats are. As far as I'm concerned they need to give everyone who helped design those seats a bonus and then fire them, because further tweaking would only diminish their awesomeness. This is not in your face comfortable that feels good at first but starts to hurt after a while. This is just plain comfortable.
CONCLUSION
All in all we've really been happy with our Explorer. I haven't talked about the auto fold seats or any number of things everyone on these forums already knows about. I've had two MFT resets while driving, both of which sorted themselves out in about 2 minutes, but that's about it. If MFT is twice as fast after the next update like they claim it will be that will address my main problem with it. Everything else has worked flawlessly. Considering how complicated vehicles are these days and how many things can go wrong that's saying a lot.
Would I lease it again over some other, very tempting options? I would. Would I get the ecoboost again? Really the difference in power and mileage between the V6 and Ecoboost isn't really that tremendous, but I probably would. It means we can go that much farther in the too small tank than we could in the V6 and in the end, that was the final push into this model for both me and my wife. If they had exactly what we wanted (color and options) in a V6 but not the Ecoboost we would likely have gone that route, but we aren't disappointed with our choice (we don't plan on towing anything so that wasn't a consideration).
In case you hate reading and skipped to the end of this review, here is a short list of a few things we really enjoy about our Explorer and some things Ford could improve:
Cons:
Pros:
I've leased a fully loaded 2012 Limited Ecoboost for about two months and put about 1800 miles on it. I live in West LA, which has some of the worst city traffic in the US. In terms of mileage it just torture. There are hills everywhere (I live on a pretty steep one) and you never make it more than one green light before having to wait at the next one. Here is my review of my experience so far, with a focus on the Ecoboost engine.
CITY MILEAGE OVERVIEW
Despite the terrible conditions I still get about 15-16 in the city, which is higher than I was expecting (for comparison my Camry Hybrid got about 22-23MPG doing the same sort of driving). When I've driven late at night with low traffic and have actually hit two green lights in a row I have gotten around 20MPG in the city, so I know it is possible, but you will likely get less if you find yourself stopping often. Still, I am amazed that just a few years ago
a vehicle this heavy would be lucky to get this kind of mileage going in a straight line at 55mph.
DRIVING THE ECOBOOST AROUND TOWN
I'm not going to lie and say that the Ecoboost is tremendously fun to drive at low speeds around the city, but it isn't a problem either. I guess I would describe the whole thing as a bit hesitant when it comes to moving forward. I have absolutely no problems with power or merging onto the freeway, even with my wife and two kids with luggage, but going from 15 to 25MPH when I want to pass someone definitely isn't as smooth as I'm used to. Power isn't a problem in the city though and I'm going 60 by the time the freeway on-ramp is done without any complaints from the engine.
This kind of looks like a negative review of city driving, but my wife and I have both commented at times how much more we enjoy driving our Explorer, even in the city, than we did our absolutely numb Camry Hybrid. That car isn't the benchmark for fun driving, but it isn't the worst and should give you some idea of where we are coming from. The ecoboost is by no means at the bottom of the pack when it comes to driving around town.
FREEWAY OVERVIEW
As you can see I don't put that many miles on the explorer (around 900 a month). Most of the mileage from our cars typically come from road trips, which I'm expecting to rack up on the Explorer this holiday season. It is an 800 mile trip (one way) to see my siblings or my wife's family (who of course live in different states from each other in opposite directions. The few 100 mile trips I've taken with the family in this baby have been superb, so I'm expecting things to go well. The drive on the freeway is smooth and quiet, I have no problems passing, and even with a full car we get around 26-27MPG pretty consistently. The EPA was not stretching on the freeway mileage because I can get a steady 28 by setting cruise control at 65 without any problems (of course I drive a bit faster than that).
I do a 100 mile drive from LA to Bakersfield occasionally and there are some steep grades in between here and there (we live around sea level and it climbs to around 4400 feet at Tejon Pass). I don't feel like there is a whole lot of *extra* power on tap when climbing, but just for kicks I've tried accelerating while going up some of the steeper grades and even with a car with two adults and two children the transmission just downshifts and the Explorer picks up speed without any complaints. Again, it is clear I'm not in a BMW M5, but I've concluded after the last two months of driving that the engineers at Ford knew what they were doing. Sure I wish I was driving a V6 Ecoboost (what man wouldn't), but this thing has plenty of power (not extra, but plenty).
EXTRAS
One of the reason we chose a new Explorer over other models was the extra features. Getting a limited and adding the more expensive option package quickly increase the price of the vehicle from the reasonable base model, but we've really considered most of them indispensable. The Xenon lights and auto wipers are fun, but probably not that important. I could even do without the moon roof, although it is a nice one. Some things I have really, really enjoyed, even in my short two months:
Auto Cruise Control
This is one of those things you can't believe you have lived without once you get it. It just works. Even if the car in front of you slams on their brakes the Explorer will slam on its brakes without any input from you. It will go all the way down to 15 MPH before turning off. Driving on the 405 without this feature makes cruise control pointless, given the constant sudden slowdowns.
Heads Up Display Distance Warning
On this same note, the heads display alarm that goes off when the car thinks you need to brake is also great. I've had it activate twice on me and both times I was grateful for the warning and braking assistance. No human can be focused at 100% all of the time and the alarm is just another nice little boost to my sense of safety.
BLIS
More and more cars are getting this feature (you can get it on the 2012 Camry for example) and I really, really love it. Especially in a big car like the Explorer, the blind spot indicator is another thing that just works. I look over my shoulder when changing lanes and those little lights have definitely kept me from changing lanes when someone was in my blind spot. This feature should be in every car in America.
Seats
Apart from the niceties of sitting on air conditioned or heated perforated leather, these are the most comfortable car seats I have ever sat my tush on. They are the perfect blend of soft and supportive. My wife has back problems and the first thing she noticed about the Explorer when we test drove it (and it remains true to this day) is how truly awesome the seats are. As far as I'm concerned they need to give everyone who helped design those seats a bonus and then fire them, because further tweaking would only diminish their awesomeness. This is not in your face comfortable that feels good at first but starts to hurt after a while. This is just plain comfortable.
CONCLUSION
All in all we've really been happy with our Explorer. I haven't talked about the auto fold seats or any number of things everyone on these forums already knows about. I've had two MFT resets while driving, both of which sorted themselves out in about 2 minutes, but that's about it. If MFT is twice as fast after the next update like they claim it will be that will address my main problem with it. Everything else has worked flawlessly. Considering how complicated vehicles are these days and how many things can go wrong that's saying a lot.
Would I lease it again over some other, very tempting options? I would. Would I get the ecoboost again? Really the difference in power and mileage between the V6 and Ecoboost isn't really that tremendous, but I probably would. It means we can go that much farther in the too small tank than we could in the V6 and in the end, that was the final push into this model for both me and my wife. If they had exactly what we wanted (color and options) in a V6 but not the Ecoboost we would likely have gone that route, but we aren't disappointed with our choice (we don't plan on towing anything so that wasn't a consideration).
In case you hate reading and skipped to the end of this review, here is a short list of a few things we really enjoy about our Explorer and some things Ford could improve:
Cons:
- Driver footwell is too small
- MFT needs to be much faster and responsive (hopefully the next update speeds things up like they claim it will)
- Gas tank needs to be larger (In my opinion, 17 gallons is not enough for a vehicle that gets less than 30 freeway)
- They need to fix the sound problems with the microphone at freeway speeds. Voice commands are useless past around 40MPH for us. I'm generally not using voice commands on the freeway, but this problem is ridiculous.
Pros:
- Safety features work great - BLIS, Auto Cruise Control, Brake Assist
- THE SEATS
- Quiet on the freeway
- Smooth and polished ride
- Freeway mileage