And now for Something Positive:

[Coffey454]

Despite my obvious and well voiced concern regarding lacking service parts which left our Explorer down for a week, now that it is fixed we are VERY happy to have it back.
During it's down time we did look into getting rid of it... Ford's lack of service support was upsetting; we tend to keep vehicles for a long time (7-10 years) and this is important.
End result of our shopping was: that we would still get the exact same vehicle that we have, nothing else has the same combination of good looks, size, features, fuel economy, etc. This issue reinforced that we (particularly my wife) really do love this vehicle!!
We went for a fully random 200km drive last night after it was fixed. It has a few minor quirks, but overall - it's a damn good package. The best overall 7 seater option available.
Second would be an X90 Volvo (which we looked at extensively and I have experience with in the past) with all the right options. But, fuel economy is worse and it's smaller and (subjectively) not as good looking.
Fingers crossed we have many miles of trouble-free motoring now!

 

[REM2]

I agree. We just turned 10k miles on our sport and are still in love with it. It really does have a lot of good features like you indicated but the twin turbo is one of the best. The power, suspension, and overall feel of driving is great.

 

[FordServiceCA]

Despite my obvious and well voiced concern regarding lacking service parts which left our Explorer down for a week, now that it is fixed we are VERY happy to have it back.
During it's down time we did look into getting rid of it... Ford's lack of service support was upsetting; we tend to keep vehicles for a long time (7-10 years) and this is important.
End result of our shopping was: that we would still get the exact same vehicle that we have, nothing else has the same combination of good looks, size, features, fuel economy, etc. This issue reinforced that we (particularly my wife) really do love this vehicle!!
We went for a fully random 200km drive last night after it was fixed. It has a few minor quirks, but overall - it's a damn good package. The best overall 7 seater option available.
Second would be an X90 Volvo (which we looked at extensively and I have experience with in the past) with all the right options. But, fuel economy is worse and it's smaller and (subjectively) not as good looking.
Fingers crossed we have many miles of trouble-free motoring now!

Hi Coffey454,

I'm happy to hear that you're back on the road! The Explorer is a pretty sweet ride; I wouldn't trade it for a Volvo, either.

If I can be of assistance in the future, you know where to find me.

Bianca