- Joined
- February 7, 1999
- Messages
- 2,373
- Reaction score
- 11
- City, State
- Sherwood Park, Alberta eh?
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 1992 XLT
Way back in January I posted my thoughts on the new 2002 Explorer that I saw at the Calgary Auto Show. Basically I didn't like the fit and finish of the interior and I didn't really care for the exterior styling. Well today I took one for a test drive.
The one that I drove was an Explorer Limited with the 4.6L V8.
First off let me say that this new body style looks better in pictures than in person. I do not care for the look of the wheels or the grille/hood/front bumper. It looks cheap. A $45,000+ vehicle should not look cheap. The ground clearance may be higher on paper but in reality the body is much lower to the ground. The little beepy radar thing on the back bumper is cool and works very well. The way that the rear hatch and glass open is kinda cool. I really like the lower liftover height through the glass. The style of the V8 emblem is very cool looking and I like the fact that it is similar in look to the V8 emblems of old.
The interior looks a little more polished than the prototype that was at the car show but it still has that cheap early '80's Volkswagen look about it. The controls are cluttered and hard to reach. The seats are terrible in every way. I much prefer my seats to these new flat pancake seats for comfort and adjustability. Why a vehicle that costs as much as these do has manually adjusted seats is beyond my comprehension. There are a few nice touches in the interior but they are mostly neat little storage areas and cubby holes. The roof line is definately lower in these new Explorers and in the sunroof equipped model that I drove my head touched the roof.
Now onto the good stuff. The drivetrain. The 4.6L looks like it fits well under the hood. It is tight but doesn't looked crammed in there. At idle the engine is very quiet. At low rpm it isn't much louder. At WOT the engine makes those sweet sounds that only a V8 can. It pulls nicely to it's 5500 rpm shift point, which brings me to the transmission. Un-badword-believable. I have never felt such a smooth shift on anything I have ever driven. A full throttle upshift can be heard and and seen but not felt. The engine revs to 5500 rpm and you hear it's pitch change while watching the tach drop but I could not feel it shift!!! When I made it kick down it was smooth too. Only thing is that it doesn't kick down far enough or fast enough for my tastes. It will only kick down one gear when it needs to go down two. Also I'm not sold on a completely sealed and unserviceable transmission. Especially in a 4wd vehicle and with Ford's past history with Explorer transmissions. A nice feature is that the transfer case actually has Control Trac instead of AWD. It is nice to see the ability to have low range behind the V8.
The ride is pretty smooth on regular roads. Not quite as smooth as I would expect from four wheel independant suspension though. Over trains tracks at high speed it is stable. I also drove around a construction site for a couple of minutes. Over irregular surfaces the suspension did an ok job but how it would do on a high speed washboard road remains to be seen. Off road I am not very confident in it's abilities at all. It just doesn't feel capable of much. It's too bad that they went to IRS because the new Explorer is not any smoother than the Expedition which has a coil spring solid axle rear. I think that Ford could have realized the same improvements in ride and kept their development cost much lower by using a similar setup on the Exlporer as is already on the Expedition.
My conclusion? The new Explorer is a real mixed bag. On one hand the improvements to the drivetrain are welcomed and very well refined but on the other hand the interior and exterior stylng leave you thinking that it is a monkey in a three piece suit. I think Ford missed the boat in the styling department. If it was my money I wouldn't buy a 2002 Explorer, not in a million years. I'd drive one if somebody gave me one but that's about it. It's one of those things where something feels wrong about it but I just can't put my finger on it.
Again as I said in January, I'll keep my '92 thank you very much.
The one that I drove was an Explorer Limited with the 4.6L V8.
First off let me say that this new body style looks better in pictures than in person. I do not care for the look of the wheels or the grille/hood/front bumper. It looks cheap. A $45,000+ vehicle should not look cheap. The ground clearance may be higher on paper but in reality the body is much lower to the ground. The little beepy radar thing on the back bumper is cool and works very well. The way that the rear hatch and glass open is kinda cool. I really like the lower liftover height through the glass. The style of the V8 emblem is very cool looking and I like the fact that it is similar in look to the V8 emblems of old.
The interior looks a little more polished than the prototype that was at the car show but it still has that cheap early '80's Volkswagen look about it. The controls are cluttered and hard to reach. The seats are terrible in every way. I much prefer my seats to these new flat pancake seats for comfort and adjustability. Why a vehicle that costs as much as these do has manually adjusted seats is beyond my comprehension. There are a few nice touches in the interior but they are mostly neat little storage areas and cubby holes. The roof line is definately lower in these new Explorers and in the sunroof equipped model that I drove my head touched the roof.
Now onto the good stuff. The drivetrain. The 4.6L looks like it fits well under the hood. It is tight but doesn't looked crammed in there. At idle the engine is very quiet. At low rpm it isn't much louder. At WOT the engine makes those sweet sounds that only a V8 can. It pulls nicely to it's 5500 rpm shift point, which brings me to the transmission. Un-badword-believable. I have never felt such a smooth shift on anything I have ever driven. A full throttle upshift can be heard and and seen but not felt. The engine revs to 5500 rpm and you hear it's pitch change while watching the tach drop but I could not feel it shift!!! When I made it kick down it was smooth too. Only thing is that it doesn't kick down far enough or fast enough for my tastes. It will only kick down one gear when it needs to go down two. Also I'm not sold on a completely sealed and unserviceable transmission. Especially in a 4wd vehicle and with Ford's past history with Explorer transmissions. A nice feature is that the transfer case actually has Control Trac instead of AWD. It is nice to see the ability to have low range behind the V8.
The ride is pretty smooth on regular roads. Not quite as smooth as I would expect from four wheel independant suspension though. Over trains tracks at high speed it is stable. I also drove around a construction site for a couple of minutes. Over irregular surfaces the suspension did an ok job but how it would do on a high speed washboard road remains to be seen. Off road I am not very confident in it's abilities at all. It just doesn't feel capable of much. It's too bad that they went to IRS because the new Explorer is not any smoother than the Expedition which has a coil spring solid axle rear. I think that Ford could have realized the same improvements in ride and kept their development cost much lower by using a similar setup on the Exlporer as is already on the Expedition.
My conclusion? The new Explorer is a real mixed bag. On one hand the improvements to the drivetrain are welcomed and very well refined but on the other hand the interior and exterior stylng leave you thinking that it is a monkey in a three piece suit. I think Ford missed the boat in the styling department. If it was my money I wouldn't buy a 2002 Explorer, not in a million years. I'd drive one if somebody gave me one but that's about it. It's one of those things where something feels wrong about it but I just can't put my finger on it.
Again as I said in January, I'll keep my '92 thank you very much.
