Okay, for what it's worth; I came out of my second VW Touareg following the VW Diesel crisis. The approved updates turned a really nice 2014 $64,000 car into a piece of crap.
I was really intrigued by the 2018 Explorer Platinum with the ECO Boost 3.5L V-6.Never owned a Ford in my life, but I pretty much liked that rig, the handling was really quite atrocious with the lateral mount V-6 and primary front wheel drive vs. the VW, but I wasn't going to keep the VW.
There were two things I REALLY hated about it; no one told me in only had an 18.6 gallon gas tank. I wasn't too upset as while the VW would go down to my second home about 300 miles away and back on one tank of fuel, the Ford barely made it one way. The shock came when I hooked my little 6x13 enclosed utility trailer that I use to haul my RC models behind it. The power was really poor compared to the VW and the fuel mileage was horrible running 6-8 mpg. Meaning two fuel stops each way. Didn't do that a whole lot, but I was NOT happy.
Stumbled across a news release about the new stuff coming in 2020 from Ford and Lincoln. I was not going for another Explorer for any reason, but the redesign and features of the new Lincoln Aviator Hybrid really intrigued me. So I ordered one in August of 2019. Took it seven months to get here, but WOW. Had to buy it from an out of state dealer as none here could sell the Hybrids. Went to pick it up, long day at 700 miles away, bad weather and such. Pulled into the dealership about 7PM that night and there it was sitting under the drive through area all by itself. It's a metallic pearl white and they had a huge red bow sitting on top of it with a big red ribbon.
It was/is gorgeous when clean.
Alright, I'll shorten up the rest of this story which is probably just boring you folks It's turned out to be the best car I've ever owned and I've owned my share but this is only my second Ford product. One or two issues but everything was new and assembled at a plant that the employees really hadn't been trained on the totally new assembly line.
The gripes? My windshield wipers still chatter sometimes and the transmission programming left something to be desired. Tried ot address the wipers but the local dealer is pissed off I bought it out of state despite the fact that they could not get one. They wouldn't touch the wipers as there is UV film on the windows installed by the selling dealer. Took it in a few weeks later to get my trailer brake controller installed and they refused saying "if it's not made by Lincoln, we won't put it in". Got my RV place to install the controller. I had followed the complaints about the transmission on this forum but figure there was no reason to approach the dealer especially since I'd not seen anything on this forum about an update on the transmission.
So I lived with it until a month or so ago. Most of my driving is local and I rarely buy gas anymore so the trans wasn't that big a deal.
Got the recall notice for the backup camera so I called my concierge person and scheduled a service. They came an got it, when they brought it back, there was a new service guy I'd not met. Very nice young man. It was washed and vacuumed, looked very nice. He told me the Recall was completed, answered a few questions and left. I asked him if there had been a "change of attitude" in the service department, he just nodded and left. Looking at the receipt, and there were three things they'd done, the SB, a "powertrain update" and something else I don't remember.
As soon as I got in the thing to put it in the garage, I noticed something very different. The throttle had always been really touchy, now it was just like it should be, not touchy and easy to control, lots easier to get it into the garage. Next time I drove it, it was obvious they'd changed the programming on the engine and transmission. On acceleration, the gas engine kicked in sooner and had it not been for the noise, I would not have noticed it was so smooth. Transmission shift points were different and silky smooth. It still occasionally gets confused about whether or not to downshift and start the gas engine when you hit the throttle, usually a Freeway entrance but other than that, it's great.
As I mentioned, I don't do a lot of traveling, mostly around town meaning it's mostly electric. The mileage readout typically shows over 50 mpg. Out of town on the freeway, it's getting 26-27 mpg running 85 MPH. A chunk over 30 mpg running in the 70 MPH area. Tows my little trailer easily and I can make the 300 trip with room to spare. Where the Explorer had a max range of not quite 300 miles, this will do almost 500 miles on a smaller 18.0 gallon tank.
I love this car better than anything I've ever owned, the power, ride, handling and quiet are unreal. I'd go for the newer Hybrid without question for what my opinion might be worth.