Test drove 2 Explorers, not interesting at all

[La§tRite§]

I had read a post regarding test driving an X and the verdict seemed to be that it was underpowered. I had the opposite thing happen as I test drove an E.B. edition w/ a V-8 as well as the two door sport model and found both to be surprisingly underpowered. Absolutely no throtle response. Is that a Ford Explorer thing or what, are they all kind of soft and squishy feeling when you step on the gas or just the two I had driven?

 

[yob_yeknom]

Hmmm... Coming from an Xterra and saying Explorers are underpowered... Have to disagree with you. Must have just been the two you drove.

I'm assuming you're from the XOC. Why do you guys keep coming over here anyways? Let it go.

 

[La§tRite§]

It was an honest question not intended to be offending. I have a boss that always bags on my truck so I went and test drove one identical to his and couldnt figure out where he was coming from (E.B. V-8).

 

[yob_yeknom]

What engine is in your XE?
I'm not sure why the V8 would feel underpowered, but the Sport models have lower gear ratios. Maybe that one was geared for gas mileage instead of power and felt underpowered. What models where they?

If your question is sincere, forget that second paragraph in my earlier post. I will leave it there instead of going back to delete it to help ward off anyone else trying to start something up again.

 

[mattadams]

hey lastrites, I see your in Colorado, you oughtta try and hook up sometime when we have our Colorado get togethers. Keep your eye on the Serious Explorations forum. Just next weekend, we're planning on hitting some trails in the Leadville area, and it'd be good to see what an XTerra can do, as well as you seeing what the explorers can do off-road .

 

[DarkFox1]

I can't beleive you people, we already agreed to just drop all of that didn't we? why are you coming back on here trying to start it up again? yea yea, we don't like to drive Xterras and you don't like to drive explorers, otherwise our forums would be swapped!

I have had the experience you talk about with everything EXCEPT my vehicle btw.. every car I drive has that soft squishy pedal, the mounty was the only vehicle I found with the throttle firmness and brakes that I wanted, from my experience, if you want firmness, go with a '97 v8, avoid the 4.0 v6, I drove onna those once and my expereicen was squishy. v6s aren't for me.

 

[tbomb]

guys, i really dont think he came over to start any more feuding. he just asked a question, thats all. if he come over to start this fight up again, then just ignore him; we're above that.

lastrites, as for the explorer feeling underpowered, there could be a number of reasons (i.e.: gearing, engine, misc problems with the particular vehicles that you drove, etc.) why dont you test drive a sport with the SOHC engine and 4.10 gearing; this should change your mind. i have a friend with an xterra, and if youre comparing the power of an xterra to that of an explorer, heh, well, the xterra is much more underpowered. im not trying to start anything here, im merely saying that if youre comparing this experience to an xterra, its a horrible reference.

 

[PLRBEAR]

As an added note, you did not mention if your Xterra is a 4x2/4x4, or whether it's a manual/auto. Then there's the question of whether the Explorer you tested was similarily equipped. The only reason why i'm not impressed by the Xterra is this:

My friend's brother bought a 2001 XE-V6 4x4 AUTO/LSD. He decided to "test" his Xterra out by driving over a big,deep patch of mud. (Here comes the problem) Both tires on the right side get into the mud, and he's dead stuck. He gets out ,and tries to find a piece of wood to stick under his front tire, placing a mighty big scratch on his fender in the process (didn't realize that there was a long nail sticking out of the plank. Still no juice. He decides to call CAA (Canadian Automobile Association) and get a tow truck (he's a member btw.) In the end, he gets his SUV towed out of the "mud" by the CAA tow trucks and has to fork out 80 bucks because it was an unpaved area. You do not want to know how hard the tow truck driver was laughing at that time. Granted, that my friend's brother is a big time moron, i am just wondering what happened there? As an Xterra driver, maybe you can explain much better.

 

[JoeC5]

With all do respect, a v-8 explorer, even if it is running poorly, will run circles around an exterra. When I borrowed my buddies V-8 explorer, I raced my other friend who has a 2 door yukon with a 350 in it, I won at least by 2 - 2 1/2 car lengths. To me to 4.0 OHV has a very mussy pedal, the SOHC nice throttle response and the V-8 has even better repsonse.

 

[DarkFox1]

joe, was he stock? just a standard issue OHV v8 with EFI? I have that engine if so.. his musta been running top forum, I don't think I could beat a yukon if he was trying.. unless we were doing a 1/4 race w/o a speed limit heh

 

[JoeC5]

Yep, he was stock, it was an older Yukon. We went to a back road we know that is used for racing. We were neck and neck until the X kicked into second gear, then I started to pull away. He wanted a second try, same result. My friends X is new and my buddies yukon has some mileage on it. Maybe thats why I won? And believe me, many people say its the driver, well my buddy is an army ranger and he is friggin nuts and he goes all out everytime. He is actually pretty pi$$ed that the X beat his Yukon. I am surprised that the X beat him to.

 

[Perry]

La§tRite§,

First off I'm not sure why people are looking for speed out of a Explorer. I thought they were for four wheeling?

Anyway La§tRite§
like Matt said we would like to invite you to go along with us on one of our runs here in Colorado. We have everything from stock Explorer's to Matt's modified PIAA holder.
Your more then welcome to come out for a day of fun.

 

[JoeC5]

Everyone has a different idea of what they want their explorer to be. Some people want it to be a offroad machine and some want it to be a sport truck. Just because its an X, that doesnt mean its born to be offroad. Thats just my opinion anyway.

 

[Stephen]

Hey lastrites, welcome.

I have a coworker that drives an Xterra, and at least to me it is vastly underpowered compared to even my V6 Explorer. Were the Explorers you drove used? Possible that the transmissions were adapted to gentle drivers. When you step on mine it downshifts and pushes you back in the seat rather nicely for such a heavy vehicle, feels much quicker than it really is.

 

[95ExplorerLtd]

I'm not trying to start anything, but maybe you didnt find them interesting because you own an XTerra and are biased towards them. I'm sure if I went and test drove an XTerra I wouldnt be impressed, because I'm way biased towards Explorers. Just a thought.

On a side note, I think its really cool how you guys mod your vehicles, with not having early models to work with and probably a limited source of aftermarket goodies. And one more thing, how did you make the little smirly thingies for the 's' in your name?

 

[D]

I read a road test of the 240 hp pathfinder a ohc xlt explorer and a couple of others and was supprised to learn the ohc v6 explorer was faster to 60 and the 1/4 than the 240 hp nissan.

 

[zensius]

Another thing to really think about is perceived speed and real speed. Some cars just feel faster than they really are. When I was in high school ('86) I used to borrow my step mom's Celica GTS because it felt a lot faster. But the reality was that my father's Taurus wagon was actually faster when the magazine numbers were compared. I think that cars with better road manners and lower decibal ratings seem to be slower because of the buffering from the feel of speed. But numbers don't lie.

 

[Robert]

Perceived speed may have a lot to do with it. I know my '95 V8 Thunderbird felt a lot faster than my '97 SOHC Explorer. It wasn't at the track. My Explorer ran a best time in the 1/4 mile that was .009 seconds faster than my best time in my '95 Thunderbird. My Thunderbird was 1.5 MPH faster at the end of the 1/4 mile so I have no doubt that from 70 MPH on up my Thunderbird held the edge.

 

[Stephen]

Originally posted by D
I read a road test of the 240 hp pathfinder a ohc xlt explorer and a couple of others and was supprised to learn the ohc v6 explorer was faster to 60 and the 1/4 than the 240 hp nissan.

Not that surprising D. Nissan has a reputation for over-estimating the power their vehicles have. Either that or they dont know how to get that power to the ground effectively. I was recently looking at the new Lexus LS430 and the Infiniti Q45. The LS430 felt faster, and when you look at the numbers actually is faster than the Q45. Interesting seeing that the Q45 has 340hp and the LS430 has only 290, also interesting seeing that the LS430 is almost 1,000 lbs heavier.

 

[RangerX]

It's looking like our friend LastRites is just one more hit and run from another board.