Ellocovg
Active Member
- Joined
- November 15, 2015
- Messages
- 88
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- NJ
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 08 Danger Ranger XLT
First impression I was looking for a Highlander but went into the Ford dealer to check out the employee pricing promotion. The Explorer was a very good looking truck even in XLT fashion and I loved the smart key, auto start, LED headlights, and spacious third row for my young girls. Very spacious and drove smoothly, I was hooked got a few other discounts and I couldn’t believe I actually leased a Ford.
Initially at the factory they screwed up the latch for the tailgate which required the tailgate to be slammed hard for it to latch. Ofcource I didn’t discover that until a few weeks later and I somehow trusted the salesman that told me it was perfectly normal until the bushings wore in to just keep slamming it. So I worked far from home and didn’t have time to take it in to the dealer until after the tailgate dented bellow the Ford emblem from slamming it one to many times. Turns out they put one of the Torx screws in crooked at the factory but just powered it in completely stripping away all of the teeth on the bolts making the latch misaligned, eventually the latch warped so it started closing ok. The little dents were small enough to pass the lease end inspection but enough to annoy me for the three years. At one point the AC was stuck on and it wouldn’t shutoff I had to take it to the dealer to get reset. The scariest issue was with extremely low mileage the throttle body went which was a little scary. At one point the Securipad touch activated thing wouldn’t turn off so it killed my battery they had to swap out the panel and my battery because of it.
A few issues that I didn’t bother trying to get looked at since I knew I wasn’t keeping it were. I had a few bubbles underneath the paint at the edge of the hood. The truck would sometimes shift roughly from 1st to 2nd under normal acceleration “I never gun cars unless it’s absolutely needed”. I never did the exhaust fix but I definitely had a leak where the Y pipes joined as I would get a little puddle there in the middle while warming it up.
In three years we had allot of family trips in her the longest being from NJ up to Toronto and it was an extremely comfortable car only issue I had was no foot room at all for my left foot. In long drives that got very annoying quick.
Being my first Ford there were a few things that suprised me coming from a mostly Toyota background. The interior was good quality but there was allot of stuff like bolts and wire looms that I’m used to seeing hidden Ford didn’t bother doing anything with them. When you open the doors the inside of the door is painted but not finish grade like Toyota’s and when I popped the hatch the biggest surprise wasn’t the lack of a finish quality coat of paint on the jams but the two huge paint runs on the weld beads.
Reliability was better than I expected honestly but still allot more issues than I’ve had in the past. On that note I’ve gotten accustomed to any Toyota dealer giving you a loaner if the work required an overnight stay. I was shocked when I asked for a loaner from a dealer being told I could only get a loaner from the original selling dealer. Called up my original dealer and they told me they only had 4 Focus and they were all out. Turns out Ford doesn’t cover loaner cars but if you buy an extended warranty that will cover a enterprise car rental. Explains why the salesman was pushing an extended warranty to me on a lease. I y
In summary I enjoyed the truck but not enough to buy it out even though the buyout was extremely low I thought. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this to a friend as I think the XLT package has everything you need for a good price. Definitely get the extended warranty if you end up buying one. My Ford fix will now come from my 08 Danger Ranger work truck still chugging along with 215k on the dash. I’ll keep my eyes open for the new Ranger or maybe even the F150 if it has a Chevy like effect where the new Colorado set off a ton of incentives on the Silverados.