En!vy
Legacy Member
This was a really eye opening review of the new 2020 Explorer, and more importantly discusses the corner that Ford as a whole is backing itself into with it's current strategy.
I remember the initial excitement when the Explorer ST was announced for this new life cycle, and how people thought it was going to challenge the German SUVs. Unfortunately it looks like Ford has completely lost the plot. From making decisions to co-brand their electric vehicles with the Mustang name, to dropping cars altogether in North America, it looks like Ford still has some dark days ahead.
TLDR: The newest iteration of the Explorer is a rear wheel biased AWD vehicle that drives more like an F150 than a Taurus. Thats the good. Apparently the cabin acoustics (both audio and cabin noise) are terrible, the infotainment screen OS and implementation are a disaster, and the 10 speed automatic transmission with it's current mapping is borderline dangerous. Its apparent that Ford executives drew up this SUV on a whiteboard in a boardroom and then tasked the engineers who just inherited a completely rebuilt production facility in Chicago to go and make it a reality. With so much pressure on Ford to straighten the corporate ship, this Explorer feels rushed and half baked.
I remember the initial excitement when the Explorer ST was announced for this new life cycle, and how people thought it was going to challenge the German SUVs. Unfortunately it looks like Ford has completely lost the plot. From making decisions to co-brand their electric vehicles with the Mustang name, to dropping cars altogether in North America, it looks like Ford still has some dark days ahead.
TLDR: The newest iteration of the Explorer is a rear wheel biased AWD vehicle that drives more like an F150 than a Taurus. Thats the good. Apparently the cabin acoustics (both audio and cabin noise) are terrible, the infotainment screen OS and implementation are a disaster, and the 10 speed automatic transmission with it's current mapping is borderline dangerous. Its apparent that Ford executives drew up this SUV on a whiteboard in a boardroom and then tasked the engineers who just inherited a completely rebuilt production facility in Chicago to go and make it a reality. With so much pressure on Ford to straighten the corporate ship, this Explorer feels rushed and half baked.
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