SPEAKER: The Ford Explorer is an important SUV,
not just for Ford, but for SUV shoppers in general.
That's because when it debuted in 1991,
it redefined what a family vehicle could be.
We're here in Washington state on the banks
of the Columbia River.
And the big news is the Ford Explorer
has changed from front-wheel drive to rear-wheel drive.
We've got several versions to drive,
and we'll be able to see why that matters.
But before we get into that, remember
to click Subscribe and visit Edmunds for all your car
and SUV shopping needs.
Even though it's all new, it still looks like an Explorer,
because some of the key design elements are still here.
For one, the windshield pillar--
blacked out.
Always done that.
Also, the middle pillar-- blacked out.
We get to the C pillar, and it's prominent
and it's body colored.
And then back here at the rear, the rear pillar
is also blacked out so that the side window and the rear window
blend together.
Explorers have always had these elements,
and this one does, too.
Perhaps the biggest difference is here in the front.
Last time around, it was front-wheel drive.
The engine sat that way.
There was a lot of radiator and stuff like that up here.
It gave it a lot of bulk in the front end of the car.
Now when you've got the engine turned this way--
push the engine back, shorten the nose a little bit--
it tightens up the front end, makes it look more aggressive.
And it also has a good approach angle.
The switch to rear drive results in a wheel base
that's over six inches longer between the front
and rear tires.
And that improves weight distribution
from a dynamic standpoint, but it also
improves passenger and cargo space inside.
The switch to rear drive also helps with towing.
Ideally, you want your trailer's tongue weight
to be pressing down on the axle that is propelling the vehicle.
And you get that here.
But you also get extra stability because of the longer wheelbase
when towing.
And the tow rating, as a result, is up slightly.
It was 5,000 pounds last year.
It's as much as 5,600 pounds this year.
The first thing you notice about the new Explorer
inside is that it's spacious.
It's comfortable.
It's really easy to live with.
These seats, for example--
they're really nicely shaped.
They have great padding.
They're really comfortable.
These are the Platinums, but I was in a Limited yesterday--
same thing there.
The steering wheel is nice and chunky, too.
You know, it feels real good.
The tactile feel is really nice, and it's comfortable over time.
The controls-- they're really easy to figure out.
Here are the audio controls.
Here are the HVAC controls.
The touch screen is easy to reach.
There are two touch screens.
This one has the bigger portrait one that's about 10 inches.
There is an eight inch landscape-oriented one,
really nice as well.
Both of those are great.
Really easy to use this cabin.
And there's a lot of storage, too.
The glove box is big.
You can hook up a phone through the access ports here.
This is pretty big, the center console.
You can see I have my phone here,
but I could also put it here on this wireless charge pad.
The door pockets are big.
There's place for your stuff alongside.
So you're not going to have a problem of where
to put your stuff.
One of things I'm not terribly sure about
is the interior quality.
It's good.
There's nice soft touch material here and here
and some other places.
A few of these other ones look a little bit hard.
But the main thing for me is a couple
of these seams, this one in particular.
They're really prominent and they
stand out and catch your eye-- at least they catch my eye.
Recently, I was in a Kia Telluride.
In that one, material's quality just felt a step above.
Here I am in the middle row of the Ford Explorer,
and right off the bat, I can tell
this has got plenty of room.
I'm 6'2.
I've got extra headroom even with this panoramic sunroof.
Leg room.
I got a little extra to give the person in the back seat
if I need to.
It reclines.
That's nice.
One thing that's different about the Explorer
compared to the competition is most versions
are going to have captain's chairs as standard.
And these are really nice.
So back here, I've got a couple of USBs
under this hatch-- just one USB and one USB-C, though.
I'd like more of those, but they're not here.
I've got controls for the air conditioning.
And the vent is up here, which is interesting, not here.
It looks to be really easy to put
child seats in the Explorer.
The latch anchors are right here where you can see them.
They're really easy to get to.
As for storage, there seems to be a lot of that.
There is a juice box holder right up high here
where a child can reach it.
And further down, there's a place
for a water bottle and other items.
And here in the middle, there's more storage and a couple more
cup holders.
You may have noticed there's no console here.
That's because Ford says they want to keep
this open for third row access.
So this is really low, and it's actually made to be stepped on.
As you can see, there isn't a lot of room for someone
my height, which is 6'2, to sit back here in the third row.
I'm a little taller than what they had in mind, I'm sure.
But even so, I've got lots of headroom,
and there's an AC vent back here.
That part is covered, it's just this knee here.
The one on the side where I can get between the captain's
chair, actually no problem.
But this is pretty flat, so I don't
know how that would be over a long distance.
It feels pretty good so far.
Back here though, there's no USB ports to plug into,
and the cup holder is kind of hard to get to on the side
here.
Another thing worth noting is that the child seat
anchors are really easy to get to here in the third row.
And that means that four child seats can fit in this vehicle.
The other thing is that the Explorer-- this third row
can only hold two people.
It's not equipped to hold three like the competition can do.
So what that means is that Explorers
can seat seven with a bench seat, six
with captain's chairs.
The competition is one better.
If that matters to you, I don't know.
It depends on the size of your family or your soccer team.
Getting out of the third row is really easy,
because there's two ways your child can do it.
There's a loop at the base of the seat,
or they can press this button.
Behind the third row, the Explorer
starts out with a competitive amount of cargo space.
It slots in between the Telluride and the Pilot.
This piece here, you can flip it over
and you got a dirty side if you've
got something muddy you want to put in here.
Or you can drop it here for a little extra stability
if you don't want groceries to slide around.
And you can just pull this lever to fold the headrest down.
And then this button here will fold the seats down.
You could do both together or the left and right
individually.
Once you do this, the amount of cargo space
that you end up with is right in there
with the others in the segment.
It's a virtual tie.
And then of course, if you fold down the middle row
seats on both sides, the amount of cargo space
is over 85 cubic feet, which is another competitive number.
Because this has captain's chairs,
you'll have a little void in the middle.
It's not a completely flat floor,
but that's true of any vehicle with captain's chairs.
Now we're on the road, and I'm driving the hybrid.
And that's what's interesting about this new Explorer.
There are four powertrain choices, including the hybrid,
which they've never had before.
The base and the XLT come with a 2.3 liter EcoBoost engine.
Near the top of the range, the Platinum
has a 3 liter V6 EcoBoost engine.
And the ST, which is new this year--
it's got a high output version of the 3 liter EcoBoost engine.
And then that leaves the hybrid as the fourth choice.
This one has a 3.3 liter V6.
Not turbo charged, but it does have a hybrid element
in its transmission.
And that's the unique part here, is all four
of these powertrains have a 10 speed automatic transmission.
And the hybrid version has an electric motor
built into the case.
And the upshot of that is you don't get any weird hybrid CVT
feeling that you might get in some of the competition.
This drives absolutely normally when it comes to shifting.
You just have the hybrid for low-speed operation
and fill-in, and other things that improve fuel economy.
How much fuel economy improvement?
Well, they haven't told us what the rating is right now,
but they say that this should have a 500 mile range.
It has a tank that holds 18 gallons.
And if you do the math, that's 27 or 28 miles
per gallon combined.
We'll have to see where that shakes out.
What's great is you can get all-wheel drive on the hybrid.
And it's not just an electronic add-on
like some of the competitors have.
This is genuine all-wheel drive that mechanically
drives all four wheels when it's engaged.
And that's really great, because it gives it much more
authentic off-road capability.
The thing about the four powertrains that's interesting
is, the smallest one, the 2.3 EcoBoost turbo--
it makes as much horsepower or more than the base engines,
which are really the only engines
in a Pilot and a Telluride.
So you can only go up from there, which is really nice.
The reason why I'm not really quoting hard numbers
is because Ford's numbers assume that you're
going to use 93 octane fuel, which frankly, you
can't get, even in California or most of the West Coast.
But also, most people aren't going to spend the extra money.
They're going to want to put in 87 octane regular unleaded,
which you can do, because that is the recommended fuel.
But until we get horsepower and torque figures on 87,
I'm not really ready to commit, or really even able to say,
whether any of their engines are more
powerful than the competition's offerings or not.
One of the first things I notice behind the wheel
is I really do like the steering.
And it goes beyond the feeling of the steering wheel, which
is really chunky, and it's not too big.
When you go down the road, it really
has a great sense of straight ahead.
And we had some strong crosswinds,
and that didn't faze it at all.
They went back to rear-wheel drive,
but they didn't go back to body-on-frame.
This is still a unibody vehicle.
And that gives it a lower center of gravity,
which you can really feel-- the longer wheelbase as well.
There's a stability here, a real composure
that really feels premium.
And that premium ride also comes from the suspension tuning
and the noise abatement.
We're on some pretty coarse roads, and when we hit bumps,
it's very settled.
It doesn't upset the cabin at all.
And there's not a lot of road noise coming up from the tires.
I'm really pleased with the visibility.
It's really easy to see out the front.
The pillars are slender.
That big C pillar that's body color that we saw earlier
doesn't really block my view.
I don't feel like I'm in a tank here.
The only thing about visibility that I'm not a fan of--
I didn't notice this earlier--
is these are shiny, and there's definitely
a lot of reflection coming up off these HVAC controls here.
This vehicle has the standard eight inch landscape oriented
screen, not the 10 inch portrait screen we saw earlier.
And it's really nice.
The graphics are clear.
They're easy to understand.
It's responsive.
And there's a side benefit to not having the big screen.
It doesn't fill up this space, so there's
a nice shelf underneath that'll hold a phone.
Now that I've been in this vehicle for about four hours,
I think I've got it figured out.
I like the way it steers.
It goes down the road really nicely, and even
in this crosswind.
The seats are comfortable.
I haven't gotten tired of them yet.
I've got all the controls figured out.
I could drive this thing home, and I live almost 1,000 miles
away from here.
So we're still in the hybrid, but we're towing a boat.
And this is great.
From the first moment I pressed the accelerator,
the take away was smooth.
You could feel the torque of the electric motor combining
with the motor to really get the vehicle going really easily.
And then as we went up through the first few gears,
all the shifts were nice and smooth and buttery.
I really didn't expect that.
And at the moment, we're just cruising around on the highway,
and it feels real happy.
Tow ratings, they're just a number.
It's a reflection of the cooling system and the suspension being
up to it.
But with some vehicles, you feel like you're asking a lot.
It's going to do it, technically.
It's fine, but you don't necessarily enjoy it.
This is enjoyable.
This is not a problem at all.
Frankly,
I'm still trying to wrap my head around the pricing.
At the base model level, it's really similar to last year.
But if you go to XLT or Limited, the price increase
starts to get pretty substantial.
But on the other hand, this vehicle
is a lot more substantial.
It really does feel like a significant upgrade
from last year.
So extra money, probably worth it.
So what does all of this mean for the new Ford Explorer?
Well, I like the ride.
It's quiet.
It feels really composed.
And when the road gets twisty, it actually can play along.
It's not an Olympic quality athlete, but it works out.
It's fit.
It can keep up.
As for the powertrain, same thing.
They're solid.
The base offering is as strong as competition's only offering.
And the hybrid is just really a no compromised machine.
You can take it off road, really, up to a point.
It doesn't have low range.
You can tow a boat or something else that
weighs within its capability.
And it's not like you're asking it to do something
it doesn't want to do.
It feels really up to the task.
It's very well-rounded.
The interior's nice and spacious, too.
It's got a lot of thoughtful touches.
Yeah, there's a couple of things I wish were a little different.
But for the most part, I've got no complaints here.
If you want more detailed information,
be sure to check out my article.
And remember to hit Subscribe and visit Edmunds next time
you're ready to buy a car.