when it comes to sheer passenger space SUVs have always given up a thing or two
two minivans in exchange for all-wheel-drive or towing capacity or
maybe both but that sort of calculus doesn't seem to apply to the redesigned
Ford Expedition which packs capability and room like a few cars from any body
style seem to be able to do now in terms of passenger space there's just a ton of
it our adults should have no problem fitting in the expedition now with lots
of space to stretch out your knees and a pretty good adjustment range for the
driver's seat seeing is this is a very similar cabin to what's in the f-150
pickup truck there's tons of storage space I mean you can stash things up
here on top of the dad in this two-level glove compartment up here ahead of the
cupholders in the cup holders themselves on these two sort of bins alongside the
console and in the console bin itself just tons and tons of space now in terms
of cabin materials the expedition has soft touch materials and all the
important areas where your arms and your elbows fall generally everything's low
gloss and nice to look at there are some kind of rough edges and seams along
certain parts of the interior and our limited grade test car here and before
it really needs to move past some of its parts been pieces things like really
small buttons here for the climate controls and a very rubbery flimsy
feeling turn signal stock some other technologies we really like though for
its sink three system its multimedia system very simple very easy to use the
roominess doesn't stop in the first row this is the second row I'm 6 feet tall
and that's where I would sit to drive decent legroom left over a good Headroom
and a nice high seating position and that's what the seat slid all the way
for it if you slide it back that's just an absolute ton of room the seats
actually split individually when they slide and there's a dedicated set of
latch anchors for parents with young children that need car seats they can
put the kid in the center seat and have this seat slid forward to be closer to
mom and dad with the outboard seats slid all the way back for other pastures now
speaking of those outboard seats get into the third rows a cinch thanks to
seats in our test car here that just release forward at the touch of a button
for sliding walking access to the third row nice big gap here a little area here
for anybody to grab on to can't ask for much more
can't ask for much more out of a third row either now the expedition's ace in
the hole in recent history has been an independent rear suspension that means
the floor can sit a lot lower than it sit with a live axle and typical truck
based suvs and what that means is that you just sit really nice and high off
the ground I've got tons of space now to actually not have my knees up in the air
which is often when you get in the third row for any SUV and good legroom left
over that's with this seat all the way back if you have the seat all the way
forward the middle seat like it is right here
just tons of room left over certainly not a situation you never get in a Chevy
Tahoe or suburban or Nissan Armada all of those have really tight kind of low
to the floor third rows in comparison in the expedition here with amenities like
power reclining seat backs air vents lots of USB ports really there's just
not a bad seat in the house now that independent rear suspension can't hide
the expedition's truck based route so you do get some shimmying and bounciness
of a really rough paper that we're all a fairly comfortable experience the
drivetrain is another strength in the expedition it's a 10 speed automatic
transmission that pairs with a turbocharged v6 engine oh that's
EcoBoost in Ford speed plenty of power good decisive shifting
as well we loaded four adults in here with a week's worth of luggage had
highway passing power to spare now towing capacity tops out at more than
nine thousand pounds we've climbed six percent grades in the expedition with a
5500 pound horse trailer attached don't go looking for that v8 this turbo six
handled it all just fine
now cargo space in the expedition 20 point 9 cubic feet behind the third row
that's comparable to what you get in a Ford Explorer behind its third row you
get the Expedition max that's an extended length version of this SUV that
gets you up to 36 cubic feet behind the third row that's a 72% increase no
matter what though a huge dose of practicality check out what our test car
has here second and third row head restraints that draft with a push of a
button in the second row on the head restraint itself the push of a dashboard
button actually drops them back here for the third row really nice view out the
back when you have them all down and buttons back here from the cargo area
that drop both rows for maximum cargo volume with one touch of a button you
don't have to hold anything down here you can drop them and walk away and get
whatever it is you needed to throw in there very convenient big truck faced
SUVs used to be all the rage but smaller crossover models have really relegated
them to specialty vehicles for people who need serious cargo and passenger
capacity the expedition certainly does all of that well with a big helping of
family practicality thrown in but it's gonna cost you this redesign starts
around $50,000 you get all the way up to an expedition max Platinum 4x4 and it
tops out close to $90,000 the expedition redesign here really is an extraordinary
vehicle but with pricing like that you got to make sure you really need
everything it can do
you