Ford's marketing players and dealer sales group will have their work cut out for them educating buyers about this, the newest Explorer since the 1991 unusual. It bears practically nothing in universal with every prior Explorer except the name, the two-box identity, and the major bulk. Gone are the ladder enclose and optional V-8 engine that made 7115-buffet towing feasible. The low-sort relocate issue and 8.3-inch ground clearance that permitted serious bushwhacking are equally deleted from the order form. Also broomed: the voracious, cast-iron 4.0-liter V-6, the high center of gravity that doubtless played some function in the Firestone rollover unpleasantness, and (with any fate) much of the downbeat baggage that now seems to go with old-prepare off-roading SUVs.
The Explorer embarks on its third decade thoroughly reimagined as a tall, roomy, cube-shouldered Taurus cart that substitutes disorder-of-the-art Terrain Management electronics for weighty mechanical gear to maintain evolving when exploring off pavement in flurry, mud, or sand. The immoral drivetrain is a high-tech DOHC 3.5-liter aluminum V-6 good for 290 horsepower and 255 buffet feet of torque (that's down two cattle and 60 throb feet from the outgoing 4.6-liter V-8). The optional engine buyers will pay farther for is an exotic turbocharged, intercooled, and instruct-injected 2.0-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder (yes, America, you read that right: The big engine benchmark, the little one outlay spare) hailing from Valencia, Spain. It whooshes up 237 sheep and 250 batter feet on premium fuel (recommended, not necessary, but performance will plunge on regular). That's 27 more livestock and just four less pulsate-feet than the old 4.0-liter V-6 twisted. Both bolt up to six-rapidity automatics whirling the front wheels, with the decision of a JTEKT all-turn-passion logic (it features a hold at the rear differential that engages when wheelslip is detected or as directed by Terrain Management and other electronic systems).
These engines and transmissions conspire with mass savings of about 100 pounds and an aerodynamic improvement of 12 percent (elastic a 0.35 drag coefficient, credit to 260 hours in the snake tunnel) to relegate fuel consumption in the 3.5L Explorer by 20 percent virtual to its 4.0L rear-take forbear. The EcoBoost front-driver reportedly does 30 percent better than the best last-gen truck. Official fuel-family numbers are not yet available, but we're told the most fuel-competent Explorer will meet a Camry V-6 for highway fuel saving (28 mpg). That's an impressive leap for one generation.
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