Opinion On Wife's New Ride

mchan68 · May 5, 2020

Well, this is a rare milestone for me. My wife's previous ride, a 2010 Focus 5 speed has started developing lower body panel rust through that had progressed past the point of no return. It was otherwise a very solid little car for her that gave us no problems whatsoever. Now enter her new ride, a black 2019 Explorer Sport 3.5 Eco that was one of our sales demo. Obviously, this is a huge upgrade for her. I welcome all thoughts, opinions and feedback.

DieselD · May 8, 2020

I can say my wife would be jealous. She has had her eyes on these for a while to replace her fusion. Im hesitant since being in the commercial arena I dont really see these anymore to know if they are worth the investment. Between the cost of the vehicle and crap interest rates I have not been too excited to pull the trigger on one. If I invest in a new vehicle I hold on to it for years so I dont want a pos.

I can say my impressions of driving one is ok. The sport models have plenty of power but the overall feel of the explorer feels heavy IMO, the cabin feels small for how big it actually is. Road noise seems to be high too. As in higher then our 2015 fusion with bald tires. I have roadtested a few new ones and I want to like them more but every time Im not blow away enough to make the investment. I would be interested to hear what you think of it after owning it for a bit.

Of course my wife does not understand!

mchan68 · May 9, 2020

22 hours ago, DieselD said:

I can say my impressions of driving one is ok. The sport models have plenty of power but the overall feel of the explorer feels heavy IMO, the cabin feels small for how big it actually is. Road noise seems to be high too. As in higher then our 2015 fusion with bald tires.

Of course my wife does not understand!

Funny you should say that. I feel exactly the same way! I blame my wife's absolute love for this vehicle on one of our customers. This was a vehicle that was purchased new from our a few years back that shortly after would keep setting off cam phaser and timing codes but no noticeable symptoms other than the engine light. Long story short, I ended up being instructed to install a new timing set supplied from Ford Motor Company directly (not parts ordered through the normal parts channel). After, I was instructed by my service manager to drive the vehicle for the weekend to ensure everything was good before we release the vehicle back to the customer. My wife became intrigued by the power, so I let her take it for a spin. That was it! From that day forward, she told she wanted one!

I must admit, after being employed in this industry for quite a few years, I rarely get excited about vehicles anymore. But I do agree that road noise on these are noticeably noisy. This is even after ditching the OEM garbage Hankook tires that come on these from new and replaced with Michelins. (I now have the Hankooks sitting in my garage for sale to help recoup some of the cost of getting the Michelins). I'm contemplating installing a set of Bilstein struts and shocks to further smoothen the ride some.

Our sales manager had a 2020 Explorer ST as his first demo of the all new 2020 model. Curious, I made the arrangement to let my wife take it for a spin. She tells me the power increase of the ST is definitely noticeable over that of the Sport model it replaced. But looking under the hood of these 2020s along with the whole underpinnings really leaves me shaking my head. That's not to mention the astronomical price increase for these vehicles.

Since there were no new 2019s left over that I could locate anywhere, the next best thing I could do was snatch one of our sales demo with 16000 kms (10K miles). Since then, she's been happy. But interestingly enough, she mentioned she misses shifting gears of her '10 Focus from time to time. The increase in fuel expense is of no surprise of course.