Thus, the new vehicle has a flotilla of airbags and stability-control programs. Understandably, Ford is sensitive to Explorer safety. Electric power steering replaces a hydraulic rack. At the back, there’s a new upright and the driveshafts are beefier. Up front, there’s a new cradle for the suspension and engine, along with new control arms, knuckles, struts, and wheel bearings. Compared with its platform-mate the Flex, however, the Explorer gets a number of changes for increased durability. The Explorer has a control-arm suspension at the front and a multilink layout at the rear. With hill-descent control and “terrain management,” the AWD setup is similar to the system in Land Rovers, offering four driver-selectable modes: normal, mud/ruts, sand, and snow. The optional $2000 all-wheel-drive system is biased toward the front wheels in steady-state driving, but Ford says that the system can transfer up to 90 percent of available torque to the rear wheels when needed. Towing capacity for the four-cylinder is 2000 pounds, enough to haul a Jet Ski or a snowmobile but not much more.īase Explorers are now front-wheel drive, a dramatic shift away from the old rear-drive layout. Fully equipped, the new Explorer can tow 5000 pounds, down from the 7115-pound rating of the 2010 V-8 model.
All models get a standard six-speed automatic transmission, whereas the previous V-6 had a five-speed. Ford will introduce an optional 2.0-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder in 2011, producing an estimated 237 horsepower and 250 pound-feet, up from the old V-6’s ratings of 210 and 254, respectively. The new 3.5-liter V-6 makes 290 horsepower and 255 pound-feet of torque, down from the 4.6-liter V-8’s 292 ponies and 315 pound-feet. Unlike previous Explorers, which could be optioned with a V-8 in place of a base V-6-an engine nearly as old as the city of Cologne, Germany, where it was built-the new Explorer will offer V-6 and four-cylinder engines.
But the old vehicle had 84 cubic feet of cargo capacity behind the front seats compared with the new one’s 81. The bigger exterior translates to more head and shoulder room in the front two rows, as well as 21 cubic feet of luggage space behind the third row, up from 14. Mind you, it’s still a porker, at 4900 pounds, or 212 pounds more than a Honda Pilot Touring 4WD. It’s also 159 pounds lighter than the V-8 Eddie Bauer Explorer we tested in 2006. (This platform has its roots in the first-gen Volvo S80, so it’s not exactly a spring chicken.) At 197.1 inches, the Explorer is 3.7 inches longer than the old vehicle and is 5.2 inches wider, at 78.9 inches. It moved away from body-on-frame, pickup-based SUVs like the Explorer to car-based crossovers that offer less towing and off-road capability but better road manners, gas mileage, and comfort.įinally recognizing this trend, the all-new 2011 Explorer shares it underpinnings with the Ford Flex and Taurus and the Lincoln MKS and MKT.
While Ford was busy watching Explorer sales slide during the Aughts, the segment’s center of gravity began to shift.
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