Once the poster child of the traditional-SUV segment, the Ford Explorer is now a front-wheel-drive, four-cylinder, unibody crossover -- at least in base trim. It may be a strange and dramatic departure from the Explorer of yesteryear, but Ford execs are confident the new strategy can halt the icon's cliff dive from 445,157 sales in 2000 to 31,864 through the first six months of 2010. Fuel economy, they say, is the reason the segment has stalled. That explains the four-cylinder base engine, a 2.0-liter turbocharged unit generating 237 hp and 250 lb-ft of torque. The numbers aren't official yet, but a 30 percent increase in fuel economy over last year's V-6 is expected, which should yield 18 mpg in the city and 26 mpg on the highway.
Opting for all-wheel-drive requires stepping up to the 3.5-liter V-6, which makes 290 hp and 255 lb-ft of torque. Fuel economy for that powerplant should come in at 17 mpg in the city and 23 mpg on the highway. Both engines use a six-speed automatic transmission. There is no V-8, but we anticipate a turbocharged V-6 with up to 400 hp will eventually arrive.
Exploring new segments
Ford is making no attempt to hide the fact that the new Explorer is a totally different type of vehicle. This fresh Explorer, they say, does everything buyers have demanded from the current model while improving on comfort and fuel economy. "We kind of convinced ourselves that there were two kinds of utility vehicles: body-on-frames and crossovers," said Jim Farley, group vice president of global marketing, sales, and service. "But frankly, a lot of customers don't see it like that. People just want to tow, they want to go off-road, they want to do things they sometimes didn't plan to do."
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