Ford Explorer Sport 2013 Quick Spin

As far as the tasks related to family living is concerned, Ford's Explorer SUV with three-row iteration is a great success.

As naturally aspirated 3.5 liter V6 that is well suited to this vehicle can never be found earlier, it was never long ago that a 6 cylinder highway vehicle with 290 HP and 24 mpg was a dream. It was never believed to be an exciting power plant as well.

Explore the World with Explorer that has an Eco boost twin charged, 3.5 liter six cylinder engine with 350 pound-feet of torque. It may be noted that all of the additional enjoyment comes at the cost of 1 mpg both on highways and in the cities as compared to the simpler non turbo explorer version. As I am lucky enough to drive that vehicle on Ford's invitation, I must say that even if the experience was not completely satisfying, it was genuinely pleasant.

Driving notes

Anything that we admire has to strike our eyes first. If black is not the color that you like, then you may not even go closer to the new Sport, as black headlights and accents is the key feature of the monster. The dominating black grille enables the vehicle to look more compact and appealing. The astonishing combination of black on 21” wheels, b mirror caps and body cladding roof rails may take you out of this world and adding to the story they are backed up by smoked front covers and rear lighting. It is not wrong to be said that new explorer is cooler than ever before, but as human nature, some people always like to go with grain, some want a thrill.

For a vehicle this is considered big, the Explorer may be considered as the fleet of foot Ford was shy to declare the fact that the vehicle is two second faster than the 3.5 liter non turbo sibling.

From standing still position, the Eco boost version will refuse to give full thrust for a fraction of the time, but when the engine reaches to 2000 rpm, it can produce a strong torque. When the engine is running at middle revolutions, it consumes more fuel, but the handling is very efficient when the speed is around 70-90 mph zone. You will also be able to hear the growling sound of exhaust at high rpm.

It may be said that the Explorer is quick but may appear as mean to some people. But the fact is that it does not mean to be equipped as a full-on performance model like BMW X5 M. The reason behind is not that the Ford is not as quick as other companies are, but the fact is that I is more of a highway oriented vehicle having suspension tuning and chassis more feasible for highway driving. Being laterally stiff than the standard version, it has an added tower and significant amount of movement through the suspension having Gs pile on.

The vehicle is equipped with a retained power steering and paddle shifters for six speed automatic shifting. The former enables the quicker steering to be possible and accuracy is great when the speed is high. Moreover, the response of the steering to the road condition is negligible. Mentioning about the shifters, the response time of the shift is slow and physical feel is also not up to the mark. One can say that instead of being a full sport variant of the original, Explorer is more of an intermediate version.

Mentioning about the conclusive remarks, there is a bit of confusion. When compared with the high-content Limited trim in term of money, Explorer is just $2600 more than that inclusive of delivery and destination. But when compared mechanically, trim has a lot more powerful engine with the same fuel economy and most of the similar features. Moreover explorer has very less to offer for enthusiastic drivers and it offers no extra towing capability as compared to size and power. If these options are incorporated, the price of vehicle may go up to $50,000. Our tester's MSRP was $48,385.

As guessed, Ford is relying on just the incremental sales of sport to make the variant a success. There may be a possibility that it may attract the family owners to jump from a smaller vehicle to Explorer.