The IT Nerd

Part three of my Ford Explorer covers the interior. Let’s start with the roof.

This SUV comes with two moonroofs. The front one can be fully opened to get ventilation. The second one can’t. But that’s more than enough for most people who want to let some sunlight (or moonlight) into the SUV. One key thing, there is still tons of headroom available. Nice!

Next, most of the surfaces that you could possibly touch are soft to the touch and feel like they’ve got some quality to them. The (presumably fake) woodgrain trim looks very real and everything looks like it was put together well. The seats are leather and the front seats are highly adjustable. Plus the driver gets a tilt and telescoping steering wheel along with power adjustable pedals. The bottom line is that you’ll find the perfect driving position if you play with all the options that are available to you. Another thing about the seats, they’re very supportive. Not to mention that they’re heated and cooled. Speaking of heating, it’s got dual zone climate control (handy if you and your spouse argue over what temperature the car should be set to) and you can add the steering wheel to the items that are heated. I should also mention that the steering wheel is perfectly sized. That is it’s smaller that you typically see on cars these days. That’s a good thing as you feel more connected to the vehicle and the road feel that the vehicle sends to the wheel.

The Ford Explorer Limited comes with three rows of seating. Here’s where it gets interesting. Rather than describe how the third row seats work, here’s a couple of videos for your viewing pleasure:

Okay, so I admit that I am coming across as being critical of the space in the third row. I’m not intending to. Most third row seating in this class of vehicle is only fit for kids. That’s not a failing of this vehicle. It’s just the nature of any mid sized SUV. If you seriously want to put adults into the third row seats of any vehicle, you should be looking at getting a (gasp!) minivan.

The next thing that I’d like to focus on is the driver displays. Take a look at this picture of the instrument panel:

The display is bright and clear. It’s also highly customizable. You can set it up to display the information that you want to display. For example, you can replicate simple navigation directions from the navigation system in the center console onto the right hand side of the display. Alternately, you could have the tachometer or the fuel economy on the left hand side. I’ll cover this in greater detail when I cover the technology in the vehicle.

I mentioned the center console earlier. Here’s what this looks like:

Besides being touch sensitive, it also acts as the backup camera. It’s crystal clear and you will not have any issues viewing it. Again, I’ll cover this in greater detail later. The audio system is from Sony and I have to say that the sound quality is amazing. There’s all sorts of little touches as well. For example there’s accent lighting as illustrated in this picture:

You’ll note the lighted rings around the cupholders as well as the lighted letters on the left hand side to indicate what gear you are in. Plus if you look carefully on the right, you’ll see that there’s lighting in the footwells of the driver and front passenger.

Finally, there’s a ton of storage space with a good sized center console, decent sized glove box with two levels, and all sorts of places to put your stuff. Bottom line: This is a well executed interior that you’ll have zero complaints about. I continue to be impressed by this vehicle.

Tune in tomorrow to see if I am still impressed.

What you’re looking at is the Ford Ecoboost engine that’s inside the 2012 Ford Explorer Limited that I’m driving. It’s a 4 cylinder engine with 2 liters of displacement. But it is also turbocharged and has direct injection. Not to mention that it’s mated to a 6 speed automatic transmission. The net result is that this engine in this vehicle produces 240 hp at 5500 rpm and 270 lb-ft of torque at 3000 revs. More importantly, it has a claimed fuel economy of 11.7L/ 100 km in the city and 7.8L/ 100 km on the highway. Now I should note that the fuel economy that are often posted by car companies are often out of whack with reality because they’re done in ideal conditions that you can’t replicate. But having said that, I can say that you can’t sneeze at the “real world” fuel economy of this vehicle. In the city in stop and go traffic I was getting about 15.6L/ 100km. Not good but not exactly a shock as city traffic will often hammer fuel economy. However on the highway I was getting close to 9L/ 100km which is absolutely stellar for a vehicle of this size and weight (It weighs just over 4500 pounds). To further test this, I compared the Explorer to my all wheel drive Toyota Matrix which has a 4 cylinder engine with 2.4 liters of displacement rated at 158 horsepower and 162 pound feet of torque. I drove it in a 23KM test loop that combined city and highway driving and I did my best to drive as I normally do (which is to do about 110 KM/h and pass traffic at 120 KM/h to 130 KM/h when required). The net result is that the Toyota Matrix got 9.6L/ 100km and the Explorer got 10.3L/ 100km. Impressive if you ask me.

Here’s the other thing I found impressive. I always had power on tap and it was well managed power. By that I mean that off the line there was no torque steer (the feeling that the car is pulling to one side when you accelerate from a standing start) and power delivery was smooth and controllable. On the highway if I needed to pass someone, power delivery was instant.

Clearly, the Ecoboost engine provides the power without forcing you to give up fuel economy. Kudos to Ford for that.

Now here’s the one thing that I’ll nail Ford on: the lack of a 4 wheel drive option. The same engine is used by Range Rover in the Evoque and it has 4 wheel drive. So why not the Explorer? I don’t have a clue and maybe Ford can explain the reasoning behind that decision. But it is a shame because I suspect that Ford would sell a ton of these vehicles if they had an option for 4 wheel drive. Having said that, there is no reason not to consider this front wheel drive Explorer. With the usual traction control, stability control, anti-lock braking overseers on board, you’ll be perfectly safe. Add a quality set of winter tires and you’re golden.

So after day two, I’m still pretty impressed. Tune in tomorrow to see if that continues.

This week is a bit of a departure for me. While I have reviewed cars in the past, they have been very short reviews. This week Ford Canada has provided me with a 2012 Ford Explorer Limited for the week. It a front wheel drive SUV with the new Ecoboost engine. It seats seven and comes with pretty much every option one could possibly need. I have to admit that this is a significant step up from what I am used to as the list price is just under $50K Canadian.

This vehicle has a lot to it, so I am going to do a six part review that will cover the following sections:

• Interior
• MyFord Touch and other technology in the vehicle.
• Engine and Fuel Economy
• Drive quality
• Wrap Up

Seeing as I’ve had the car for a couple of hours now, I do have some thoughts that I can share with you:

• This SUV is huge, but it doesn’t feel huge. Though I am still getting used to driving it having driven a much smaller Toyota Matrix, I’m not having any problems with how big it is.
• There is a ton of technology in the vehicle, and thus far it isn’t distracting. In fact it’s very helpful.
• The interior room is substantial.
• The engine has some get up and go to it.
• Everything I touch feels soft.
• So far, I’m not bothered by the fact that this vehicle has front wheel drive (you read that correctly, it’s front wheel drive and not all wheel drive).

So will I have a positive view of this vehicle by the end of the review? Tune in tomorrow to find out.