The first 20,000 miles on my Sport
Written: Feb 17 '00 (Updated Mar 13 '01)
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Pros: solidly built, fun to drive
Cons: mileage could be better
The Bottom Line: A good, solid, small truck.
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| jimNtexas's Full Review: 2001 Ford Explorer Sport |
On February 3, 2000, I purchased a 2000 Ford Explorer Sport. I have now driven it 8,000 miles. This review covers why I chose the Sport and describes my impressions.
My prior vehicle was a 1991 Ford Thunderbird that has over 200,000 miles and is still running pretty well. Unfortunately it sprang a serious oil leak. The leak is dripping on the exhaust pipe, and so the car is smoking like Dr. Koop's worst nightmare. Rather than "invest" several hundred dollars in my old car I decided to take the plunge and get a new car.
I needed to be able to transport myself, my wife, and our 12 year old son. I wanted to be able to occasionally tow a small trailer and carry "stuff" around. I don't need to go off road. Probably a station wagon would have been best, but I am a man and live in Texas. I didn't want to spend much over $20K. I wanted something a little smaller than my TBird, so I decided to evaluate the various 2 door SUVs.
I had spent 1991 driving a Jeep Cherokee (http://www.jump.net/~jnhtx/PilSung/Jeep2.jpg) when I was operations officer at an Air Force bombing range. I literally drove it through bomb craters. I drove it offroad every day. I drove it in pouring rain, ice, snow, and dust and it never let me down. It's seats and interior were primitive, but off road Jeep rules. I fully expected that I would like the Jeep the best, but I was wrong.
I found the two Jeep dealers in Austin very difficult to deal with. One added $1000 to every sticker for a pinstripe, fabric protector, and a coat of wax. We walked out of there and went to the other Jeep dealer. The salesman wasn't interested in letting us test drive, she wanted a lot of personal information first, she wanted to know about trade-ins, our income, etc. I finally got mad and got up and left. The manager ran after me waving as I drove away, and I wound up getting a test drive. I liked it, but the seats were thin, the engine ran rough, and I don't like the tire in the cargo compartment. The interior seemed cramped. For some reason the right seat seemed more narrow than the left. I have to admit that had we encountered a good salesman then the Cherokee might have been more of a player, since the bad vibes from the dealers probably made me more picky about the car. I will say that if you read the Epinons here closely you hear about more quality problems from the Jeep owners than the Ford owners, although both camps seem to love their trucks.
I then drove a Blazer, which I liked in a lot of ways. It was the most carlike of the lot. You can get a limited slip differential without a high axle ratio. In general, you can custom build a GM truck more than most others. GM lists almost everything as separate options, while Ford and the Japanese companies tend to put options in packages only. The Blazer is both the smallest and heaviest in its class. The two door Blazer has a very tiny cargo area that is dominated by a full sized spare. It was down right hard to move the seat out of the way of the rear seat passenger. The seat sliding mechanism felt like something off a 1949 tractor, or perhaps something pounded out by an apprentice blacksmith. I just wasn't excited by the Blazer. The salesman was OK, but still had his own agenda. I told him I wanted to drive a two door Blazer and told him what options I wanted. He wanted to know the color I wanted. I told him it didn't matter, I wasn't buying that day, but he insisted. When I told him "red", we had to spend half an hour wandering through the inventory trying to find a red Blazer like I wanted. He refused to let me drive one in another color.
I went to the Ford dealer and drove the Sport. The salesman scored points by not quibbling with me. I told him I wanted to drive a 2 door Sport with the SOHC engine, and that I wasn't buying that day. He said "sure", and we went out in the lot and found one equipped like I wanted and we drove off. The first thing I noticed was that when I drove over the large speed bumps in the parking there were NO squeaks, rattles, or groans. This continues to be something I like about the Sport. It's very solidly built.
The last 2 cars I purchased were Nissans, and I really liked the Nissan Pathfinder, but they were a bit more expensive than the Ford. If I had a requirement to go offroad I'd have gone to another Jeep dealer and driven another Cherokee. In the end I felt like the Sport was a more comfortable and better built car for on road use. I keep my cars 8 to 10 years, so I wanted something that would hold up over the long run.
To summarize a month of agonizing, I wound up buying one of the last year 2000 Sports (the 2001 models started shipping in late January 2000).
Things I like about the Sport are :
1) The interior is solid and comfortable. The included floor mats and cargo mat fit like gloves.
2) Very strong SOHC V-6. The Ford people say that this engine has 20% fewer moving parts than the older V6. It is made in Germany.
3) The large cargo area. The Explorer sits high and so can accommodate the spare tire underneath the car. I have some concerns about the high center-of-gravity, but so far the handling seems very solid. I'm sure the Jeep has more roll stability than the Sport, but both are better than most Japanese SUVs which are usually fairly narrow (in Japan, the wider the vehicle the higher the tax).
4) All the switches are backlite, including those on the armrests and steering wheel.
5) This is very nimble vehicle. It is wide, but short. Parking is a pleasure. The steering has great feel, and it feels like frisky puppy of a car. It of course much easier to maneuver in tight places than my Thunderbird, and I was surprised to find that it is actually easier to park than our Nissan Altima.
I was glad to see that this Ford didn't have one of those stupid oval shaped radios. I have the dual media radio, which works well. It has great AM and the sound is good. The radio has more buttons than the space shuttle. There is a higher end version if you want it.
The cruise control works better than the one in my Thunderbird. The TBird's cruise is fairly lazy, but the Sport nails the speed. The instrument panel is gages for the important stuff, plus a million or so warning lights, including a useless "theft" light that flashes when the car is off. As near as I can tell this light has no real function since the vehicle has only a passive antitheft system.
Because the vehicle sits so very high, disabled people or people wearing high heels may have trouble climbing into it. We got the step, and my wife uses it to get in. She still wishes we'd got a four door, but I didn't want another behemoth and I didnt want to spend another $2-4k. Our skinny kid has no trouble getting into the back seat.
I have not encountered any problems on rough pavement, but I can see that due to the short wheelbase and high center-of-gravity that the vehicle could surprise you if you drove onto a washboard at too high a speed.
This is really a truck, and the ride feels firm when it is empty. With some load in the back, the ride is very smooth. It really seems to enjoy hauling heavy loads in the cargo compartment.
I really wish that Ford would adopt an "air conditioner on" button the way the Japanese and Chrysler cars have their air conditioner controls. My feet get hot sometimes, and in my Nissan I can direct the cold air onto my feet. The Ford will output cold air only through the vents. The air conditioner works well, I was recently stuck in traffic in 105F degree weather and it cooled off nicely in the "max" position while stationary, and in the normal position while the car was actually moving. It's not quite as strong as a Nissan a/c, but still good. I wish the rear seat vents were available as a separate option rather than part of an expensive appearance package.
This car gets about 16-17mph for both highway and local driving.
The vehicle seemed to drift right a bit more than I like. The salesman swore up and down that this was an intentional safety feature, but at the first service they realigned the front end and now it tracks like it was on rails. Other than that small problem, the car was the first I've ever had (including Japanese cars) that was delivered defect-free.
Recently the engine on my 1995 Altima exploded (no joke!) 180 miles from home. I rented a trailer and towed it back using my Sport. The Sport seemed to enjoy towing, I no problems whatever. I did turn off the transmission overdrive per the recommendation of my Ford mechanic.
Update at 20,000: No major problems so far, but 3 minor irritations:
irritation 1: The center console lid is hinged at the back with a plastic hinge. It snapped off. Haven't the designer ever heard of Archimedes?
irritation 2: My Firestone tires were not recalled, but they seem to suffer from frequent slow air leaks. So far there isn't noticeable tread wear, but I'm looking forward to replacing them with another brand someday.
irritation 3: The passenger seat belt inertial reel locks up when it should not. The dealer didn't fix it at the last service, so I'm going to have to take it back for another try.
I enjoy my Sport a lot and think that it is a lot of truck for the Money.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 19500
Condition: New
Model Year: 2000
Model and Options: base
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Epinions.com ID:
jimNtexas
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Member: Jim Howard
Location: Austin, Tx
Reviews written: 51
Trusted by: 26 members
About Me:
I've been a geek longer than word "geek" has been around.
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