Who Likes Trucks? (not me)
Written: Oct 13 '01
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Reliability: |
 |
|
| Seat Comfort: |
|
|
| Build Quality |
 |
|
| Handling And Control: |
|
|
|
Pros: Rear Seat Room, Powerful V6, Lots of Options
Cons: Rough Ride, Odd Styling
The Bottom Line: A great attempt at having it all. If you need rear seat room and a pickup bed, the Sport-Trac is just the ticket.
|
|
|
| BrianCam's Full Review: 2001 Ford Explorer Sport Trac |
I am not a big truck fan, never have been. It could be because trucks were merely work vehicles when I was growing up, and even as I approached driving age. When I was a kid, trucks were always stripped down and offered little in the way of comfort. It’s hard to say when this changed exactly, but it did change. Many modern trucks are more comfortable and luxurious than their car counterparts. GMC’s Yukon trucks and Ford’s Lincoln Navigator are perfect examples.
Now we are entering a new era of truck and truck usefulness. For a few years now, auto makers have been attempting to sell us on the “crossover” vehicle. A crossover vehicle is simply a combination of two, previously unrelated, type of cars. The Audi All Road is a crossover vehicle – part SUV, and part station wagon. The old GMC Syclone and the current Ford F-150 Lightning are crossover vehicles of sorts, part sports car, and part truck.
The latest fad in the crossover world: SUV’s with pickup truck beds. The Lincoln Blackwood, Chevrolet Avalanche, and Ford Explorer Sport Trac are all examples of vehicles that started life as a simple SUV, then mutated into some kind of SUV/truck/crew cab/pickup thing. The result is generally quite unpleasant. The 3 previously mentioned vehicles are nothing short of pure ugly, and most of these vehicles leave the owner with diminished people capacity, and limited cargo capacity. But remember, I’m not a truck guy, so maybe I’m biased.
The Ford Explorer Sport Trac is a valiant attempt at trying to combine the best of two worlds – small SUV and pickup. In the crew cab segment, there are plenty of good choices. Models such as the Toyota Tacoma, Nissan Frontier, Chevy S-10 and Dodge Dakota all offer crew cab configurations. The Sport Trac is different, it started life as an SUV (the Explorer) and ended up having a truck bed grafted to the rear. All the other crew cabs began life as exactly what they are, pickup trucks. A true, equal to the other brands would be a Ford Ranger crew cab, however Ford has wisely chose the Explorer platform from which to build a new SUV. The Explorer has been one of the best selling SUVs of all time – Ford knows not to mess with success. While the all new Explorer is a vast improvement over the old, the Explorer Sport-Trac will make due with last years platform.
On the road, the Explorer Sport-Trac’s aging heritage is obvious. The ride is a bit bouncy, and uneven pavement is a very unpleasant experience. Handling is fair, and only gets worse when pressed hard. Speed bumps seem to be this trucks nemesis. Approach speed bumps at crawl, anything faster will result in lots of bouncing. There is some interior noise as well as engine noise, but it’s not intrusive. The cabin is much quieter than a Ranger, but not as quiet as the S-10 or Tacoma crew cabs. The Sport-Trac lacks the smoothness of the Toyota. Acceleration is more than adequate, and the Sport Trac has the competition beat hands down with more horsepower than any other V6 crew cab truck. The Sport-Trac’s 205 hp is obvious when passing at highway speeds, or simply merging onto the highway from a stop. The S-10 and Tacoma both have 190 hp, the Dakota 175 hp, and the Frontier (non supercharged) offers 170. The Dakota is available with a V8, something the others lack. Although the Sport-Trac is at the high end of the price range for mid size crew cab trucks, the extra power alone may be worth the money.
Inside the Sport-Trac is a rugged looking yet somewhat luxurious interior. Leather seats are a worthwhile option as they seem softer and more comfortable than their cloth counterparts. The leather group option includes a power driver seat, overhead console with compass and temperature display, front center console and separate rear audio and climate controls. That’s quite a bargain for about $900, still I couldn’t help but want a power passenger seat as well. Remember, this is a $27,000 truck when equipped with leather, a CD changer and a sunroof. Even though it is part of an option package and not included in the base price, rear audio and climate controls are not even available on the Nissan, Chevy, Dodge, or Toyota (again the advantage of basing the Sport-Trac on the Explorer rather than a pickup truck). The rear seat room is far greater than any of the other offerings. A minor complaint is the lack of steering wheel mounted audio controls. The cruise control functions should be move to the side like on many Toyotas, leaving room for audio and ventilation controls on the steering wheel. This is only an issue because the radio seems like such a reach from the driver’s seat. Most other controls are logical and easy to understand, yet lack the wonderful ergonomics of most Toyota products. The Sport-Trac has an excellent center console, with lots of space, two cup holders and an open storage area for sunglasses, wallet etc.
Here is the bottom line: the Explorer Sport-Trac is not a great vehicle, the ride alone is enough to turn many buyers off. The other mid size crew cab trucks are also better looking. That being said, the Sport-Trac excels in a few VERY important areas. 1) The Sport-Trac offers real world utility in a fairly luxurious package. 2) The Sport-Trac offers ample rear seat room – 4 or 5 adults can ride comfortably, that’s not true of the other crew cab trucks. 3) The Sport-Trac has the most powerful engine in this class without sacrificing fuel economy (19mpg highway isn’t bad for a truck). It only seems like 3 strong points, but I would argue those 3 points account for 90% of what shoppers are looking for in an SUV or crew cab pickup. Looks are subjective, and trucks ride like trucks. Take away those two factors and the Explorer Sport-Trac is the best vehicle in its class by far.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 26690
Condition: New
Model Year: 2001
Model and Options: 4x4 w/ leather package
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
BrianCam
|
 - Top 200 |
|
Member: Brian Moody
Location: S. CALIFORNIA
Reviews written: 117
Trusted by: 114 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.