Why I Bought an Explorer Again
Written: Oct 29 '01
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Pros: great handling and turning radius, safety and convenience features
Cons: gas mileage
The Bottom Line: Excellent vehicle for hauling around all my stuff
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| murasaki's Full Review: 2000 Ford Explorer 4WD |
Last spring, I needed to trade in my rear-wheel drive 1994 Explorer Sport for a four-wheel drive or front-wheel drive vehicle since I was in the process of moving to a cold weather climate. If I’d moved to a warmer climate or remained in Virginia, I would not have parted with my Explorer because it was such a great vehicle and had been easy to maintain, and it was paid off.
My husband and I decided that I should look at SUVs exclusively because having one in the family allows us to do partial do-it-yourself moves for which the government will pay us for the amount of household goods we move ourselves, rather than the commercial moving company contracted to move the bulk of our things; it’s like getting a bonus for bringing along the luggage and essentials that we’d take with us anyway. Also, my husband was very insistent that I continue to drive an SUV for safety reasons.
I began test-driving SUVs and looking around for potential replacements. In the process, I drove a Nissan Pathfinder, a Nissan Exterra, a Ford Escape, a Ford 4-door XLT Explorer, a Mazda Liberty, a Mercury Mountaineer (all new), and various used models, including a 2000 Ford Explorer. Since neither of us wanted to shell out $30,000+ for a new SUV, a used vehicle was more within our budget. In all of my test-driving experiments, I found that I liked best the handling and turning radius of my 1994 Explorer and the other Explorers I test drove and decided that I would be happiest with another Explorer and narrowed my search accordingly.
On April 2, I purchased a white, 2000 Ford 4-door XLT Explorer. This particular vehicle had been a rental car, auctioned off after a year, still under the manufacturer’s warranty, and had nearly 24,000 miles on it. In the seven months I’ve owned the vehicle, I’ve put another 10,000 miles on it with moving from Virginia to New England, going back for our wedding, and various trips between my duty station and my husband’s on the weekends as well as regular day-to-day use.
Gas Mileage
The 2000 model I purchased gets slightly worse gas mileage than the 1994 Sport I owned. The 1994 Explorer had a standard transmission and was about a foot smaller without the additional passenger doors. My gas mileage hovers around 15mpg in town and 19mpg on the highway. Since I have less of a commute, my fuel costs have gone down significantly, rather than up. However, this is not a fuel-efficient vehicle.
Features
Safety Features: The 2000 Explorer XLT has anti-lock brakes and dual front seat airbags. The vehicle comes equipped with a remote keyless entry system and an anti-theft system. The ignition key has a chip inside it so that the vehicle cannot be started except with the ignition key (or by a really good professional car thief). The driver’s side door also has a keypad so that if I lock the keys in the car, I can punch in the code to open the driver’s door only and retrieve the keys. I’ve found this feature very useful when I want to go running: I lock the house keys in the car, run, and unlock the car using the keypad so I’m not carrying keys with me (or losing them) while I exercise.
The remote keyless entry system unlocks the driver’s side door with one touch. With two touches, it unlocks the rest of the vehicles. I like this feature because I can control unlocking the doors independent of each other: by only unlocking the driver’s door, I can jump in and lock that door quickly, possibly preventing an assailant from getting into the car through another door.
The windows have a lock feature controlled by the driver which has come in handy. During our drive from Virginia to New York, we allowed the cats out of their crates. As they wandered around the interior of the vehicle, one of my cats stepped on the window control of one of the back passenger doors and the window began to roll down. I immediately flipped on the lock and rolled the window back up so that my cat wouldn’t get any bright ideas about jumping out of the car at 70mph. I believe this feature will also come in handy when I have children in the car.
Cool Gadgets: The 2000 Explorer has a CD player in the dash, as well as cassette and an AM/FM radio. The vehicle came equipped with cruise control; air-conditioning; rear air-conditioning (which my cats and other passengers appreciate); two visors each for the driver and front passenger seats; spare tire mounted underneath; lots of cargo space (about a foot more than the Explorer Sport); six-way adjustable driver’s seat with tilted steering wheel; power locks, windows and mirrors; two cup holders in the console that accommodate different sizes of drink containers; and an extra charging outlet that my husband uses for his Palm. The overhead compartment for sunglasses is too small for the case, but too rough to put my sunglasses in. The temperature feature is nice, but I find the compass fairly useless and could do without it. I opted for a vehicle with cloth seats instead of leather because I find leather to be sticky in the summertime and too cold in the winter.
Repairs and Maintenance
Unlike my 1994 Explorer, I’ve taken the 2000 Explorer to a dealership twice and had it repaired under the warranty. (I did not purchase the additional warranty since my last Explorer was so reliable and the manufacturer’s warranty on this vehicle is good until December 2002.) The first repair was for the back window wiper. At first it worked, but sporadically, and eventually quit working at all. The motor was burned out and replaced. I noticed that I had to ensure that the wiper is properly positioned after opening and closing the cargo window (which can be opened independently of the cargo door). The wiper is positioned so that it sometimes gets trapped when the window closes. I’m fairly sure that the wiper was trapped and various rental car drivers would turn on the rear wiper and just leave it on, burning out the motor even when the wiper wasn’t working.
The second time I took the Explorer in because the ABS light came on when I started the vehicle and stayed on, indicating that the anti-lock brake system had disabled itself because of a problem. My assumption was correct, and the service department made the necessary adjustments to the brakes that had caused the ABS to disable itself.
Like the 1994 Explorer, the 2000 Explorer has all the owner/operator parts marked in yellow: the oil dipstick, the battery, the various liquid wells. I’ve had the oil changed once since purchase and it’s due again. At the oil change, no other repairs or maintenance were needed other than the oil was a quart low when I brought it in.
I am slightly annoyed that I had to bring the vehicle into the dealership for service at all, since I did not once use the warranty on my first Explorer. But the repairs were free so I can’t complain too loudly.
Handling
As I stated above, I kept coming back to the Explorer because it handled so much better than the other SUVs I test-drove, even the slightly longer 4-door model. While driving an SUV statistically protects you more in accidents, I see SUV drivers all the time flouting the road conditions and driving like maniacs. Newsflash people: an SUV will protect one more in an accident, but isn’t it better to not be in an accident in the first place? If the road conditions are hazardous due to snow or rain, driving an SUV does not give one license to continue to drive at 70mph when everyone else is going 45mph. The high speeds in bad weather conditions not only endangers oneself and one’s passengers, it also endangers the other drivers on the road who have more respect for the necessity of slowing down in bad weather.
My other rant concerns the stability of the Explorer. The vehicle does have a higher center of gravity than a car or some of the smaller SUVs. Driving an SUV requires some adjustments: one often has to take curves more slowly so that the vehicle won’t tip over. The Explorer is very stable, if one drives it keeping in mind the higher center of gravity. If you think you’re a racecar or stunt driver, this is not the vehicle for you.
Cost
With my trade-in and some bargaining, I paid just under $19,000 for my used 2000 Explorer, which actually worked out to a little bit more than what I paid for my new 1994 Explorer. The 2000 Explorer, at the time of purchase in my area, had a Kelley Blue Book retail value of approximately $25,000, so I felt like I got a good deal. Of course, the dealership low-balled the trade-in value of my Explorer, but I bargained them down to the price range I wanted ($18-19,000).
[I have a theory about why dealerships low-ball trade-ins: The consumer pays the sales tax on the new car. If the buyer trades in a car, the purchase price is lowered accordingly and the buyer pays sales tax on that price. The dealership, however, would have to pay sales tax on the used trade-in (I assume). To pass that sales tax along to the buyer, the dealership tries to get the used car price as low as possible to reduce their tax while the buyer has to pay more in sales tax on the new car. Since I am a service member with residency in Nevada, I don’t have to pay sales tax when I buy a car so the amount I got for my trade-in mattered very little to me as long as I got the overall price I wanted. This is not the case for most car-buyers. If you know why dealerships low-ball the trade-in values, please satisfy my curiosity and leave a comment.]
Overall
I highly recommend the 2000 Ford Explorer XLT. The standard items are very convenient and easy to use, the vehicle is easy to maintain. I have plenty of cargo room for moving 600-800 pounds of my things, or even waiving furniture delivery fees and transporting pieces of furniture home myself. I love this Explorer almost as much as I loved my first one.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 19000
Condition: Used
Model Year: 2000
Model and Options: XLT
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murasaki
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