At a press conference at the Detroit Auto Show, Ford's presidente de las Américas Mark Fields has rechristened Ford's former cash cow a "Smart Utility Vehicle." In other words, the new Ford Explorer will be a unit-body vehicle with "best in class" towing. Yes, well, the D3 chassis upon which the Explorer will sit on is something of a loser, having failed to ignite sales for the Ford Taurus, Taurus X, Five Hundred; Mercury Sable and Volvo S80 (the Swede with the more expensive aluminum springy bits underneath). On the positive side, the Explorer will get the new Twin-Force– sorry, "Eco-Boost" twin-turbo, which looks like one Hell of a motor. The changes to the Explorer are designed to stem the model's rapid and stratospheric fall from grace; down 23.1 percent this year alone. But the introduction of a new cuter ute also represents a gamble that the Explorer's non-real-SUV fans (a.k.a. concrete cowboys) haven't already left for greener pastures. Not to mention all the "real" truck fans who won't touch the new model with a ten foot pole. Besides, how many crossovers does Ford actually need?
Click here for more TTAC pictures of the Explorer America
[Reported by Sajeev Mehta]
Pretty pathetic when Detroit keeps going back to the SUV/Truck models that were popular in the 20th century. This is now the 21st century and the world has changed and shifted on it axis. People are anticipating $4 or 5 gas and are making purchasing plans to work that into their budget. Meanwhile Ford and Detroit keep going back to the old way of thinking and keep trying to milk a dead cow. If this is the best that Detroit/Ford can do, they they will be destined for the dustbin of automotive history. Toyota, Honda and others will gladly build the vehicles that Americans want/need to be able to afford to drive with the new energy price reality.
Wow! That is one dumb looking car! I have never been a fan of SUV’s, but the Explorer has always been attractive for the genre. Well, they’ve fixed that! This is all so sad.
Meanwhile Ford and Detroit keep going back to the old way of thinking and keep trying to milk a dead cow. If this is the best that Detroit/Ford can do, they they will be destined for the dustbin of automotive history. Toyota, Honda and others will gladly build the vehicles that Americans want/need to be able to afford to drive with the new energy price reality.
Au contraire, Ford, with this concept, is following the Toyonda example to the letter. Who can argue with that, right?
Excellent reference to Willie Nelson in the caption, by the way, Robert.
Speaking directly to the article, as a “real” truck fan I can sympathize with the author’s statement that they won’t touch this vehicle. Many will, as the name equity will still attract enough, but this move won’t spur any new sales, especially with the Edge already onstream. More unforgivable than the move to unibody is the FWD configuration. At least there’s still the Expedition.
I take it this must be Ford’s equivalent of the CX-9 and they’re calling it a day, with 3 other crossovers in the muddle in a sea of anonymous CUVs.
Another great photo caption, I agree. But with all due respect to Willie’s cover of “City of New Orleans, it must be noted that the standard for Steve Goodman’s great anthem to America was set in 1972 by Arlo Guthrie and the studio’s technical wizards. For a fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpse of how performers and techies create music, see:
http://mixonline.com/recording/interviews/audio_arlo_guthries_city/
How many crossovers does one car company really need?
Why doesn’t Ford save themselves a bag of cash and just re-badge the CX-9? It seems to be the darling of the automotive press and they are moving quite fast at my local Mazda dealer – so why develop yet another 7 seat CUV?
I’m presuming that the Taurus X gets the axe when this comes out, right? Ford will still have the Edge & Flex in addition to this On-Road Explorer.
Carguy I thought the Ford Edge was a fraternal twin of the CX 9
Right – the Edge and CX-9 are cousins, although the Mazda gets the more important third row seat.
Looks better than the Pilot “concept” even though its a rip off of Nissan’s Dunehawk from a couple years ago.
The Edge is actually the sibling of the CX-7 and based on the Mazda 6, so I don’t see too much overlap there. This Explorer design is rational when you view the plummeting sales of the current version. It has to change into a more efficient vehicle. However, in the context of their upcoming line-up, most notably the Flex and Taurus X (if not cancelled) which are based on the same platform, it does seem rather redundant. Also, the chances of this vehicle wieghing in at less than the outgoing Explorer are slim to none, so I fail to see where they’ll improve the efficiency by going to the unibody design. And unibody vehicles are more expensive to build than their body on frame counterparts. Perhaps the SUV fans who don’t use their SUV for anything other than people moving (which is most of them) will prefer the chunkier styling of this SUV and move enough of them to lower costs and improve profits for all of its siblings.
Escape, Taurus X, Explorer, Flex, Edge.
Why such hyper-segmentation, Ford ?
This new Explorer, with it’s macho boxy styling, will replace the both the old body-on-frame Explorer and the Taurus X. It will be a direct competitor to the GM’s Enclave/Outlook/Acadia/Traverse.
GM is reportedly going to discontinue the Saab 9-7X/Isuzu Ascender/GMC Envoy/Chevy TrailBlazer and is looking to the Enclave/Outlook/Acadia/Traverse and possible future derivatives to replace them.
People who want something with a higher towing capacity will buy a GMC Yukon or Chevy Tahoe in GM’s case, or a Ford Expedition in Ford’s.
It’s hardly an original move on Ford’s part, just another example of meeting the competition directly, but with the “cachet” of the Explorer name.
And another one american platform is going to push up daisies. Why can`t we call the events the real names? Let`s face it! The next generation Explorer is going to be built on a japanese Mazda 6 platform. leaving ford with how many NA engineered platforms? 1? just let me get this straight……wait a minute, so you are trying to say that the third biggest car manufacturer in the world has 1( one, ein, uno) of its own engineered platforms?