So I've pretty much decided I'm going to buy an 05 Expy 4x4 after the first of the year. I'm trying to decide between XLT Sport and NBX. I've priced them both out and with the options I want, the prices are pretty close -- invoice for XLT Sport is 36752 and NBX is 36590. Here's the difference between them, as I understand it:

NBX comes with cloth captain's chairs standard. No big deal, I know I want them in any case. NBX also has the roof rack cross-bars, which I don't really care about (and isn't included in the XLT Sport price above).

NBX has the "textured" lower body cladding, bumper, and grille in Med Dark Platinum (like the XLT). XLT Sport has the smooth (painted) glossy lower body cladding, with matching bumper and wheel lip molding, in Dark Shadow Grey, and a Sparkle Silver grille.

NBX and XLT Sport both have the black tubular step bars. (XLT has the running boards.)

XLT Sport has aluminum wheels which work with the tire pressure sensing feature (same as XLT). NBX has chromed steel wheels which do not support tire pressure sensing.

And of course, NBX comes with skid plates, off-road shocks, tinted headlamp lenses, and the rubber floor mats & cargo area. None of these are available on XLT or XLT Sport.

Am I missing anything? I like the painted body cladding, wheel lip moldings, and grille of the XLT Sport, but I also like the skid plates and floor/cargo mats of the NBX. One thing I'm wondering, would the tire pressure sensing work on the NBX if I put a set of the aluminum wheels on it?

Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

-Tom

 

Floor mats, cargo liner & skid plates can be ordered from your local Ford parts dealer. Seems to me that it'd be easier to install those items on an XLT than trying to get the tire pressure monitoring system to work on an NBX.