1) Diesel
2) Room for luggage behind the 3rd seat
3) Fuel tank capacity

4WD comes in handy occassionally but for my use a limited slip differential would accomplish almost the same thing. Towing capacity is in the same boat. It is nice to have but if pulling larger (over 4 ton) trailers often I would personally prefer a pickup with a 5th wheel.

 

Size.
Safety, as in body on full frame.
Price ($8,000 discount).

 

Love Ford... I had a '97 F250 Crew Cab with the 460 and it was starting to get rusty. I randomly spotted a deal on a 2000 Limited V10 that is pretty much mint. I was a Florida truck. I've always liked the Excursion. I can't wait to do all sorts of upgrades, lift kit, wheels, lights etc.

This is a great forum, I have been prowling for a while, first post.

 

Welcome to FTE! I've got your Ex's sister (that sounds all wrong, huh?) -- a 2000 Limited V10 that spent most of its life in Florida.

 

Oh yea I almost forgot, I have no real need for a vehicle this large with seating for 8, I just like it. I do plan to use it off road as I did with my F250HD. We have a lot of woods up here in VT.

 

I bought it because they are cool, period. No kids, no boat, not trailer.

 

That is exactly what I was trying to say.
In some ways it takes a little getting used to... there are some things that are great about a pick-up... but over all I think I will get more use out of more enclosed space. Also It really surprised me to find out just how much shorter the wheel base is vs. the F250, it really makes it a lot easier to turn around in tight spaces. I think the WB on the Ex is almost 3' shorter than my F250 was.

 

Started out with Ford Explorers to pull my little 20' ski boat: '90, '93, '96 (they don't call them Exploders for no reason!)

Bought a Tahoe in '98 but the wife said it was too big for her to drive.

Bought a '99 Dodge 5.9L Durango because it was bigger and more powerful than the Explorer but smaller and more maneuverable than the Tahoe for the wife. After 10 years of great service from the Dodge with the exception of a blown headgasket from their crappy factory tune that was fixed under warranty then de-tuned by an ecu re-flash to prevent blowing another head gasket that killed the power and mpg. I fixed that with a Hypertech tuner and ran the truck the next 7 years on the 87 octane tune with Premium fuel and it got great gas mileage, made good power and never lost another head gasket. I had no problems with ball joints even though several dealers tried to scam me out of $2k worth of work when that fiasco was happening.

Finally got to the point that I had 3 kids and a race car w/trailer and the Durango was suddenly too small and didn't have enough power to confidently pull the trailer and all my gear up the grade to Laguna Seca. My wife wanted a Mini-van for hauling all the kids (and because all her friends had them and they have some pretty well decked out Mini-van's now) but they get horrible gas mileage so she would have to keep her Subaru Outback Sport for commuting in and the mini-van wouldn't tow my trailer so I would have to keep the Durango and that would add ANOTHER car to our "permanent" fleet... I already have too many vehicles between the race cars, show cars and project cars I didn't want to **** the neighbors off anymore than I already have so it had to be something that could replace the Durango AND fill the mini-van requirements.

I told my wife the next truck we got would be a turbo diesel for better fuel economy and crazy torque for towing which put me square in Excursion territory. If the Expedition had come with a turbo diesel I would have made the mistake of getting one and I know I would have regretted not getting the Excursion so I'm glad Ford doesn't offer the Expedition with that option.

Since they weren't making new one's I spent a little over a year researching and looking for the right one. I finally saw one on Craigslist that caught my eye one city over and I jumped in the truck and drove over to look at it. '04 (leaf spring front axle) Black Limited (quad buckets) 6.0L (I'm familiar with the risks and I have a 2-post 12k lb lift in my garage and a couple friends who are Diesel mechanics, 1 Dodge & 1 Ford - Yes listening to them argue about which is better the 6BT Cummins vs. 7.3 PSD is quite entertaining) w/130k on the odometer and a BANKS Turbo upgrade and tuner with speedbrake. I was more interested in the speedbrake than the bigger turbo and tuner but I'll take the icing on the cake at $15,400. Given that I was planning to spend about $20-22k I have $7k set aside for "upgrades" to reduce the probability of the typical 6.0L problems.

First trip was from San Francisco to Disneyland in Anaheim with all three kids and 10 days worth of luggage. After the truck was all loaded my wife looked at the back and asked "are you sure we have everything?" Normally it was piled to the roof in the Durango but in the Ex it didn't fill up above the top of the barn doors! I would actually be able to see out the back window on this trip! Until the kids flipped the new 15" DVD player down from the ceiling completely blocking my rear-view mirror... Oh well, I wasn't planning to use it anyway! The DVD entertainment system kept the kids miraculously quite the entire trip. Driving over the GrapeVine I had the cruise control on 75 and the truck never hesitated or got hot. The only noticeable change in the truck was the turbo gauge picked up about 2 or 3 more psi while going up the grade.

Got back from that trip the day before Thanksgiving and my wife tells me "I absolutely love this truck!" She drove the entire Girl Scout troop around Christmas caroling last week and had no trouble maneuvering.

The next big trip will be towing the race car to Portland International Raceway in January. Now that this board has taught me how to take the slop out of the steering that should be a much more enjoyable trip!

Sorry for the long post! Carry on!

 

1, Excursions are shorter than 4 door superdutys, overall length and wheelbase.

2, My lift and my bumpers from my F350 fit on the excursion....the rear took some work but it fit

3, I like having the covered cargo section over a truck bed....it stays cleaner when mudding

 

I had three Suburbans that were fine. But, I really needed something that would safely tow 9K+. My first X was a 2000 V-10 purchased in '02. While it did the trick, I have always wanted a diesel. I spotted a blacked out new '04 X on the dealer's lot and had to take it home. Happy ever since, although it will need a new coat of paint before it goes into the ground with me!

 

I've always loved the looks of the SD pickups and Excursions....once the van stopped cutting it for road trips I was able to talk the wife into the beast....now she loves it to...

 

Our Explorer was getting small for a family of 5 so we needed to look for something else. Looked at minivans, but my wife can't stand them.(I didn't shed any tears over that one) We wanted something that would fit us comfortably, get resonable milleage for it's size and tow 4-5000lbs without a problem. I have friends with Burbs and the interior just doesn't seem to hold up, so we looked at the Expedition. Those were pricey and I wanted the new engines that Ford wasn't putting in them. So, instead we spent less and picked up a PSD Excursion. More than what we need right now, but we love it.

 

As young as I can remember my dad had a Ford...Ranger, then a F100...learned to drive in a late 80s F150 4 door long bed 4x4 stick shift.

Bought a 97 Expedition 4x4 5.4 that served me well, swore I'd drive the wheels off of it. Started working with our FDs SAR team and pulling one of our equipment trailers. With 4 burly guys in the rig with me, all of our gear in the back and the trailer and 190,000 on the odo (140,000 were my miles), the Expy was at the limits of its capabilities, so the 2000 Ex replaced it.

I think I'll put a good 200k on the Excursion before I even think of looking at my next Ford.

 

I had had a Chevy Suburban that I drove for 10 years. Then a GMC Yukon (too small). I drove an Excursion on a girls trip. Rented one in California for 5 women. I drove it on Hwy 1 and said I had to have one. That was in 2003. In '05 when they were ending production I just had to do it. I can haul our dog boxes and anything else I need. It truly is the King of SUVs. So I have that King and the King of Vettes - the ZR1. What majesty I have in my garage.

 

1. Size & Carrying Capacity.
2. Safety
3. Power
4. Feel like I own the Road!