My girlfriend is in the market to replace her 07 Lexus RX350, She really likes the newer Explorers and fell in love with a 15 model on the local Ford lot with the 401A package. Not knowing much about them are there any really stand-out-ish issues with them to be aware of. It will be used strictly as her commuter, anything else like towing will be handled by my 00 diesel Excursion.

Shes also been looking at getting other than the Explorer a newer Lexus RX350, the Infiniti, and possibly an Audi, all slightly used suv's nothing new.

Thanks for the feedback

 

I would caution against the Audi, having turned one in before the expensive repairs got too bad

As stated in other threads, she (and I) love the 13 Explorer sport...
but we are in Texas were she can exercise it every once in a while

she gets about 20.2 mpg indicated running around dfw and we've not had an issue with the running gear in the first 26k miles...

Now, The Sync & Nav is another issue - need I say more than another fine Microsoft product ?!?

 

I've been driving a '14 Sport for just about a year now. I'm still not sure if I would buy it again, but I do have a couple of observations.

The power if fun. Handling under foot-on-the-floor acceleration; not so great. Quite a bit of torque steer which the stability control tries to fight. But then I guess I shouldn't be driving like that.

I used to drive an F350. My old and tired back couldn't take the beating any more. This thing rides and handles great. But it is LOW. At about the three month mark, on the interstate I encountered a piece of tire tread from an 18 wheeler. No place to swerve to in traffic. In a pickup, no problem. In an Explorer, $260.00 for a new front valence panel. I got away cheap.

Some of Ford's better ideas:

No day time running lights - most insurance companies give a discount for these.
Shut off engine, passenger gets out and closes door, horn honks twice. ????? This is great when dropping off at 2 AM.
Engine running, DRIVER gets out and closes door, horn honks twice.
Capless fuel fill makes the use of a modern gas can impossible.
Sync & Nav - BLARGH!

I'll probably keep it for another year or so. Then its back to a Pickup.

 

Thanks for the info gentleman, this is the kind of stuff I'm looking for, the little quirks that most people usually dont mention that can become quite annoying.

The ride height I dont think would be much of a concern other than obstacle avoidance, its for the girlfriend and shes barely 5' tall, watching her climb into the Excursion is quite funny. She is used to having more ground clearance though, her current Lexus has almost as much clearance as an older first gen Explorer.

Thanks again for the info

 

Note that the sport is substantially lower than the non-sports...

PupNDuck,
if you weren't bringing those jr high girls home that late, the horn wouldn't be an issue