In 2004, I learned to drive in this red 1996 Explorer. It was my first time on the main road, granted it was not busy by any stretch of the imagination, but I was racked with nerves. I had been picked up by my dad who wanted me to drive him up to his mom's just a couple miles away. It was in May that year, so we had plenty of daylight left. He picks me up at my uncle's, where I had been playing video games. As soon as I get on that road, he tries speaking but frantically I tell him to shut up (or something to that effect)! He got some amusement out of that!

Within seconds, I was at ease with the road and I believe it was partially because of the vehicle I was driving. The steering is arguably my favorite aspect of driving this Explorer. It's so precise, yet has tremendous feedback. It's how steering in every vehicle should be. You also have excellent visibility with all the glass, unlike today's bunker windows and giant blindspots. Even as recently as Dec 2023, when I took the car on an extended drive (which it hadn't had in a few years), it was a joy to drive. You felt completely relaxed driving it, at least I did. I never felt rushed and maybe it's also because you know you're in something substantial. A real SUV.

Now, after 27 years of ownership, I told my 71 year old mother she has to say goodbye. It just doesn't make sense to dump a fortune into this car. There are numerous issues varying from minor (you can easily sprain your wrist trying to turn the rear hatch) to major (tires are dirt old, brakes have major issues) and cosmetically, while it may look good on the outside, the headliner is torn to shreds, the steering wheel is melted at the top, it has that "old car smell" that my dad's 92 F-250 started to get in the early 2010's. It's obviously worse on gas than it was rated for back in the day, which is to be expected with about 180k miles in a 29 year old SUV.

We found a 2010 Hyundai Sonata (the final good year of the model) the other day. It has 125k miles, everything works and aside from a slightly cracked dashboard, it is in tremendous shape inside and out. Best of all, it was selling for under 6k! I asked her if she wanted to move to a sedan after so many years driving an SUV and she said she no longer has a need for driving one. I feel a LOT of people can easily make the same transition, but I digress.

So here are a few pictures from 5 years ago when I washed it. At the time, I had a co-worker who had a 2017 (I think?) Explorer and she enjoyed talking all things Explorer and in particular, enjoyed looking at these. The first two generations were the butt-end of a lot of jokes but they were pretty solid, reliable SUV's if you took care of them.