The Ford Explorer was introduced to the North American market place in 1990. The vehicle is built by the Ford Motor Company based out of Detroit Michigan. The Explorer is described as a mid-size sport utility vehicle. It is manufactured in Louisville, Kentucky and has been a bread and butter sales leader for the Ford Motor Company fleet of cars.
As I said before, in the 90’s the Ford Explorer was a top seller for the corporation. As a result there was plenty of salvage Ford Explorers on the market. During this time their was a scandal that the Ford Corporation was involved in. It seems Ford Explorers had a problem with rolling over. They were not weighted correctly and in sharp turns the vehicles tended to tip over. What made it even worse was the tires that were used during that time also had a tendency to burst. At that time the corporation used Firestone tires exclusively for all of their vehicles. With the tipping incident becoming such of a problem for Ford they attributed the problem to the Firestone tires. As a result the corporation decided to change to another tire maker for all of there vehicles. This is Goodyear. This change did not satisfy critics concerning the vehicle. Ford had to go back and re-engineer the next version of the explorer so to not have the vehicles tip over again.
Law enforcement loved the Ford Explorer. They swelled their fleets with these vehicles around the country. This also brought about another source of salvage Ford Explorers. As these police vehicles got in accidents they were auctioned off to the public for the highest value that they could get them for.
The Ford Explorer was not a very attractive vehicle in its first generation. Between 1991 and 1994 the vehicles were made in a boxy style. This was done on purpose to compete with the Chevy Blazer. Another very popular mid size truck of that time. The Chevy Blazer was made by GM. The Ford Explorer fit the requirement to complete with the Chevy Blazer. As for the explorer it shipped with a very good motor a 4.0 L 155 hp V6 engine and 4-speed A4LD automatic transmission. Manual transmission was also available in a 5 speed M5OD. The body type had two options. As a consumer the vehicle could be purchases in either a 4 or 3 door configuration. There was also a high end version, the Eddie Bauer. This edition did not provide any options. You could only purchase it in the 4 door version. But it did come with a slightly higher tuned engine that would provide an extra 15 hp bringing the total hp to 179.
Ford Explorers are not selling as hot as they used to be. Higher gas prices has turned customers off from buy them. It is not just the Ford Explorer that customers are not buying, but with the gas being so high, customer just want smaller cars that can run longer on less gas.
Posted under Ford
This post was written by Kenneth Elliott on February 14, 2009
