Good morning America
How to travel to the United States without leaving home? You can sit on the sofa and put on a travel channel… or sit at the controls of a whole Ford Explorer, one of those cars made for the American public that likes to go big in all aspects. Is everything pretty? After a week of testing, I conclude that it has four great virtues and also a reason to reflect.
The Explorer is an SUV with all of the law, either because of its measurements and its abilities off the asphalt or because it has all-wheel drive. An imposing-looking SUV, plug-in hybrid in nature and with a handful of strengths. For me, these are the four most outstanding virtues.
Space
Exceed five meters long, two meters wide and… three meters in wheelbase! turns the Explorer into a true rolling saloon, where there are up to seven seats divided into three rows 2-3-2. The third row is used for more than one occasional rush and people up to 1.5 meters tall can travel in them with relative comfort. meters.
The strengths in space of the oval model do not end here, because it reserves a tremendously practical loading area. First, because of the square shapes and the low loading floor, which facilitate operations. And second, for a volume that ranges between 1,137 and 2,234 liters.
S line finish
If its imposing silhouette, marked above all by that powerful front end with a large grille, was missing something, the best addition is the S-Line finish of this test unit. With it, that grille is black and sits on massive 20-inch alloy wheels. The headlights have also been darkened and the exhaust outlets are integrated into the rear.
Inside, the main contribution of the S-Line package (it comes as standard in the only version that is marketed in Spain) is the presence of aluminum to complement a highly digitized 12.3-inch dashboard, the usual central touch screen in the Fords, roulette for the transmission (I prefer lever) and very comfortable seats both in the first and second row.
PHEV
That transmission that I was talking about in the previous point is a 10-ratio automatic gearbox, which serves to dose the 405 horsepower that its hybrid system delivers as a whole. Yes, because the third virtue is this plug-in hybrid nature that allows it to circulate up to 44 kilometers in electric-only mode and have the Zero Label.
The set is made up of a 3.0 V6 gasoline engine with Ecoboost technology that produces 363 horsepower and another electric one with 102 CV. The joint power is 457 hp and a torque of 800 Nm provides remarkable acceleration power (6 seconds in 0-100 km/h) in a model that weighs more than 2,200 kilos on the scale.
In just 3.5 hours the battery can be recharged 100/100 and thanks to that Zero Label it can circulate without any restrictions through the main cities and park anywhere. Another thing will be to find a hole, as we will see later….
Comfort
Both for the sensational levels of habitability that we saw at the beginning and for some very kind suspension morons. They are not as much as is usual in American cars and it shows that this Explorer is designed for the European market, but they filter wonderfully and seek the sensation of rolling an inch above the ground.
Of course, when the curves arrive, it is better to take things calmly, because its more than two tons of weight are felt in the form of pronounced inertia when it comes to linking turns. And it is that this Ford is made to travel many kilometers guided from its huge steering wheel.
And now… the point to improve
Having reviewed its four great virtues, it is time to see the point and it is made up of two practical aspects. The first of them goes through consumption. A main gasoline engine, with three liters of displacement and V6 has its toll in the form of consumption that goes above 11 liters in normal driving. And that, at the price of gasoline today…
In second place are the parking manoeuvres, which are complicated by two factors: those more than five meters in length and heavy steering at low speed, which must move such large tires that you will have to be patient both in finding a space and the parking lot itself.
Practical (and normal) tolls to pay for driving a different car and see that it is difficult to achieve today in a market as saturated as that of SUVs. Imposing on the outside, technology on the inside and hybrid, this Ford Explorer is on the market with a price of 79,350 euros
