2000 Ford Excursion Review

Too much truck for too many people. Buy a Suburban if you need a nine-passenger SUV that can tow heavy stuff.

In a classic "bigger is better" move, Ford has decided to up the SUV ante by producing the largest soccer-mom mobile yet. The Excursion offers more interior room and cargo capacity than the previous heavy-weight title holder, the Chevrolet Suburban. At the same time, Ford is touting the Excursion's "earth-friendly" aspects like an engine line-up that meets LEV standards and the fact that 85 percent of the Excursion, by weight, is recyclable (never mind that the remaining 15 percent of an Excursion still equals about 2.5 Honda Civics). The Excursion's base engine is a 5.4-liter V8 on two-wheel-drive models or a 6.8-liter V10 on models equipped with four-wheel drive. Optional with either drivetrain is a 7.3-liter V8 diesel that makes 235 horsepower and 500 foot-pounds of earth-shaking torque. All engines come with a four-speed automatic transmission as standard equipment; no manual transmission is offered in the Excursion. Two trim levels are available. The base XLT model includes a three-piece rear door, running boards, remote keyless entry, driver and front-passenger airbags, four-wheel disc brakes with ABS, an AM/FM/cassette/CD stereo, six cupholders, power door locks, power windows, an overhead console, cloth seats, a 40/20/40 split-bench front seat and a third-row removable bench seat. Angle up to the Limited trim level and you get leather seating surfaces, front captain's chairs, woodgrain trim, rear-seat audio controls, a trip computer, power rear-quarter windows, 10 cupholders, aluminum wheels and illuminated running boards. Additional options like heated seats, heated exterior mirrors, a six-disc CD changer and a limited-slip axle can be ordered as well. Since it's based off the F-250 Super Duty (the front doors, fenders, and hood will swap between them), Ford was able to develop the Excursion with a bare-minimum investment of company funds. This means a large profit margin for each Excursion sold, even by SUV standards. These same market forces were behind the Cadillac Escalade, Lincoln Navigator and Lexus LX470. We've begun to wonder how far this SUV thing can go, but if people keep buying them, automakers will keep building them.