2012 Ford Explorer: What's It Like to Live With?

What do you want to know about?

• Introduction
• My First Weekend
• Plenty of Power
• Running Numbers
• Too Many Touches
• First Impressions
• IL Track Tested: 2012 Ford Explorer XLT EcoBoost
• Second Impression
• LEGOLAND Edition
• Does the Panel Fit?
• Interior Video Tour
• Why Not the Flex?
• Choose Your Tachometer
• Buttons? Not Really.
• Surprise Scheduled Maintenance
• Connected or Not?
• Tonka Truck
• Wind Noise
• Rear View Periscope?
• Ecoboost is Enough
• Three Blink Minimum
• Rear Legroom Makes the Cut
• Heavenly Headrests
• Sirius Black (Screen)
• MyFord Touchscreen
• Securicode Entry
• Oil Change Interval
• The Well
• Screwed!
• MyLincoln Touch is Worse
• Road-Trip Pick
• Tire Repair
• BFG Tire Hauler
• There's a Place for Everything
• Junk in the Trunk Made Easier
• Easy Oil Change Access
• MyFord Touch Tanks Ford's Reliability Rating in CR Survey
• Blindspotting
• Solid Second Row
• Great Steering
• Guess the Highway Mileage
• And the Highway Mileage is...
• Oil Change Game Film
• The Tailgate Beep Video
• Tire Patch Rewind
• MyFord Touch 2.0
• Touchy
• More On Highway Driving
• These Seats Were Made for Driving
• Cross Traffic Alert Works
• Natural Habitat
• Boomer Bust
• Will Do Some MyTouch Homework
• Ownership Viewpoint of MyFord Touch
• Safer Than Our Mustang For Side Impacts
• 5,000 Miles
• I'm Thankful For Dual USB
• Pot o' Gold
• Rear View Camera Dislikes Rain
• Tires Don't Let Go...of Mud
• Roadmaster
• Worth the Wait?
• The Interceptor Utility
• Cargo Room to Spare
• Ecoboost Is Here To Stay, Apparently
• Ecoboost Payback Period
• Loud Bluetooth
• Dog Report
• Drives Big
• MyFord Touch Is Infuriating
• Leaves Me Hanging
• Evacuation Slide Not Shown
• Trip Economy
• 2012 Ford Explorer Ecoboost: Zero Range
• Shut Up and Take My Money
• Reporting From the 3rd Row
• Steering Is a Deal Breaker for Me
• Not All the Controls are Bad
• Where's the Space?
• Visibility
• Seriously Connected
• Daily MyFord Touch Complaint
• Bigger? Sort of
• Ecoboost Isn't Always Enough
• A Boy's Car?
• Generous DTE Reminder
• No Ecoboost for Me
• A Question of Tolerance
• Similar to the Nissan R35 GT-R
• "Inflatable" Belts
• Laminated Glass
• Drowning in a Sea of Gas
• Whole Lotta Room
• Small Outer Mirrors
• Rolling Health Report
• MyFord Fingerprints
• Mini Me's Cupholder
• 10,000 Miles
• Pushin' It
• Video Review
• Waiting
• The Look of Silence
• Safety Aids
• Running On Empty
• The Fix Is In — the Mail
• Roof Art?
• More Cookie Cargo
• Buckle Up the Hounds
• Rear Back-Up Camera
• Drives Big Part Two
• Top Ten Seat
• Easy to Park, But...
• Maybe We'll Like This One Better?
• MFT Update? Still Waiting.
• I want the 2013 Explorer Sport
• I Do Like It
• Airport Shuttle
• Update On MyFord Touch Update
• Child Safety Seat Fitment Test
• Another MFT Update Update
• MFT Expectations
• Oil Change Time Again
• Passed Oil Change With Flying Colors
• Big Cupholder
• Beating a Dead Horse Edition
• Doubles as a Minivan
• Pessimistic(?!) Self-Reporting
• Spring Has Sprung
• Convenient Mobile Office
• Haz-Mat Run
• Feel Good Wheel
• I'm Five
• Will Riswick Fit?
• Drives Big, Part Trois
• Customizing Your Liftgate Height
• Mirror Dependent
• Auto-Off Blinker
• Junior, Senior
• How Not To Haul a Couch
• Is It That Big a Deal?
• Just Passed 15,000-Mile Mark
• Gets a Passing Mark for Road-Tripability
• New High for Cruising Range
• Still Waiting for Tech Update
• MyFord Touch Update in Reach
• MyFord Touch Updated
• Kid Seat Compatible?
• Toro Rosso
• Needs A Skosh More Boost
• Small Thing, But I Like It
• A Little Confused
• A Look Underneath
• Vineyard Voyage
• Setting a Course for Home
• Packed House
• Can't Miss These Mirrors
• Beating a Dead Horse Edition (Part ??)
• NaviGlare
• MyFord Touch Issues Return
• MyFord Touch Master Reset
• No Joke Liftgate Cylinder
• MyFord Touch Saga Continues
• Second Guessing Ecoboost
• Easy Fit
• Nice Detail Work
• Fan
• MyFord Touch Takes A Beating
• 2013 Explorer Sport Certified At 365 Horsepower
• Scheduling Service Online
• Scheduling Service Online, Part 2
• Child Seat Report
• Totally a Carmax Car
• Wrap-Up

Introduction

Four-cylinder fuel economy with V6 power. It's the kind of having-your-cake-and-eating-it-too scenario SUV-buying Americans want. Ford's answer to this dilemma is smaller-displacement engines augmented with turbochargers. Fuel economy is better and performance is, well, close enough. Call it EcoBoost.

"The EcoBoost Explorer is for a buyer who has utility needs that the vehicle provides but who doesn't require as much capability," said Explorer Marketing Manager Eric Peterson. "It's for someone invested in fuel economy." And it is efficient, netting 20 city/28 highway mpg and 23 combined mpg according to the EPA, while still producing 240 horsepower and 270 pound-feet of torque. Compared with the V6, this is a 3-mpg combined increase in fuel economy and a 15 lb-ft improvement in torque. (Ignore the 50-hp advantage to the V6 for a moment.)

Also in comparison to the V6, the EcoBoost 2.0-liter engine adds $995 to the bottom line. Is it worth it? We just added the 2012 Ford Explorer XLT EcoBoost to our Long-Term Test fleet to find out.

What We Got
The 2012 Ford Explorer is available in three trim levels — base, XLT and Limited. The base SUV gets 17-inch wheels, integrated blind-spot mirrors, roof rails, cruise control, power driver seat with manual recline, a tilt-and-telescoping wheel, MyFord trip computer and a pretty basic stereo. We didn't want that.

Stepping up to the XLT gets you 18-inch wheels, automatic headlights, rear parking sensors and an optional Driver Connect package that has upgraded Sync and, more importantly, MyFord Touch. This newest tool in Ford's multimedia armory is making waves for being too slow and too complicated. We want to see how it feels after a year of use. We were definitely interested in this trim and could do without the Limited trim level's 20-inch wheels. The XLT starts at $31,980. But you know us....

What we really wanted was an XLT with EcoBoost and MyFord Touch. We didn't need many options but wanted the $995 engine. What we found, though, was a market flooded with fully loaded cars, dealer-installed wheels and really expensive ($1,595) dual-panel sunroofs.

That is, until we found an Ingot Silver XLT with the 2.0-liter EcoBoost inline-4 (front-wheel drive with a six-speed automatic, as that's the only drivetrain paired with the EcoBoost) at Power Ford in Torrance. It had the $3,520 205A equipment package which includes MyFord Touch, Sync, rearview camera, dual-zone A/C and the Comfort package. We also got a power liftgate ($495), blind spot monitor with inflatable rear seatbelts in the second row ($595) and navigation with voice controls ($795). But we did avoid the sunroof.

Ford was quick with the rebates and let us out the door for $35,402 on a car with an MSRP of $38,485.

Cost vs. Benefit
The 2012 Ford Explorer XLT EcoBoost is an interesting proposition; there is a power loss but a torque gain, a price premium and a fuel economy advantage, and then there's the small-engine/big-car conundrum. Towing capacity is reduced from 5,000 to 2,000 pounds. It's a light-duty SUV for someone with light-duty needs, which, if we're honest, is how Explorers are used most of the time anyway.

One factor tipping the scale in favor of the EcoBoost is that Ford recommends the same 87-octane fuel for the turbo engine as it does for the V6 — although running the stuff yields a reduction in power and torque to 233 hp and 266 lb-ft. Assuming a per-gallon cost of $3.66 (the current national average for regular fuel according to U.S. Energy Information Administration) and considering the 3-mpg combined difference versus the V6, almost 42,000 miles must be covered to make up the additional cost of the EcoBoost engine in fuel cost savings alone.

We'll drive the car and do the math. You decide if it's worth it. Twelve months and 20,000 miles with this SUV should be enough time to figure out if EcoBoost is the do-all solution. Follow along on our long-term blogs to find out.

Current Odometer: 1,110.6
Best Fuel Economy: 19.4
Worst Fuel Economy: 18.8
Average Fuel Economy (over the life of the vehicle): 19.1

Edmunds purchased this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation.

My First Weekend

This photo is from a full test I wrote last December on the then new 2011 Ford Explorer. The tester was a fully loaded Limited model with 4WD. And of course the V6 engine.

I liked the SUV very much, only complaining about some interior interface issue and its steep price tag.

I have not driven an Explorer since. But this weekend I'll be driving our very new 2012 Ford Explorer XLT Ecoboost.

I'll let you know how it goes on Monday.

Anything in particular you'd like to know?

Plenty of Power

We haven't track tested our new long-term 2012 Ford Explorer Ecoboost yet. Fact is, we haven't tested any Ford Explorer Ecoboost yet. That will change tomorrow as our new silver long-termer hits the track for the first time. We'll report the numbers ASAP.

I don't expect the acceleration numbers to wow anybody. But those of you that think this SUV is underpowered should save your rants until you drive one.

I just spent the weekend in our Ecoboost Explorer, fully expecting to dislike it. I was already writing my Monday morning blog post before I even grabbed the key Friday afternoon. It was going to call it "This Thing is Sloooooooooooow."

But I was wrong. Is isn';t slow. In fact, it burns the tires from a stop if you lead foot it. I was screeching away from every stoplight until my wife asked me to stop embarrassing her.

Bottom line? I drove the Explorer 200 miles in three days and not once did I wish it had more power. This is fine engine. And it works in the Explorer.

Running Numbers

Just like you guys, we're curious about what kind of fuel economy our new long-term Explorer with the EcoBoost turbo four is getting. Well, we can tell you that so far we've averaged about 20 mpg (19.7 to be precise) against the EPA estimates of 20 city, 28 highway and 23 combined.

In light of a couple of key factors — this is still a relatively "green" engine, most of the miles have been around the traffic-clogged environs of L.A. and this average is based on only about a thousand miles — this seems about right. We'd expect the average to improve as the engine breaks in and we get some serious highway miles on it.

Too Many Touches

Figured I would just get this one out of the way since it's bound to come up a few hundred times over the next 12 months. As you can see we bought an Explorer with the MyFordTouch system. It has plenty of nice features but the climate control buttons are not its crowning achievement.

You'll notice that the buttons don't really depress at all, you simply brush them with your finger instead. Simple enough, right?

Well, after several days of driving the Explorer I still never got the hang of them. Sometimes I would give the temp buttons a quick tap to change the setting and get nothing. Then I would press them again and get four or five degrees of movement.

It not that they don't work, it's just hard to tell when they work. Maybe they'll break in a little and become more intuitive as the miles pile up, but for now they're more trouble than they're worth.

First Impressions

I haven't been in a Ford Explorer in a long time so I was eager to try our new long-termer. My first impression is that it feels enormous. I've spend the last two days in our Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sienna minivans and the Explorer feels huge by comparison.

For reference, here are their dimensions. They are not that dissimilar:

You can view the full comparison chart on Edmunds.com.

While I felt comfortable sitting in the minivans, driving them on narrow roads and parking them, I conversely felt like I was taking up the whole lane of the freeway in the Explorer. Inside I was dwarfed by the cabin. The belt line is very high no matter how I adjusted my seat. And the large amount of space between my left arm and the door seemed like a waste. It's nice to have shoulder room but it feels overly wide.

I'll be driving it all weekend, so I'll let you know if I get used to this design right away or continue to feel like a shrimp driving an aircraft carrier.

IL Track Tested: 2012 Ford Explorer XLT EcoBoost

Four-cylinder fuel economy. V6 power. V8 price. OK, Ford would rather you not think about the $1,000 price increase when ticking the box on the 2012 Ford Explorer XLT that says "EcoBoost," which replaces the Explorer's 290 horsepower, 3.5-liter V6 with a turbocharged, direct-injected, turbo four-cylinder. Instead, they want you to focus on the 240 horsepower, 270 pound-feet of torque and the 20 mpg city and 28 mpg fuel economy rating by the EPA.

We just wanted to know what this little motor could do on the track when tasked with motivating 4,458 pounds of front-wheel-drive SUV.

Vehicle: 2012 Ford Explorer XLT EcoBoost

Odometer: 1,351
Date:9-20-2011
Driver: Chris Walton

Price as Tested: $38,485

Specifications:
Drive Type: Front-wheel drive
Transmission Type: Six-speed automatic
Engine Type: Turbocharged, direct-injected, inline-4, gasoline
Redline (rpm): 6,400
Horsepower (hp @ rpm): 240 @ 5,500
Torque (lb-ft @ rpm): 270 @ 1,750
Brake Type (front): Ventilated discs with two-piston sliding calipers
Brake Type (rear): Ventilated discs with single-piston sliding calipers
Suspension Type (front) Independent double wishbones, coil springs, stabilizer bar
Suspension Type (rear): Independent multilink, coil springs
Tire Size (front): P245/60R18 (104H)
Tire Size (rear): P245/60R18 (104)
Tire Brand: Michelin
Tire Model: Latitude Tour HP
Tire Type: All-season
As tested Curb Weight (lb): 4,458

Test Results:

Acceleration
0-30 (sec): 3.3 (3.5 w/TC off)
0-45 (sec): 5.6 (5.8 w/TC off)
0-60 (sec): 9.1 (9.4 w/TC off)
0-60 with 1-ft Rollout (sec): 8.7 (9.1 w/TC off)
0-75 (sec): 13.7 (14.1 w/TC off)
1/4-Mile (sec @ mph): 16.7 @ 83.1 (16.9 @ 82.4 w/TC off)

Braking:
30-0 (ft): 32
60-0 (ft): 130

Handling
Slalom (mph): 56.7 (nondefeat stability control)
Skid Pad Lateral acceleration (g): 0.71

Db @ Idle: 42.6
Db @ Full Throttle: 69.3
Db @ 70 mph Cruise: 62.6

Acceleration: While wheelspin is possible, it occurs well after launch and then the boost gets carried away and really lights the tires, making the run slower. Very smooth and moderately quick upshifts. Engine noise is well isolated and never sounds strained. Appears amply cooled as trap speeds barely dropped across five runs.

Braking: Medium-firm pedal, immediate jump-in, but slow-cycling ABD causes noticeable sound and pulsation through the pedal. Pronounced dive and feels light in the rear, but every stop was straight. Good fade resistance but plenty of odor.

Handling:

Skid pad: Non-defeat ESC (traction control is truly off) means holding speed at the electronic threshold of what's permitted — which is not much. Steering weight is on the light side, but that's preferable to too heavy/syrupy. Friction-free and rather precise, actually.

Slalom: ESC is on, but i tried "trac off" and trailer-sway "off" but it matters not. ESC is the limiting factor here, so smooth, singular steering inputs upset the system the least. Rather slow to transition but steering remains precise and effective. Still, this is incredibly slow — even for non-defeat ESC.

Second Impression

The inside of the 2012 Explorer may be cavernous but Ford has done a good job of making it comfortable and keeping out engine and road noise. It offers a quiet, relaxing ride and smooth sailing as it keeps bumps and road imperfections from being bothersome. And it can take a curve without too much lean.

Despite being a four-cylinder, the EcoBoost engine doesn't have to struggle to get the boat moving. When driving in the city you feel like you're cruising along slowly but then look at the speedometer and realize you're really moving.

The seats are comfortable and cushiony but firm and supportive. I haven't sat in the third row yet, but I have played around with their configurations. They seem more robust than what you usually find in the back of the bus.

LEGOLAND Edition

To promote the new Ford Driving School at LEGOLAND Florida, Ford and Lego have come together to make this: A full-size Ford Explorer made of 380,000 LEGO bricks. The project took 22 designers 2,500 hours and weighs in at 2,654 pounds. That weight includes the 768-pound aluminum interior base.

LEGOLAND Florida opens October 15 and will feature two Ford-based driving schools: The Ford Junior Driving School for 3-5 year olds and the Ford Driving School for those aged 6-12. The "school" involves a video with driving instruction — like which pedal does what (something some adults could re-learn) — followed by seat time in some 3 mph electric cars on a heavily curbed track. I would have loved that at 6.

Check out the rear shot and a time-lapse video of the project after the jump.

Does the Panel Fit?

After my post yesterday you were wondering if the panels in the Ford Explorer's dash were misaligned or an optical illusion of the photo.

Video and many photos after the jump...

Interior Video Tour

Here is a tour of the interior features of our 2012 Ford Explorer from the driver's seat.

Video after the jump...

Why Not the Flex?

When I was driving the Explorer over the weekend, I kept thinking why not just buy the Flex?

The Flex is considered a wagon, but we all know that it is much taller and more spacious. Now that the Explorer is more of a crossover than an SUV, it is not as tall as it used to be. So why is Ford producing both vehicles?

Here are some specs for comparison:

These seven-seaters seem to serve the same purpose. Which would you rather drive?

Choose Your Tachometer

Here's the default tachometer the Explorer's instrument panel displays. It indicates engine speed by sliding a bar vertically next to the fuel gauge. And it's not ideal if you really want to keep and eye on engine speed (we know, some of you don't).

But there is an altenative.

A quick adjustment to the display settings using the left steering wheel control will get you this tachometer, which is a heck of a lot better. Well, it is if you concern yourself with such things. Still, Ford only offers "D" and "L" positions for the Explorer's shifter and there's no other means to manually select gears. Given this limitation, engine speed is less of a concern.

But the tachometer choice is nice.

Buttons? Not Really.

See those things? They're not buttons. And here's something I never thought I'd say: I wish they were. You see, I'd prefer a knob over either of these choices, but a conventional button is better than Ford's new touch pads.

Here's the deal: Buttons require a precise tap to change whatever it is you're trying to change (temperature, volume, etc) and they require mulitple inputs to arrive at your desired goal. Knobs are easier to find by feel and — if done right — offer tactile feedback on where you are in the range be it for temperature or volume. Buttons do not.

This non-button thing Ford has cooked up is, well...

Awkward. There are multiple problems.

The first is that these touch pads offer only a minor protrusion from the center stack which makes them hard to find by feel. Also, once you find the touch pads, it's difficult to know which one does what without looking — conventional buttons share both these problems.

Second — and this is unique to touch pads — they offer no definitive feedback when they're "pushed." In this regard they're worse than actual buttons. Any time you "push" a touch pad it's impossible to know if the request you've made is actually registering without looking at the temperature display which is a few inches above and to the right of driver's temperature touch pads.

The touch pad experience increases the frequency with which I need to look at the center stack. And that, I'd guess, is exactly the opposite of what Ford was hoping to achieve.

Is this a deal breaker? Probably not for most people. However, I am surprised that this is the final result — especially given the energy spent on marketing this interface.

Surprise Scheduled Maintenance

There is almost nothing that is as irritating as Microsoft's automatic updates. "Do you want to restart now" No. "Do you want to restart now? We'll start it in fifteen minutes assuming you want to restart." No. "Do you want to restart? I've updated. You probably do. I'll just put this window in the background so you can't see it and then just shut down and waste 20 minutes of your day." No. "Restarting!" AHHHHHHH.

It's maddening. And apparently it's tricked into the MyFord Touch on our EcoBoost Explorer.

I was lost in Orange County and stopped off for a bite to eat before trying to figure out my way back to Los Angeles. When I was done I got to the car, started it up and got absolutely nothing from the stereo. The on/off button wouldn't work, there was nothing on the main screen and the additional screen next to the speedo just said "Audio off."

I was just about the cycle the car on and off (sometimes that resets stupid things like that) when this handy little progress bar popped up. Great! Scheduled maintenance at 1,800 miles at 10pm on a Saturday. Makes perfect sense.

No problem, though, it would go away and I could get some music and maybe a map. But it didn't. And then it didn't some more. My iPhone was dead — yep, USB is dead during this delay, too — and I wanted to program the nav so, thanks to Ford's "you can't do anything while driving" policy (voice control in this system works slightly less well than me just screaming the address I want to go to until the girlfriend gets tired of hearing it, steals my iPhone and gets them) I had to sit and wait. For six minutes.

Six minutes doesn't sound like very long (it's the increment of time most lawyers bill in) until you're sitting in a parking lot with virtually no idea where you are, no radio, no cell phone and no idea when this stupid system would fix itself.

Maybe my bright idea of always getting nav isn't so bright after all...

Connected or Not?

One of these days I'll have so few problems with MyFord Touch that I'll actually get to talk about the way our 2012 Ford Explorer drives. Not today, though. Today, much to some of your chagrin, we'll be talking about iPhones.

Why was I using an iPhone to play music? Because I can. Because it's convenient. Because the battery was dead and because it had the newest music on it. So no "USB stick w/MP3!" comments. A workaround doesn't mean there's not a problem.

The problem then: half the time I try to plug in my iPhone to our Explorer, I get this. The car thinks nothing's connected, the iPhone is too busy being connected to the car to do anything else. Good times.  It doesn't seem to matter if I plug it in with the car off or on or what the phone is doing when it boots up; there's no discernable rhyme or reason to when or why it's going to connect.

I had no problems with an iPod Nano plugged in all of Sunday so either the Forced Update fixed it, or MyFord Touch just likes the Nano better.

Tonka Truck

Tonka Truck.

That's what you get when you send a designer into the studio to make a truck before he's really figured out what a truck is. You get a kid's perspective on truck architecture, every aspect and proportion overstated to be as oversize and clumsy as possible.

Pretty much like something that you push around the sand pile in the backyard when you are four years old.

Too much about the Ford Explorer is trying to persuade me that it's tougher than its crossover platform might suggest. And this is definitely a tough crossover, with far more cargo capacity and towing potential that most people will realize.

But when you make the door sills too high, you can't see the ground. And when dash looms in front of you like an enormous climbing wall of plastic, you can't see over the hood. These accentuated truck cues might seem relatively harmless if all you ever do with your truck is park it in a garage, but if you're in a place where you care about what a truck can really do, the Explorer's toylike proportions get in the way.

There's far more substance to the Explorer than almost any truck guy will believe. But the way to get him interested is not with this Tonka-style execution. The look of the light-duty pickup truck is a little bit cartoony these days anyway, what with the ever more extreme execution of the big rig look, and this crossover shows us the consequences.

I know the Explorer is a challenging piece, since it's supposed to combine the truck themes of its past with the modern, family-friendly cues of GM's Lambda-class crossovers. But the styling execution makes this vehicle more challenging to drive than you want in either a truck or a crossover.

Wind Noise

Get our 2012 Ford Explorer XLT up to 65 or 70 mph and it'll start to emit a reedy flatulent thrumming noise from the lower passenger side corner of the windshield.

How can I be so sure about the exact location?

For one, reedy noises are not consistent with normal air flow over the body and mirror housings. I ruled out the wipers by observing no change in the noise after running them back and forth a few times.

A quick look-see turned up a couple likely-looking (read: large and unsightly) gaps near the bottom of the passenger side a-pillar garnish. A few strategic strips of painter's tape put a stop to the discordant music, so the problem lies somewhere beneath.

I planned to peel strips away, one at a time, to localize it further, but traffic got bad and I could no longer get up to speed. I returned the keys to the board but forgot to tell the next driver about my little experiment. Inevitably, someone peeled the unsightly tape clean off.

No problem. I have lots more. I'll zero in on the area in short order and take it to our local dealer for repair. I only hope it's an assembly problem instead of a design problem.

Rear View Periscope?

With stuff to unload into the trunk of another car, I backed our 2012 Ford Explorer up to the other vehicle car to make the transfer go faster. I didn't bother to close the hatch, which meant the Explorer's backup camera was pointed skyward.

No complaint, just a nice view of the high desert clouds near Willow Springs.

In contrast to the low-angle grille-shot this camera normally puts out when backing up, it'd be nice to have something like this available all the time — the vantage point is high enough to see over the top of cars following behind. Of course it only works in reverse and driving around all day with the hatch open is out of the question.

Ecoboost is Enough

The idea of turbocharging a big ol' family SUV would have been unthinkable in the early days of the Explorer. All that technology and cost for nothing more than some extra fuel mileage? And whoever heard of turbocharged truck anyway?

Well, now these days turbos are the wave of the future, or at least the near future and our Explorer is on the front end of the wave. After a good chunk of miles behind the wheel I'm liking it more than I thought I would.

It is not a quick crossover by any means. There are times on the freeway when it struggles to build speed and your average family sedan will smoke you away from a light every time. Then again, most of that doesn't matter. In most driving situations our Explorer feels adequately powered without any noticeable peaks or valleys in the delivery. The engine is pretty smooth, too, so it doesn't feel or sound like a typical four-cylinder either.

I'm guessing it would be just fine for the average family, although I don't see the average buyer paying up for it. That little badge on the back isn't that cool.

Three Blink Minimum

Our 2012 Ford Explorer XLT has an extensive menu of vehicle settings that can be customized by the driver. You can alter the headlamp off delay, auto door locking and a ton of other stuff. It's even possible to shorten the oil change reminder light interval if you prefer to change it early and often. Customization is good. I like this sort of thing.

But one thing you can't do is get rid of the three blink minimum feature on the turn signals. No such menu entry resides on the above vehicle settings screen, and I R'd the FM and came to the conclusion that no such toggle exists.

Some of you have no problem with this. You really like getting three winks of the turn signal in excahnge for one tap of the lever. I get that.

I am not of the same mind, and I know that I am not alone. Thirty years of muscle memory, of every blinker working the same way, will do that to you. I dislike having to pay attention to something that had become an involuntary reflex.

But that's neither here nor there. You like it, Jacquot and I (and people you know) do not. I think we can agree that the triple blink is not universally loved.

Point is, customizable menus make it possible to make everyone happy. If a car has umpteen vehicle settings and a slick method for making changes, how about we toss the blinkers in there, too.

It's been done. Our past long-term BMW 7-series had this, to name but one recent example.

Rear Legroom Makes the Cut

We recently published a list showing the 10 crossovers and SUVs with the most rear legroom. The Ford Explorer made the cut, with 39.8 inches available for passengers who want to stretch out those lower limbs in the second row. Crossovers like the Lincoln MKT, the Infiniti QX56 and the Chevrolet Equinox also made the list.

Is rear legroom something that you place priority on when shopping for a crossover?

Heavenly Headrests

The front headrests in our new 2012 Ford Explorer Limited are nothing like those found in our dear departed 2009 Ford Flex Limited — and that's a very good thing. Longtime readers may remember that the Flex's headrests were so universally hated that they were dubbed Headrests from Hell.

They angled sharply forward, pressing drivers and front passengers alike into a crouch. And there was no relief because this unhappy angle was not adustable one little bit. Those devilish headrests were by far the worst part of driving our long-term Ford Flex.

But no such problems exist in our new 2012 Ford Explorer. The face of its headrests are a bit softer and the angle is adjustable — very adjustable.

This is the forward position. If this were our 2009 Ford Flex it would be the only position. But this 2012 Ford Explorer has an angle adjustment; there's no need to put up with this unless you happen to like driving with your chin on your chest.

Aah, that's more like it. And there are 11 more intermediate positions between here and there. Anyone and everyone should be able to make peace with these headrests.

Sirius Black (Screen)

I'm a fan of Sinatra, but it just needs to be the right moment. Know what I mean? I went to browse the Sirius station guide, but was rejected — not once, but twice. Is this a function of reception, or just another example of MyFord being out of touch? Not everybody on staff is keen on the new system, especially since the one in our 2009 Ford Flex was so widely complimented.

MyFord Touchscreen

The central feature of the MyFord Touch system on our 2012 Ford Explorer XLT is of course the touchscreen.

I hope you are not grossed out by fingerprints. I'm pretty certain Monk would flip out.

As the name implies, you'll be touching this a lot: upper right to access navi; lower right for climate controls; lower left for audio (shown); upper left for phone. Each of these four home screens has their own virtual buttons that are sprinkled across the screen in locations chosen for their unique tasks. The same is true of every submenu screen that resides below each of them.

The end result is a lot of "button" pressing and fingerprints everywhere. Also, a distinct lag in the system encourages more than one press because it isn't clear whether or not the first one was recognized. Sometimes it was, sometimes it wasn't.

Yes, there are steering wheel controls for each of these 4 functions, but for the most part those steering buttons don't change what's displayed here on this screen. Instead they control a tiny sub-screen next to the speedo. But that's more or less a status screen, not a substitute for the main one. You have to come back here and poke and prod to make any significant changes.

In Sync news, I'm still trying to figure out why my Bluetooth audio connection works sometimes and not others, even as the phone pairing stays steady throughout. (It's the same device, so it should be the same Bluetooth connection.)

Yesterday, on more than one occasion I had to stop the car, remove the key, open the door (to stop the audio), restart the engine and allow the Explorer to re-pair the Bluetooth phone connection in order to re-establish a working Bluetooth connection to the music player side of my iPhone. I've never had this sort of trouble with Sync before.

Securicode Entry

Our long-term 2012 Ford Explorer XLT Ecoboost has an old-fashioned metal key with normal buttons on the fob. It works fine of course, but it is so 1987. But Ford says our Explorer has Keyless Entry. Huh?

There it is on the B-pillar — Ford Securicode — the electronic combination lock with a 5-digit code that can be re-programmed by the owner. When I worked at Big Motor Car Corp, my colleague who was based overseas was curious about this feature on another test car. When a guy who worked at Ford explained it to my colleague, we looked at each other and smiled. "Is this useful?" my colleague asked.

I just laughed.

But the Ford guy (like many Ford guys) loved it. He explained how great it was and that you could keep your car keys locked in the car with this. Huh? Well a guy I worked with here loved it for the same reason. He was a surfer boy and liked his keys locked in the car when riding waves. Dan also mentioned that this is popular for warming up the car in the winter, but that's been superseded by remote start.

For me, I have enough passwords and PINs to remember, so many that I bring a padlock to the gym so I don't have to remember the combination on their built-in locks. And I don't trust it enough to lock my keys in the car.

If this feature is so great, how come not one other car maker has a similar feature?

What do you think? Useful, or folly?

Oil Change Interval

As you can plainly see here, there's an intelligent oil life monitor (IOLM) keeping tabs on things behind the scenes in our 2012 Ford Explorer XLT. All Explorers have one, whether it has the EcoBoost turbo four like ours or the V6.

The IOLM uses stuff the ECU is monitoring anyway — things like temperature, rpm, engine load, throttle opening — to determine how aggressively the vehicle was driven, how much time it spent idling and what sort of temperatures it endured along the way. From these it calculates how hard the oil was worked and adjusts the oil change interval accordingly.

Ford says you might get as much as 10,000 miles out of your oil, and most people will fall into the 7,500 to 10,000-mile bracket. Work it hard, such as you might living someplace mountainous and cold like Aspen, or someplace mountainous and hot like Death Valley, and the interval could fall to 3,000 miles.

For oil changes, at least, you don't have to figure out if your driving constitutes normal service or severe service. Ford's intelligent oil life monitor is essentially doing that for you in real time.

But even though an oil life monitor has your back, you still need to decide if your driving is "normal" or "severe" for other maintenance items such as transmission fluid, air filters and other service items. Once again, Ford is very clear on this issue.

First off, note the use of the words "primarily" and "occasionally". If you're Jay Kavanagh and you tow a LeMons racecar to the track with a Raptor once a month, for example, that's occasional use and you don't have to follow the extra maintenance laid out in this special operating condition.

Note also that the oil change interval refers you back to the oil life monitor, indicating that whatever punishment you dish out in the process of towing will be accounted for in the oil life monitor calculations. Apart from the usual engine load increases the ECU will detect, Ford's integrated trailer wiring tells the ECU when a trailer is connected — it shows up on the dash is accounted for in things like the stability control program and fuel economy history calculations.

According to Ford mere city traffic or stop-and-go LA freeway driving is not severe service. To rise to that level you must drive in impacted city traffic for a living like the UPS guy or sit parked with the engine idling for extended periods like a police car or a taxi.

Once again the oil life monitor takes these things into account, so even if this were a cab or a brown truck the oil life monitor would adjust accordingly.

Dirt-road driving is the one thing the engine computer and intelligent oil life monitor cannot account for — there is no such thing as a dust sensor in the intake air box. In this one case the oil change interval should be dropped to 5,000 miles, but only if dirt road driving is something you do a lot of on a daily basis. Refer back to what the manual said earlier about "primarily" and "occasionaly." An unpaved driveway does not qualify unless you've got a longer driveway than I can imagine (and I can imagine quite a bit.)

If, after all that, you still don't trust the oil life monitor and want to use a shorter interval because, dang it, that's what you're comfortable with, you can do one of two things: 1) Keep tabs on the odometer the old-fashioned way and change it when your interval of choice comes up or; 2) Set your Explorer's oil life monitor to something LESS than 100% when you change your oil. That way, you'll still get the benefit of the oil life monitor as it tracks the severity of your driving, but you'll have control over the maximum interval.

Nominally, 100% life allows up to a 10,000-mile interval, but our Explorer allows you to set that to 90% all the way down to 30%, which effectively allows you to specify a maximum interval of between 9,000 and 3,000 miles. Of course you'll still get called in early if you drive hard, but that's just icing on the preventative cake, right?

As for us, we're going to follow the oil life monitor's recommendation and change our oil when it tells us to — with one exception. Track testing isn't exactly the kindest treatment an engine can undergo, and it isn't something a normal customer would ever do. So we're instituting a new internal policy of changing a long-term test car's oil and filter shortly after our initial track test is complete. We'll send oil samples in for analysis at the same time, too, to see how she's wearing in.

After that initial change we'll reset the oil life monitor to 100% (if the car in question has one) and revert to the manufacturer's recommendation. In the Explorer's case, that means we'll change the oil whenever the OLM tells us it's time.

The Well

Like all 2011 and later Ford Explorers, our 2012 Explorer XLT is made up of a welded steel unibody instead of a seperate body perched atop a ladder frame.

There are disadvantages to this — reduced ultimate towing capacity and diminished off-road performance to name but two. (The sidewinder front-drive architecture isn't helping much either.) But there are many advantages, too.

Because the body IS the frame, the center of gravity sits far lower, which improves rollover stability as well as everyday handling. Liftover and step-in heights are improved. Ride comfort gets better. And the whole enchilada weighs less, too, which improves the prospect of fuel economy.

And you can have The Well, a feature popularized in minivans. The Well is the receptable into which the 3rd-row seats flip and tumble when not in use, leaving a flat floor behind (make that above.)

Keep the 3rd-row seats in place (with the seatbacks up or down, your choice) and the empty The Well represents a most excellent place for stuff that you want to confine and keep from rolling around, such as bags of groceries or, in this case, assorted tools and a floor jack. I carted all of that and more around in the Explorer's The Well throughout the weekend.

All in all, the reinvented Explorer's change from body-on-frame to unibody is a net gain for most people. Turns out there was always more station wagoning going on than exploring. Either way, The Well is a welcome addition.

Screwed!

This morning I caught sight of a screw in the center rib of tread of our 2012 Ford Explorer's left front tire. The TMPS light hasn't come on because little or no air has leaked out.

Judging from the size of the screw head there's no way the pointy end hasn't poked through to the inside. But I'm not going to unscrew it to see what happens. It's holding air as things stand now.

I won't break out my Phillips screwdriver until I'm in the parking lot of our local tire shop so they can repair it on the spot when the inevitable stream of air starts jetting out.

At least it's in a repairable spot in the center rib of tread.

MyLincoln Touch is Worse

When I first drove an early production Explorer several months ago, I was not enamored with MyFord Touch even though it was then being touted as a great whiz-bang achievement. The controls within the instrument cluster didn't seem to be very useful, and the abundance of tiny black touchscreen buttons on a black background made it difficult to find something at a glance. I'll just go ahead and call myself prophetic on this one.

I still agree with my initial thoughts and now I realize that it's PAINFULLY slow and has been prone to do weird things with both my iPhone and iPod. One it will mute for no apparent reason, the other it will continue to display track info for the first song played after it's moved onto other tracks. The first is corrected by unplugging the iPhone, the other by going to another screen in MyFord Touch.

I'll also go ahead and concur with Ed about the touch-sensitive buttons underneath the touchscreen. In fact, I'll back him up one further by saying it's not just our Explorer, or even just Ford.

I was in Toronto last month driving a Lincoln MKX featuring "MyLincoln Touch." It too is slow and inconsistant to respond. The touch sensitive nature of the "buttons" also caused me to accidently turn on the hazards when I went to change a radio station (GM had the good sense to make the Volt's hazards a physical button).

Yet, MyLincoln Touch is inevitably worse than MyFord Touch. Instead of having a pair of knobs for volume and fan speed, it has a touch-sensitive slide pad. Great, except it absolutely does not work. I used it for a week and tried multiple methods, but it is hopeless. The video below is just one attempt where I tried to press harder. Pressing softer was no less ineffective, nor starting from different places on the pad. As you can see, it'll turn it up when you want to turn it down, or turn it way up when you want it up just a bit. In total, it's an unsuccessful solution to a problem that never existed in the first place.

So in that way, MyFord Touch for the win!?

Road-Trip Pick

With another road trip planned for yet another far-off 24 Hours of Lemons race (this weekend's is at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma), a list of which long-termer I'd like to take runs through my mind. Once again we'll be bringing my dog Mya (puppy!) and since we no longer have a vehicle that can tow our Lemon (Raptor, you'll always have a special place in my heart) we only have to worry about getting a car with room for the pup, some race gear and our luggage.

But after driving our 2012 Ford Explorer last night, I'm daydreaming about it as a road-trip possibility. Traveling with a passenger, that much-complained-about MyFord Touch system wouldn't be too much of an issue. And hooray for seat heaters, Sirius Satellite Radio and iPhone charging capabilities.

The best thing, however, is that backseat for Mya's comfort. The rear seatbacks recline to afford her more leaning room and there's also rear A/C and rear ventilation ducts with fan control to get her some air. Plus, even though we'd throw a blanket and doggy bed in the back, leather seats are always nice for traveling with pets. No pet hair and easy to clean if there's an accident (knock on wood).

Anyhoo, which of our long-termers would you pick for a road trip?

Tire Repair

Mischief Managed. Our 2012 Ford Explorer XLT is back in service after visiting Stokes Tire Pros to have its left front tire repaired. Good thing, too. Even though it wasn't leaking much air, the screw in question turned out to be a particularly sharp and pointy one that had made its way through.

The repair cost us $25 and about 25 minutes. We know that free tire repairs are out there, but have you priced Santa Monica real estate that sits a mile in from the beach? It's called overhead.

Besides, they did the job right. They installed a pro-level plug (not your typical caterpillar gas-station type) from the inside, ground that flush and applied a secondary internal patch before remounting and re-balancing the tire.

BFG Tire Hauler

We had to move our 5 new massive BF Goodrich Mud Terrain tires out of the office, so we loaded them up in our 2012 Ford Explorer XLT EcoBoost and hauled them down to the Edmunds Static Measurement/Photography studio. Here they will wait until the Jeep's new wheels arrive.

Maybe we should mount them on our Explorer instead. The 18s on our Explorer look small due to the tall vehicle profile (pic on the jump.)

BTW, those suckers are heavy!

There's a Place for Everything

Yes, there's really a lip balm holder in the center console of our Explorer. Not a tissue holder, not a coin depository, but a snap-in receptacle for your favorite tube of Chap stick.

I wonder how that decision was made. We're there heated battles between the Kleenex contingent and the iPod holder people? And why did the pen people win two spots? Who needs to carry two pens? Nobody writes stuff on paper anymore.

Any way you look at it, this is one seriously engineered center console. Maybe some of those people should have worked on the MyFordTouch controls instead.

Junk in the Trunk Made Easier

You know what the worst part about a trunk is? That's right, low thread-count carpet. I know, chaps my ass too. But what's the second? Any time you put some groceries back there, all the bags just flop around, open up and inevitably become a pot pourri of various sundries. It's even worse in the big, flat cargo area of an SUV. Yet, like our beloved Ford Flex and minivans, our new Ford Explorer comes with an unintentional side effect.

When the third row is in place, it creates a perfect bin space for groceries to fit. When you use the standard cloth grocery bags, they are also very secure. It looks like you could fit about five back there. It's a good feature that whether by design or accident makes a difference.

Easy Oil Change Access

As promised, I recently changed the oil early in our 2012 Ford Explorer XLT EcoBoost. The procedure was very straightforward — so straightforward, in fact, that the process will be documented in an upcoming Edmunds how-to oil change piece.

There was one wrinkle, but not a very challenging one. Our Explorer's engine, including its oil filter and oil pan, was hidden behind an aerodynamic undertray. It had to be removed in order to get the job started.

It couldn't have been easier.

Four permanently captured half-turn clips, one in each corner, had to be undone. But the undertray didn't collapse onto my face when I released the last one because, as the first picture shows, the forward edge fits into a handy slot that supported the weight until I was good and ready to bring it all the way down.

As they say, installation is the reverse of removal.

A full oil change post mortem will come along as soon as I get my used oil analysis report back from Blackstone Laboratories.

MyFord Touch Tanks Ford's Reliability Rating in CR Survey

First it was JD Power and now Consumer Reports is getting in on the MyFord Touch bashing. CR has just published their 2011 Reliability Ratings Survey and Ford took a serious dive thanks to MyFord Touch and the Powershift Transmission.

Is it fair for CR to label a car unreliable due to an annoying stereo and a moderately clunky-at-low-speed transmission?

Blindspotting

Our Explorer has a number of safety features, including a Blind Spot Information System — BLIS for short. BLIS uses radar technology to scan the road for vehicles in the adjacent lane and illuminates an amber light in the sideview mirror to let you know that there's a vehicle lurking in your blind spot. BLIS can also sense traffic approaching when you're slowly backing out of parking spot, Ford says.

I'm of two minds about blind-spot systems, which I've experienced in other cars recently. It's good to have technology to backstop a driver's usual practice of looking over her shoulder to see if there's anything in the blind spot. But if you're driving in any amount of traffic, the light is blinking every few seconds. It's annoying, particularly if you're planted in a lane with no intention of changing. As in many cars, you can disable the system in the Explorer if it gets too annoying. But it will resume with your next drive.

The real problem with a system like this is that it can become a substitute for actually turning your head. A Ford brochure, sadly, reinforces the idea that it's just darned inconvenient to take a look. It says: "Stop craning your neck trying to see what's in your blind spots."

The Explorer's manual, which Ford lawyers have undoubtedly vetted to a fare-thee-well, says just the opposite: "To avoid injuries, NEVER use the BLIS as a replacement for using the side and rear view mirrors and looking over your shoulder before changing lanes." BLIS is just a helper, not "a replacement for careful driving," the manual warns.

There's this bit of info, too: BLIS can produce "false alerts." Ford says the system sometimes goes off when there's no vehicle in the blind zone. BLIS could be triggered by a guardrail, a freeway concrete wall or by a sharp turn around a pole or building. "False alerts are temporary and self correct," according to the manual.

In many years of driving, I haven't yet mistaken a guardrail for a car. So I'm going to stick with a glance over my shoulder before I change lanes. How about you?

Solid Second Row

I've had countless people tell me that they're suspicious of all these new crossover SUVs. "No, I want one that's big inside like the old SUVs," they tell me.

Well, I hate to break it to them, but these crazy new crossovers actually have more room inside than the big ol' SUVs of the past. Just look at all that leg and foot room in our Explorer, it's far more comfortable than the more rugged Explorers of the past.

The seats themselves still aren't the most comfortable chairs in the world. I'm over six feet and there's plenty of room, but the seat back are pretty flat so there's not a ton of support. Still, as midsize crossovers go, the Explorer's rear seat is pretty solid.

Great Steering

I love SUVs. Does that make me a bad person? Don't answer that. Anyway, I've driven a lot of SUVs, and most of them didn't have good steering.

But our long-term 2012 Ford Explorer does: good effort build-up and on-center feel, with a comfortable ratio of 15.75:1.

And the big surprise is that it is electrically-assisted EPS. The Explorer show that a good EPS system can be achieved. And that SUVs don't have to steer like crap.

Guess the Highway Mileage

Took a nice long drive to Las Vegas today to cover the SEMA show. Figured it would be a good test of our Explorer's real world highway mileage. This is what the instant fuel mileage indicator looked like on a relatively flat stretch with the cruise control on. Care to guess what the overall average was for the roughly 300 mile trip? Keep in mind, the highway to Vegas is rarely flat.

And the Highway Mileage is...

A couple days ago I asked the tantalizing question, "What mileage would our Explorer get on the way to Vegas?" You responded with no less than two dozen guesses, most of them optimistic. One guess was nearly dead on, though, at 22.7 miles per gallon. Nice windor5.

Actually, the drive out returned 22.6 while I managed 22.8 on the return trip. Both were completed with the cruise control set at around 75mph and the A/C on. For the record, the transmission didn't need to shift much on the uphills. I barely noticed it doing much of anything at all to maintain that speed, so the turbo engine has plenty of torque to keep it up to speed.

Oil Change Game Film

As promised, our 2012 Ford Explorer XLT EcoBoost had it's first oil change ahead of schedule. The manual says the first change could have waited until 7,500 to 10,000 miles showed on the clock. The actual number would depend on what the oil life monitor had to say about our collective driving habits.

We decided that maybe the oil life monitor doesn't know how to handle our track test procedure. We decided that maybe we should try out Blackstone Labs' advice, which suggests an early first (and maybe second) oil change to get the inevitable break-in residue out of there. They're fine with the extended oil change intervals and oil life monitors, but take a conservative approach when it comes to the break-in period.

So at 3,166 miles we withdrew an oil sample for analysis and changed the oil and filter.

This was a DIY job, and we photographed it for an upcoming how-to piece for the tips and advice section of Edmunds.com. More to come on that front later.

I used a Motorcraft filter bought from a dealer, because I still remember a couple of bad past experiences with aftermarket filters. I did pay a couple of bucks more for the privlege, though, as the factory filter set me back $8.98, tax included.

The oil bottle depicted in the graphic just happens to be a synthetic blend, and such oils are specifically listed (Motorcraft, of course) in a chart deeper in the manual. But if synthetic blends or full synthetics are specifically required, Ford doesn't say that outright in clear language.

This could be because semi-synthetic oil formulations are not necessary to meet the lubrication requirements of the API's sunburst label. I found plenty of "regular" oils that carry the same designation on the shelf. Some experts will tell you that the line between semi-synthetic and "regular" oils is an ill-defined one, at best.

Be that as it may, I went ahead and bought Motorcraft 5W-30 synthetic blend oil anyway because my auto parts store actually had it on the shelf for the relatively decent price of $4.99 each. With tax the six quarts I needed cost me $32.26.

The EcoBoost 2.0 wears an o-ring on its drain plug that doesn't need replacing, so the total cost for my synthetic blend DIY oil change came out to $41.24.

But what did Blackstone say about the old oil, the original factory fill that I drained out when the engine had 3,166 miles on it?

Phil Reed's credit card got charged for the sample, so they addresses the results to him.

As expected, Blackstone likes the idea of an early first oil change. The Universal Averages column shows what 6,000-mile old oil from a similar fully broken-in engine should look like. Our younger oil shows high levels consistent with a new engine wearing in, especially iron, copper, aluminum, molybdenum and silicon.

They're not saying this is harmful, per se, but they like to see this sort of thing washed out "sooner rather than later." After all, these particles were in the oil, not the oil filter. It's worth noting here that their cautious approach may stem from the fact that many of their clients are trucking companies and fleet managers that want to keep their vehicles in service (and out of the service bay) for a looong time.

From here we'll go with the oil life monitor to determine the next oil change interval. At that point we'll re-sample and do this all over again.

Except we'll probably pay the dealer for the next change and see how much time and money that costs.

The Tailgate Beep Video

Every vehicle that has a remotely operated power door has a beep to accompany its closing. I prefer the Explorer's beep. Here's why...

It's noticable, but not obnoxious. This might seem like a minor point to most, but parents will understand. Why? Sleeping kids.

I find myself manually closing the tailgate on both the TSX Wagon and the Sienna because their beeps are so piercing that they wake up a sleeping baby. The Explorer, on the the other hand, makes enough noise to know that its closing but not enough to turn a peaceful kid into a screamer. See for yourself.

Tire Patch Rewind

Let's back up a week or so in the life of our 2012 Ford Explorer XLT, when it suffered a flat tire at the hands of a sharp and pointy screw.

A couple of curious readers wanted to know how it was repaired. Plug? Patch? I said both.

It's a two-in-one plug-patch, a "platch" if you will, and the folks at Stokes Tire Pros let me have a look at one. A plug-patch such as this is what the Rubber Manufacturers Association (RMA) wants everyone to use when repairing punctures.

They come in at least two sizes that I could see, 1/8" and 1/4", selected to approximate the diameter of the offending nail, bolt or screw.

After dismounting the tire and removing the object, they use a carbide drill bit of appropriate diameter to clean up the hole from the inside. Next they buff up the area and apply a coating of special rubber cement like they do with any other internal patch.

The backing is then peeled off before the pointy end is inserted into the hole. That protruding bit of metal helps guide it through and makes a good handle to pull on once it reaches the outside, but after that it's pulled free and discarded. The inner face of the patch is then "stitched" in place with one of those pointy wheel thingys (called a stiching tool) in the usual way.

That's the gist of it, anyway.

MyFord Touch 2.0

Ford will introduce a new update for the MyFord Touch system at the 2011 LA Auto Show next week, unveiling it in the 2013 Escape, Flex and Taurus. It will also be available to owners of existing vehicles with the system, like our 2012 Explorer XLT EcoBoost.

The update promises faster touch-screen response times, streamlined graphics and new features such as iPad integration and easier voice activation commands. Hopefully we'll be one of the first to get the update, and we'll let you know if it improves the MFT experience in the Explorer.

Check out a video demo from Ford after the jump.

Touchy

Here's a new way for the Explorer's touchpads to frustrate. See the emergency flasher button below the touchscreen? It, too, is a touchpad and comes with all the same caveats that exist with the other touchpads on the Explorer's dash.

Yesterday it was cold enough to use the seat warmers. But because their operation isn't terribly intuitive, I was making an adjustment for my wife who was in the passenger seat. On its way past the dashboard my second finger happened to brush the touchpad which operates the flashers. And because it's not a button, they activated. Not a big deal except that I didn't notice this as soon as it happened and I was on the freeway. Probably 15 seconds passed before I reached up to turn them off.

This has never been a problem with flashers activated by a button.

More On Highway Driving

I did a four-hour drive in our Explorer yesterday. It was mostly highway driving, and the Ford was a pretty agreeable companion. The driver seat is comfortable and the suspension smoothers out most of the nasty pavement.

Ed recently did a long highway drive as well, and a lot of people commented on his 22.7 mpg average. Unfortunately I don't have a number for my trip as a fair amount of the miles on our trip odo was from previous driving. But I will be doing this route again in a couple weeks and will fill up beforehand to get an accurate observation of miles per gallon.

I do have a little more commentary about how the four-cylinder engine managed when going up hills, though. 

I did my drive over the Tejon pass. Indeed, the four-cylinder was "adequate." But I did notice one odd aspect: there was more than one occasion where I'd set the cruise control while climbing a grade and the Explorer wouldn't (or couldn't) match my desired speed. Say I'd set the cruise control for 73 mph; the Explorer would only maintain 70 mph.

I was fairly annoyed by this, though I don't know if I can actually blame this on the engine. Maybe it'd be the same with the V6, or maybe it's a programming or transmission issue. Actually, when I'd prod the throttle to get my desired speed up, not much would happen. The transmission was pretty reluctant to downshift. So maybe the goal of fuel economy and staying in top gear was trumping the cruise control's desire to hit 73 mph? Again, I only noticed this when climbing grades.

These Seats Were Made for Driving

Didn't really expect this from our Explorer, but the seats are fantastic. Not in the traditional way, though, as they don't exactly reach out and grab you when you sit down. No, these are long-haul seats that feel great during extended stretches like, say, from L.A. to Vegas to cover SEMA.

It's about a 4-5 hour drive each way and I never noticed the seats. This is, of course, a good thing, as no pain is your gain. It's a rare occurrence, too, at least for me. I';ve driven dozens of high-end cars with 18-way adjustable seats that still managed to feel uncomfortable after a few hours on the highway. No idea why the Explorer's seat feels so great, but hopefully it stays that way.

Cross Traffic Alert Works

Oh, what a lovely picture of the Explorer's rear seat you have here, Brent. Well, it's more to show rear visibility, or the lack therof. Interestingly, though, our Ford Explorer has the optional blind-spot monitoring system, and that also includes cross-traffic alert. We've had a fair number of vehicles in the fleet with blind-spot monitoring, but the Explorer is the first to my recollection to have traffic alert.

This system utilizes the same sensors but beeps if it detects an on-coming vehicle when you're slowing backing up. Basically, it's for when you're in a parking lot and can't see much. And that can certainly be the case given the Explorer's limited rearward visibility.

I've had it go off once so far, and it did give me advance warning about an approaching car. For vehicles like Explorer or their intended buyers, it seems like a useful thing to have.

Natural Habitat

We've got a Explorer. If you went by Ford's collection of photos on its consumer website, we should rocking snow, dirt, rocks and rain on a nearly continual basis. Alas, I have photos of where our two-wheel-drive Explorer is more commonly found.

I felt like our Explorer was a traveling garden gnome for these pictures.

Boomer Bust

An excellent Web site for baby boomers, Second Act, had a blog item this week on the cars that people 45 and over are buying, based on 2011 sales data that was sliced, diced and analyzed by Edmunds.

There are lots of interesting insights in article, but one thing that struck me was a discussion of the vehicles that are least appealing to adults 45 and older. Three of the four cars mentioned are in our long-term fleet: The Ford Explorer, Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sienna. The one we're missing is the Nissan Pathfinder, by the way.

The Odyssey and Sienna didn't surprise me. I’d flee a minivan as soon as my kid-hauling duties were done, too.

I would have expected the Explorer to have a little more lasting appeal for empty-nesters, since it doesn’t scream “Hi, I’m on car-pool duty today” the way a minivan does. But apparently, it has had the biggest year-over-year decline in the percentage of sales to boomers. Maybe it's just too much car for people, once the kids are out of the house.

If you're a boomer with grown kids, did you switch cars when the last of the brood moved out? What was your empty-nest buy?

Will Do Some MyTouch Homework

For the past few days I've been mildly annoyed at our Explorer. I haven't been able to figure out how to easily cycle through satellite radio presets using the steering wheel-mounted controls. But I haven't RTFM, either. Actually, it makes me wonder how MyFord Touch will be if I act more like an owner and — gasp! — actually read up on what all MyFord Touch can do. I should probably use Sync more, too. So that's my plan for the week. I'm also hoping to perform the interface update and see how much of a difference it makes.

Ownership Viewpoint of MyFord Touch

While we have our Explorer for a year, I think Sync and MyFord Touch are the most difficult features for us to evaluate. Most of our staff rotates daily in our long-term cars, and the occasional nighttime commute home isn't really enough time to learn everything there is about MyFord Touch.

Fortunately, my schedule typically gives me multiple days with a vehicle, and this better replicates the ownership experience. So I've spend some time focused on Sync and MyFord Touch to figure out if I can alleviate some of our prior complaints.

Just to clarify, Sync is the voice-command system that allows you to control your phone, your MP3 player and some vehicle systems through voice commands. (There is also more to Sync, such as things like turn-by-turn navigation and emergency response). MyFord Touch (MFT) is the optional touchscreen interface that also equips the Explorer with a different center stack design and two additional LCD display screens flanking the speedometer.

As with any technology, one of the first questions you have to ask is: what does it do for me? In the case of MFT, there are two answers: design and customization. Essentially, MFT is Ford's electronic interface, just as BMW has iDrive, Mercedes has COMAND and Audi has its MMI. Each of these automakers is looking for a way to integrate modern technology and more customization possibility. The main difference here for Ford is that while the German automakers have gone with a rotating knob and button arrangement, Ford has chosen to primarily utilize a large touchscreen.

In concept, MFT makes a lot of sense. If you look at cars that try and pack in a lot of technology with a conventional button layout, you get, well, a lot of buttons. Honda is the main example here, and we've often complained that Honda and Acura's button-heavy dashes are not all that aesthetically pleasing and, while generally intuitive, still take some button hunting to get what you want. In contrast, MFT, is clean-looking and modern.

Plus, MFT allows levels of customization you could never get away with a button system. You can change the way the flanking display screens look. You can customize the arrangement of the touchscreen. You can do all sorts of things with the navigation system and audio system. You can display incoming text messages. Heck, if you want to load up an image of your favorite Edmunds/Inside Line Editors and have it as your Explorer's wallpaper image, you can do that, too.

The main downside to MFT — and this is something that Dan covered really well earlier in this post — is that you lose tactile confirmation when pressing a touchscreen button. Occasionally you'll press a button and, due to lag or a non-response, you're left staring at the screen wondering whether your button press actually worked. Rather than keeping your eyes on the road, you're keeping your eyes on the screen. Not good. Most of the virtual buttons do light up graphically when you've activated them, but since you're finger is on them when pressing, it's usually not all that helpful.

If you're just sitting in your driveway, working your way though MFT isn't a problem (just as it's not a problem when you can apply concentration to your cell phone). But when you’re driving, MFT can be aggravating, and that's the crux of the complaints.

I will say, however, that having spent some time playing around with our Explorer, I've realized that this issue isn't as bad as it seems. At first, I thought the right-hand button controller on the steering wheel will do the trick, but as Dan said in his post, the buttons are mostly for the flanking support screen in the gauge cluster, not the main MFT screen. They certainly come in handy and are useful, but they don't fix the MFT issue.

The answer is Sync. With Sync, you can use voice activation to do many things, such as change radio stations, queue up artists on your MP3 player, bring up the nav map, enter a destination or adjust the temperature. With Sync, your eyes are always on the road. Basically, you can utilize Sync while you're driving and then utilize MFT when you're parked or not moving to take advantage of MFT's customization possibilities. Sync and MFT make a pretty good combination.

To be honest, though, it's kind of a workaround. And "workaround" implies there's a significant problem. Not everybody wants dive into a manual to understand how things work. And not everybody will want to talk to their car. And if you don't want to talk, you're left with MFT. Overall, I think the German automakers' knob-and-button arrangements work better, particularly from a while-you're-driving standpoint.

But I also think Ford deserves a lot of credit for pushing the technology envelope. The company also has a lot of support to help owners, including a website, live chats and phone lines. Yes, MFT could certainly be better. But remember the German interfaces haven taken a lot of heat as well, and its only through several revisions that they've gotten good. Hopefully Ford's future fixes to MFT will be worthwhile, as there is a lot of promise.

Safer Than Our Mustang For Side Impacts

"Well, duh!" you're probably thinking to yourself. Still, I found it interesting to watch the videos for the Mustang in my earlier post and then watch how passengers in the new Explorer fared. The Explorer seems almost cozy inside in comparison. NHTSA video follows after the jump.

2012 Ford Explorer NHTSA Side-Impact Test

2012 Ford Explorer NHTSA Side Pole Impact Test

5,000 Miles

We've cleared 5K with our Explorer. Overall, I really like this crossover. It drives pretty well even with the four-cylinder, it's comfortable, and it holds lots of stuff if you need it to. And for me personally, MyFord Touch wasn't really a problem once I spent some time with it.

I'd still get a Flex, though. I like its styling more.

I'm Thankful For Dual USB

This problem hits me more than I'm comfortable admitting. The only thing worse is when driving with someone (say: your girlfriend's sister) who wants to use the USB port to charge. That means listening to their music. Or, god forbid, the radio. No, ma'am. No doing.

Our 2012 Ford Explorer solves this by having two USB ports right (There's also an RCA input. For former Mitsubishi owners?) upfront in the cubby reserved for holding such devices. Sure, one person could use USB while the other uses the cigarette lighter plug, but who carries one of those around? Everyone I know with a phone has a USB charger in pocket at all times.

This solution should also appease the "iPods are dumb, you should only use a USB stick" crowd. You can still use your beloved thumb drive, but you can also charge your phone.

As more and more people are carrying these things (most kids have one as do all adults) we should start seeing more and more USB charging options in cars. two up front and two in back should be the minimum. The Ford Explorer offering two upfront is a great start.

Pot o' Gold

There is no real point to this post and I didn't even have a decent camera with me at the time, but while our 2012 Explorer was helping out on the 2012 Porsche 911 S full test photo shoot, I saw the best rainbow ever. (And then in the pictures I noticed it was a double rainbow...what does it mean?) Seriously, it was huge — far larger than I could get in one shot — and so bright that it looked fake.

The all-damned-day rain storm revealed a few fun things about our Explorer, but that's for later. For now, rainbows!

Rear View Camera Dislikes Rain

We've already heard about one side-effect of driving the Explorer in the rain, now we're onto another one: As soon as the roadway is wet, the rear view camera is useless.

We've had some other cars with this problem, Mike Schmidt reminds me that the FX50 was pretty bad in this regard, but we've also had ones that weren't rendered so annoyingly useless. Our Flex, for one, managed to stay dry-ish even in the rain

Thankfully our Explorer has fairly decent sight lines and the camera is more of a bonus than a necessity. Also, it has parking sonar which is unfazed by the rain and, IMO, more useful than a camera.

Tires Don't Let Go...of Mud

 "I don't care if it's FWD, c'mon, kick up some mud!" Niebuhr's egging me on to have some fun in a big muddy patch and it's all I can do to be a grown up and say "OKAY!"

But about ten seconds later he comes over the radio again. "Dude. Man up."

But I can't. "The second I hit the dirt this thing turns into an ice skate. I've got no steering, no braking, I can hit the gas, but it doesn't kick anything up or grip at all."

Stepping out of the car and into the barely inch-deep mud, I see why...

These tires — 245/60R18 Michelin Latitude Tour HP — refuse to evacuate any mud from the treads. It clogs all of the sipes and pores and stays put. If you think four-wheel drifts at 9 mph in a 4,458 pound SUV, then you probably think this is a lot of fun. I was on very twisty roads with a steep drop and no guard rail which sort of reduced the fun factor a bit. When the car follows the slope of the road instead of the path of the road, you know you're in trouble.

It stayed fairly uncontrollable for a good five miles until I finally sucked it up, took life by the horns and accelerated to about 50 to try and throw some of the mud that had turned my all seasons into slicks. The guy behind me wasn't thrilled and radioed over that, for him and his mud-covered windshield, this was as close to a real-life crapstorm as he could imagine.

I've driven through mud like this before, but I can't remember the last time a tire gummed up this much. It was the closest I've felt like driving on ice since I left the East Coast.

Can anyone else with these, or similar, tires report similar incidents?

Roadmaster

(It's hard to get a picture of yourself driving down the road, so I have to resort to one stolen from our photographers to illustrate my point, sorry.)

This is what the 2012 Ford Explorer EcoBoost looks like when driving down the road. What it feels like, though, is completely different.

I remember two things very vividly from our full test of the 2012 Ford Explorer Limited: The first was that the Explorer was impossibly smooth at highway speeds. So smooth that you had to constantly monitor your speed lest you want to wind up doing 40 over for no reason. The second thing that's stuck in my mind was the way the car felt on the highway: huge, wide, imposing.

It doesn't look it, but from behind the wheel, the Explorer is 12 yards long, 2 lanes wide and some 65 tons of American pride. I felt like I was within a millimeter of crossing both lines at the same time at all times.

Our Ecoboost version, unsurprisingly, feels exactly the same in regards to its road-hogging size (a trick due to big, flat hood and high seating position) and somewhat surprisingly, almost the same in cruising prowess. The only real difference is you wind up doing 10 over the speed limit before realizing what's happened instead of way, way over.

Worth the Wait?

Twice recently 2011 Explorer owners asked me about our 2012 Explorer EcoBoost. Since the 2.0-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder engine was added as an option for 2012, their 2011 Explorers have the standard V6.

Should they have waited, both wanted to know?

While not wanting to encourage a case of buyer's remorse, I personally think it was worth the wait and the extra cash.

What would you say?

The Interceptor Utility

I wish we got the Limited for the 20-inch wheels, because the 18's on our long-term 2012 Ford Explorer XLT EcoBoost look downright puny on this tall-sided SUV.

But if they're going be 18's, I'd rather they be the heavy duty steel wheels on the Ford Interceptor Utility (website here). Actually, if I were to purchase my dream Explorer, I'd love to get the whole Interceptor Utility, without the cop lights and markings of course.

Unfortunately you can't get the Ecoboost V6 on the Utility (only available as an option on the Interceptor Sedan), so you'll have to make do with the 3.7L flex-fuel V6 that pumps out 300 hp and standard AWD.

The Utility is lowered, so it looks better, and has heavy-duty police brakes, suspension, alternator, and cooling, all to withstand the punishment that you'll give it.

But the real reason I want this is because it looks mean.

Apparently you can't get a Tahoe with the police package, but maybe if we all rally we can get Ford to offer this to the public.

What do you think? Do you like it? (Hit the jump to the the Ford Interceptor Utility in action.)

Cargo Room to Spare

When I talk to people who are considering a new SUV, one of their main reasons for getting such a vehicle is usually cargo capacity. As in, they want a lot of it. Not for any particular reason usually, it's just one of those things that's nice to have when the time comes.

On the surface, the Explorer has become less trucking looking on the outside which leads many to believe it's small on the inside. But as you can see the interior is huge, especially with the seats folded flat.

This shows how much room there is with the third row folded, it's 43.8 cubic feet to be exact. I can't think of many situations where I would need more space than that, and if I did there's always the second row seats that can be folded too. So much for the Explorer being "downsized".

Ecoboost Is Here To Stay, Apparently

Ford has been enjoying a great deal of success lately with Ecoboost engines like the one seen in our Explorer. At a recent press event discussing the upcoming Ford Focus Electric and other "green" models, the manufacturer mentioned that the engine is especially popular in its F-150 model line; it's the best-selling engine in the truck's lineup, with a 40 percent take rate.

To fully exploit all this love, the manufacturer plans to offer Ecoboost on 90 percent of all Ford models by 2013. The one thing that's struck me most about the engine in our Explorer is that it doesn't feel like a compromise. It delivers perfectly adequate performance, and while behind the wheel, I've never once found myself longing for a V6. Guess there are lots of other people out there who feel the same way; people who don't mind paying a little bit extra for the experience.

Ecoboost Payback Period

Our Explorer has a four-cylinder turbocharged Ecoboost engine, an option for those who want better fuel economy than a V6 without excessive performance compromises. Combined EPA-rated fuel economy with the Ecoboost is 23 mpg; with the V6, that figure drops to 20 mpg. The one big drawback to signing up for this four-cylinder is, of course, its price; with our XLT, choosing the Ecoboost engine adds a price premium of $995.

This begs the question: Is it worth it? I was curious as to how long it would take for our Explorer's Ecoboost to pay for itself via fuel savings so I tapped the expertise of one of our crack Edmunds analysts.

He assumed that an average of 15,000 miles would be driven each year, and used a gas price of $3.29. The Ecoboost engine netted annual fuel savings of $321 which translates into a payback period of 3.1 years. Note that this includes only the $995 price premium and doesn't take into account any additional tax expense.

What do you think? Does this payback period make the Ecoboost engine worth the extra coin in your eyes?

Loud Bluetooth

Loud Bluetooth in the title and then a picture of the exterior of our 2012 Ford Explorer EcoBoost? It makes sense. Trust me.

Late last week I was driving down one of California's notoriously clogged roads when I spotted a silver Explorer EcoBoost just a few cars up. "Oh, neat, someone else bought the EcoBoost."

I got a little closer and realized that it was our car. I was still two cars behind it and one lane to the left so I couldn't see who was driving but I knew it was our car. I also knew that the driver was using the Ford's built in Bluetooth. How? Because I could very clearly hear the voice of one of our executives. I've heard that guy's voice a billion times, but this was the first time I heard it booming in through the sunnroof of a car I was driving.

Anyone who spends a significant period of time in traffic knows that some cars' BT connection are louder than others. Our Ford is one of the loud ones. Loud and exceptionally clear.

It was even clear when I heard the call drop twice. We're looking into that one now.

Dog Report

For the holiday, we packed up the 2012 Ford Explorer with Christmas presents, baggage and my dog Mya and drove it up to Sacramento to visit my family. Naturally there was ample room to load everything up but here are some notes with regards to Mya in the Ford.

Love that the vents were over the seat instead of in the back of the center armrest. That way the air covered more area instead of just blowing in her face. I could also angle the slots so it wouldn't blow down on her. I don't know if she even cares about that but I know I would if I was sitting back there.

I didn't appreciate the inflatable seatbelts in this instance. Since the buckle was unusually large, it was a bit of a struggle fitting it through Mya's harness loop. Not a big deal, just not as easy as it is with regular seatbelts.

The seat bottoms of the second row seem to be short because we couldn't even lay Mya's bed across it like we had been able to in the TSX and Outlander. We couldn't tuck the edge of her bed into the crease of the seat anyway to keep it in place as the seatbelt fasteners were buried in the seat and would have gotten in the way of buckling her up. So we just spread her blanket down and that was fine.

Since Mya comes with a bit of doggy paraphernalia, I always appreciate any storage room I can get, like a pocket behind the front seat for storing her leash and collar or something on the door to contain her water bottle. Unfortunately here the door didn't have a place to store her small water bottle so I had to pack that away and dig it out for every pit stop.

I don't know if Mya was comfortable back there but I did notice that for the trip up and the trip back she never zonked out like she had in previous cars she traveled in, like the Infiniti M56. Usually for long trips I can look back at her and she'll be asleep. But in the Explorer, every time I peeked at her she'd be lying down with her head on her paws but her eyes wide open. Then she'd catch me looking at her and sit up expectantly as if to ask, "Are we there yet?"

Drives Big

Oddly enough, up until last week I'd never driven our longterm 2012 Ford Explorer. Or any 2012 Explorer, for that matter. And my first go was a 1000-mile holiday trip.

My first impression? Poor use of space. It's big on the outside, but the cabin is strangely un-big, or at least it feels that way. Could be the bulky dash or the tall beltline or deep cowl or the thick door panels or all the above.

This is a 3-row crossover/wagon, so physical bigness of all stripes is expected. But it doesn't need to drive so big.

You might be thinking that I'm referring to the powertrain. You would be wrong. The Explorer's big feel stems from the chassis, which feels like it's 600 pounds overweight or has wheels made from a neutron star. It's got a numb and ponderous feel everywhere you wheel it.

A Mazda CX-9 doesn't drive big. The Explorer doesn't have to.

The plus side of its chassis density is a very quiet ride. At 80 mph, there's surprisingly little wind noise, and road noise is largely nonexistent. This kind of refinement will play well with the target buyer.

I do wonder if re-tuning the suspension calibration (and steering) would help the Explorer drive less big.

More trip notes to come.

MyFord Touch Is Infuriating

Our longterm 2012 Ford Explorer is equipped with MyFord Touch. Other editors have posted entries about its various functions and use. Across the jump is my readers' digest version of impressions after I spent a good, long time with it (1000 miles over the weekend).

Conclusion? It's the worst interface in a car today.

Oh, MyFord Touch, how do you infuriate? Mainly, it's when you attempt to do the most basic functions, the kind you do every day:

The inadvertent touch that triggers - A part of your hand or finger barely brushes a button and triggers the hazards, the max a/c function, something else you (rather, I) had no intention of activating. Also see: Chevy Volt.

The constant looking - Because there aren't discrete buttons that you can operate simply by feel alone (leaving your eyes on the road where they belong), you have to visually acquire the desired button on the center stack — say, the "temp up" button — and keep your eyes on it while you guide your finger to that exact location, else you inadvertently touch and activate another function instead (see above).

The lack of tactile confirmation - Then, when your finger reaches the "temp up" button, there's no tactile confirmation that, indeed, you a.) touched the "temp up" button, and b.) it registered your command. Instead, you have to look elsewhere (to the touchscreen!) to see if the temperature number went up. Congratulations, you've traveled the distance of a football field while you watched your finger try to press a button. Does nobody see the insanity of this?

The multi-press - Sometimes, the system doesn't register your touch. So you poke, poke, poke until it does.

The faked-out multi-press - Functions (the seat heaters? I forget) sometimes have a delay between poke and result. It registered your touch but, you know, it's going to take its sweet time letting you know that it did. In the meantime, you assumed it simply ignored your touch and you went on a button-pressing spree.

Of course, this. Like all touchscreens, gets all smudgy with fingerprints. Sure, it looks kinda gross, but more importantly the smudges — especially in direct sunlight — obscure all the functions crowded together in 4-point font that you're required to access here.

Tied to Sync (see lead photo) - MyFord Touch in our Explorer is commingled with Sync, and when Sync randomly decides it wants to reboot in the middle of your drive, all functions — nav, radio, HVAC, name it — are off limits for the next five minutes or so. When the system returns, it has switched the radio to some AM radio station preset programmed by Dan Edmunds that you've never listened to in your life and, apparently, canceled any nav routes you'd entered.

Also, the Sync reboot appears to occur every day. At least it did while the Explorer was in my care during a 1000-mile trip.

Touchscreen needs an external dimmer. Other automakers have recognized the folly of burying the screen brightness adjustment deep within several menus of a interface that's too dim to see... the very situation you're attempting to resolve in the first place.

Touch-sensitive interfaces probably look great on a corporate balance sheet — hey, it's cheap! — but their poor ergonomics and functionality leave much (everything?) to be desired.

Imagine for a moment an alternate universe where touch-sensitive HVAC panels like MyFord Touch have always been the norm. If some enterprising individual came up with a 3-knob interface, he would be hailed as a genius and all touch-sensitive panels would be obsolete overnight.

Leaves Me Hanging

My first impression of the Explorer was immediate: the armrests are way too far apart.

I'm not sure who Ford had in mind as the driver when they designed the Explorer. I'm guessing that person has about 80 pounds over me. Either that, or they anticipated someone in a full upper-body cast. It's not that big of a deal on my short commute (hooray for light traffic during the holidays!), but if I were to take this on a road trip, it would be a problem.

In order for my elbows to find a decent purchase, I have to lower the seat to the deck and extend my arms like I'm giving the international gesture for "chicken." I suppose I could just lean to one side or the other, but that sounds like a bad idea.

Outside of the armrests, I like the seating position. I found myself sitting higher than normal, with a commanding view of my surroundings. The driver seat is quite comfortable with plenty of lumbar support. As a result of the elevated position, the gauges and center stack are a little low in my sightlines, but I rarely needed to spend much time looking at them.

Evacuation Slide Not Shown

Now that's a door panel. Dig that skirt! I remember our Flex having a tall panel like this, with an exaggerated bottom apron and even the upturned flange.

My first drive in our Explorer a few nights ago was underwhelming. Rather, underwhelmed by its oversize. After a week in the Odyssey, this was a stark contrast. Where the Odyssey feels big and drives small, the Explorer drives big and just feels swollen. From the driver's seat it feels almost identical to the Taurus SHO we had in the office several weeks ago.

No surprise there, since both are built off the D4 platform. But to echo earlier points that Takahashi and JayKav made, the Explorer just seems big for the sake of it. As if Ford product planners decided Americans feel safest and offered the most value when surrounded by bulging seats, dashes and trim panels, with not much regard for maximizing cabin space. It feels like there's an additional six cubic feet in here trapped under plastic. Ford isn't the only one guilty; the Dodge Charger also feels like its retaining water.

To top it off, the Ecoboost-four just doesn't feel like it's got any beans. Plant your foot to the floor and the turbo-four debates a little among its systems before delivering any meaningful passing power. My Ford Touch? I'd pile on, but we've already made glue of that dead horse.

But what do I know? People are buying the Explorer and rappers like it. It cuts a nice muscular form during a walkaround. Still, it makes me nostalgic for when MC's made videos riding around in Impala convertibles, Fatburger in hand and shotgun across the lap.

Trip Economy

Prior to driving our longterm 2012 Ford Explorer on my 1000-mile holiday trip, I was curious about how the small, boosted four-cylinder would fare when lashed to the big, heavy crosswagonover. 

It turns out it works great.

It's got good torque off the line and there's so little lag to speak of that, well, it's not worth speaking of. Give it the wood and you'll feel the front end torque steer mildly. The boosted four moves the Explorer around competently - I had no qualms accelerating even at freeway speeds.

It's perfectly well-suited and is - bonus - smooth and quiet to boot. In fact, once I inadvertently tried to start it when it was already running (fortunately there's an interlock that prevents the starter from engaging in such situations). 

Really, the engine performs such that it should be the last thing you worry about when deciding whether the Explorer is for you.

The transmission could use a plain ol' manual mode for engine braking, but at least there's the option of dropping it into L. Not ideal, but works in a pinch.

Finally, fuel economy. The conditions: 1000-mile trip; nearly all freeway; carrying a light cargo load and 2.5 occupants; cruising 75-82 mph in light-to-medium traffic; mostly level terrain save for the big Sepulveda Pass. Overall trip fuel economy was 20.6 mpg, which is just a hair higher than the city number on the window sticker (20/28). 

2012 Ford Explorer Ecoboost: Zero Range

Yesterday for fun I drove our long-term Explorer until its fuel level was so low its range was 0 miles. Then I immediately pulled into a gas station.  

Yes, I do this stuff for fun.

Anyway, the Explorer took 17.932 gallons. According to Ford, the Explorer has an 18.6 gallon gas tank. Good thing I stopped when I did.

Shut Up and Take My Money

Last week I posed about a missing feature from our $101,575 2012 Audi A8. It was a nifty toy, yes, but not something I'd shell out my own money for.

This, however, is completely different. This is the Dual Panel Moonroof option on a 2011 Ford Explorer and, honestly, if I were buying an Explorer today the Ford people couldn't take my money fast enough for this one.

I use the sunroof EVERY time I'm in the car. Raining? Flip it up and just use it to vent a little air. Too cold / too many buses (loud + stinky air) / guy in front of me smoking? Close it but leave the shade open. It's a quick way to add some natural light and brighten the place up a bit. People pay serious amounts of money to buy/rent houses/apartments that offer good natural light, why wouldn't you want that in your car? I do and would pay for the pleasure.

I'd happily ditch the $995 EcoBoost motor and the $595 blind spot monitor/inflatable rear seatbelt options for the sunroof.

Reporting From the 3rd Row

The other day I was banished to the third row of our 2012 Ford Explorer XLT Ecoboost. Actually, in all honesty, it wasn't that bad. I had ample legroom in that my knees weren't touching the seatback in front of me. (FYI, I'm 5'5" so those taller than me may have a different experience.) And I even felt comfortable enough to catch some Zzzzs. Mind you, this was only on the way to a mall that was about 30 miles away and there's no way I'd want to sit there for a road trip.

But it wasn't as bad or as claustrophobic as I thought it was going to be. And getting back there was a cinch, after I figured out how the levers worked to move the second row seat out of the way.

Only issue with the third row that I suspect any owner of a large third-row-equipped vehicle can attest to is that the car wash guys tend to neglect it. After we picked it up from Blue Wave we noticed that the guys had failed to vacuum the bits of food particles in the seat crevices and floor. And the following week when I pointed out to them that they missed it last time, even folding down one of the second-row seats for them, it still got neglected. Hm.

In any case, the moral of this story? Don't fear the Explorer's third row (if you're under 5'5").

Steering Is a Deal Breaker for Me

I drove our long-term ecoboosted four-cylinder Ford Explorer for the first time this week. The power's adequate with the turbo four, but I won't be in a hurry to drive it again — certainly not on a road trip.

I don't care for this SUV's electric-assist power steering. It's limp and vague on-center to the point that I don't have confidence in my directional heading (on the freeway), so I'm continually making small corrections to keep the big lug pointed straight. This got old after 50 miles of commuting.

Obviously, it's important to keep your expectations in proportion — in this case, with the realities of driving a 4,700-pound vehicle. Still, Mazda does a better job with the CX-9, as does Dodge with the Durango. Mind you, neither of these vehicles is getting its power steering assist solely from an electric motor (the Durango's steering uses an electric motor to drive a hydraulic pump).

Our long-term Flex, by the way, used hydraulic steering assist, but Flexes with the twin-turbo EcoBoost V6 have electric power steering.

Unfortunately, I haven't driven a Flex with the latter setup, so I can't comment on which is better or worse. But know this: The steering in our Explorer needs fine-tuning, because right now, it makes this SUV feel ungainly and larger than it actually is. Drive a Durango and you'd swear you were driving a smaller vehicle.

Not All the Controls are Bad

We've covered various user interface issues with the Explorer. Needless to say, there's much to discuss.

With that in mind, I figured I would call out one instance where the Explorer designers got it right. Yes, I'm talking about the door lock button and its correct positioning near the door handle. It's the most basic thing, yet so many manufacturers screw it up. They stick the buttons on the dashboard, the center console and plenty of other places you wouldn't think to look.

This setup? Perfect, don't change a thing.

Where's the Space?

When the Ford Explorer was first introduced in the early 1990s, it was a mid-size SUV. Over the years it has grown in size to accommodate a third row.

The modern-day Explorer is now a car-based large crossover. As this popular Ford nameplate evolved over time, what happened to its cabin space?

When my short body feels cramped sitting in the driver seat, how do our taller editors feel when driving the Explorer?

Once positioned and belted in I feel like I have no room to move my knees. Even the six-way power adjustable seat doesn't help me make myself any more comfortable.

I much prefer the Ford Flex for its interesting looks and cavernous front row. Even though both vehicles have similar front legroom specs, there is a vast difference in feel.

Any of you have this generation Explorer? How does the driving position feel to you?

Visibility

From the driver's seat:

Was visibility better or worse than you expected?

Seriously Connected

As you can see, Ford did not skimp when it came to giving the Explorer plenty of connectivity. A couple USB ports, a 12V plug, some RCAs and even an SD card reader. Pretty sure that's the highest concentration of inputs I've seen in a converted ashtray for some time.

As nice as it is to have all those options, I'd be curious to know how many owners actually use more than one of the inputs provided. The two USB ports seem like the most obvious candidates since they're useful for both charging and connectivity. The RCAs? Eh, even if you have a game system, plugging it into the dashboard seems a little inconvenient. The SD card might be nice to load a pic or two for the home screen, but apart from that most owners would probably just leave the navigation card in there out of fear of losing it.

Seems like Ford would have been better off separating some of these inputs to make them more accessible instead of creating a "media hub" as it's called.

Daily MyFord Touch Complaint

When considering how to properly visualize today's blog, I could think of nothing more appropriate than drawing a comparison between MyFord Touch and the drunk girl belching out something akin to "music" being displayed on its screen as I switched to Sirius last night after giving up on my iPhone. The annoyance I feel when encountering both is equally palpable.

Here are today's round up of errors and inherent problems I encountered with MyFord Touch just last night...

1) No USB device detected despite plugging my iPhone into BOTH USB drives. It would end up working this morning.

 2) Bluetooth audio insisted on futilely trying to connect to somebody else's iPhone, despite the fact that my own was connected to the Bluetooth phone system. Note the picture at right showing mine connected (upper left), but still searching for iGrannySmith. This morning, it worked.

3) Earlier, while connecting my phone to Bluetooth, I attempted to stop the HVAC system from blowing cold air at me. I touched the temp up button, but nothing changed on the screen's temperature display (lower right) despite the airflow obviously changing. This went on for at least two minutes before MyFord Touch finally got around to acknowledging the climate control system.

4) Now, an inherent problem. I could find no way to go through your radio presets using the steering wheel. You can seek, or you can use the useless menu next to the speedometer. Every time you want to use it, you have to go through each submenu: Sirius, presets, scan down to select. Or, you can find the tiny black buttons on a black background on the right side of the touchscreen's audio control. There's also a display in the touchscreen's home display, which is probably the best solution. Still, you probably would have already crashed into a Camry at this point any way.

5) Why are the heated seat controls in the touchscreen?

So I suppose it could've been worse. MyFord Touch could've chosen that particular moment captured above to freeze itself on Sirius channel 2, thus giving me no other choice but to abandon ship right there on Interstate 10.  

However, MyFord Touch is quite simply a disaster. This is the rare moment when I legitimately wonder how something in a car managed to get onto the market in its current condition. Obviously, it seems likely it could be changed through updates to software and improvements to hardware. However, turning people's opinion around on MyFord Touch will be a task that easily rivals that of BMW and first-gen iDrive.

Bigger? Sort of

Our fifth-generation Explorer feels big to me. This morning on my drive into the office, I thought, "man, this thing must dwarf the first-gen Explorer." In my head, I was thinking it was as big a difference between the first Ford Expedition and the same-year Explorer. No, I was mostly wrong.

My first hint was the wheelbase, which is what I used to scale the two Explorer images. The 1991 Explorer had a 111.9-inch wheelbase, while the latest version measured 112.6. Not that much. Other dimensions show bigger differences, but not to the extent that I had thought.

Old vs. New
Length: 184.3 vs. 197.1
Height: 67.3 vs. 70.4

The most significant difference is in width (70.2 vs 78.9). A 1991 Explorer will fit down my narrow driveway, but our new long-termer won't. And that leads me to conclude that it's this additional 8.7 inches that's responsible for the perception of size.

From a styling perspective, the 2012 Explorer's chunky styling and longer front overhang make it appear much larger than the numbers suggest. Personally, I'd prefer a narrower Explorer. I noted in my last post that I found far too much space laterally on the inside. Then again, I'm not the target demographic. I rarely have more than one more passenger my cargo-hauling needs are even less common. If I did need an SUV, I'd probably start my search with a smaller Escape or Edge to see if they'd meet my needs.

Ecoboost Isn't Always Enough

A few months back I wrote a post saying that I thought the four-cylinder Ecoboost engine in our Explorer was perfectly adequate for day-to-day driving. I, of course, was exactly right.

But I reserve the right to make adjustments to my observations at a later date, which is what I'm doing here. Turns out the Explorer sill feels perfectly adequate for city driving after all these months. No shocker there as it has solid low- and mid-range torque. It's the highway performance that I'm less enthused with these days.

After getting some additional highway miles under my belt, it's obvious that the Ecoboost engine struggles to pass on the highway. And this is with only one person aboard. With a full-sized family I'm guessing it would be so slow that you would simply forget about passing anybody at all.

Now that isn't necessarily a bad thing, sounds kind of relaxing actually. But most owners like to have the ability to get around that lumbering semi truck and the Ecoboost isn't going to make that very easy.

A Boy's Car?

The girlfriend got into our Long Term Ford Explorer EcoBoost last night and sighed. At first I thought she was just bummed that she'd have to go through 92 menu screens to turn on the seat heater, but then she surprised me by saying, "I'm not really feeling this car. It's just, why did they give a mom car such a boy interior?"

"It's so cold and uninviting" she continued. The thing you need to remember here is that, as a a girlfriend of one of the editorial staff, she is in-and-around more cars than almost any enthusiast. She may not drive them, but she has her own way of evaluating the cars as do all of the WAGS of IL.

"The seats are ok but the black-and-silver dash is so clinical and sterile. The lines are too computer-designed and soulless."

I'm not sure I agree so I point her in the direction of our Full Test of a 2011 Ford Explorer Limited. That car had lighter leather and wood accents instead of the metallic ones in our car.

She didn't budge.

"You remember the Flex? That one had style; an Art Deco-ish feel. This just feels like a dude's car even with that interior. It's not tough, it's just not inviting. And what's with the Lela-eye in the dashboard?"

Again, I'm not sure I agree with her take here but I can see the point. I'll leave this one open to the floor: Is the Explorer a boy's car?

Generous DTE Reminder

As I was running an afternoon errand, our Ford Explorer's distance-to-empty reminder pinged on.

50 mi to Empty, it said.

Seriously? A 50-mile warning to stop for gas? What kind of driver needs such a generous reminder?

Obviously not Scott Oldham...

No Ecoboost for Me

Let me explain.

Like most of the staff members here, I have been pleasantly surprised by the performance of the 2.0L turbo I4 Ecoboost engine. It pumps out 240 hp and 270 lb-ft of torque, and gives great low-end response.

But there is no way that if I ever got an Explorer that I would get the Ecoboost I4.

You know why? It is not because it's a $1000 option (although that doesn't help either.)

(Photo by Scott Jacobs)

It's because you can't get 4-wheel drive if you order the turbo I4 engine. That's right — front drive only with Ecoboost. I also checked for 2013 and it's the same deal — 4WD with the 3.5L V6 only.

Yeah, I know, most Explorers are used as Mommy cars to go to the mall and the kids' soccer practice. And if I got an Explorer myself I would probably use it 95% of the time for mundane tasks that would require only FWD.

But for this size SUV, even if you call it a unibody crossover or whatever, I want off-road capability. I want to be able to go in the snow, sand, or mud, and 4WD gives greater performance and security in those environments — of course.

The 4WD Explorer's off-road capability is evident in this video showing the Ford Police Utility in action on a low-friction surface.

So no Ecoboost I4 for me. I won't consider it until Ford makes it available with 4WD.

A Question of Tolerance

I didn't set out to inspect the Explorer's gap tolerances, but after spending several days in the Ford, this one became glaringly obvious.

The photo above is the driver's side, where the door meets the dash. It's flush. The photo below is the passenger side. The dash is a good quarter-to-half-inch above the door at the back of the gap.

Similar to the Nissan R35 GT-R

Our long-term 2012 Ford Explorer XLT EcoBoost has a feature that's similar to the Nissan R35 GT-R.

WTH?

(Photo by Scott Jacobs)

It's a small, but annoying thing. See that little lump on the seat bottom of the Explorer, next to the seat back? It feels like there's a towel underneath your butt.

The Nissan GT-R has a similar deal. But on the R35 that lump is higher, and narrower in width.

I don't understand why Ford and Nissan just remove that so it's like most cars (see Camry pic at the bottom.)

So there you go. Something our Explorer has in common with the GT-R.

And probably the only thing.

Does your car have such a butt-intruding seat lump and does it bug you?

"Inflatable" Belts

Our Explorer is equipped with a $595 option called BLIS (Blind Spot Information System) with cross traffic alert and inflatable rear seatbelts for second-row outboard-seating positions. These are essentially seatbelts with integral airbags. No wonder those buckles and receivers look chunky. Follow the jump to see how they work...

Would you pay extra for this safety enhancement?

Laminated Glass

I just noticed the front-side glass in our Ford Explorer is laminated to reduce interior noise. Out of curiosity, I looked up an Audi Q5's interior sound levels from a track test and our long-term Ford Explorer. Both are powered by a turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-4, and the Explorer is quieter in two of our three samples:

2012 Ford Explorer XLT EcoBoost Db @ Idle: 42.6 ;Db @ Full Throttle: 69.3 Db @ 70 mph Cruise: 62.6

2011 Audi Q5 2.0T quattroDb @ Idle: 43.4Db @ Full Throttle: 70.3Db @ 70 mph Cruise: 61.7

Drowning in a Sea of Gas

Every time I look at the gas gauge in the Explorer I can't help but think it looks like the icon is under water, or is it gasoline? Hard to tell with the cool blue color.

Maybe someday Explorers will actually run on a crisp clean H2O. Someday, in the future. The very, very distant future.

For now, we've got Ecoboost. Works for me.

Whole Lotta Room

Made some noise with friends at a house party this weekend to kick off Super Bowl weekend. We exhausted nearly every tune we knew and plenty more we didn't. Everyone was psyched for Sunday's game, finding their singing voice, and having a good time. The cops didn't even respond with a noise complaint until almost 2 am, which blew everyone's minds; we'd expected them by midnight.

Afterwards I packed the Explorer, then considered a few options. I could drive home, crash on some well-trod carpet in the house, or catch a few zees in the Explorer until the sun came up.

Having driven more than 400 miles since that morning (Northern California to Orange County), I was done driving. I also didn't want to lie down in a puddle of pale ale. No worries. The Explorer takes a full drumkit in the cargo, a half-dozen stands, hardware and cowbells - lots of cowbells - on the floor and front seats, and leaves enough room to throw out a sleeping bag. If the Explorer only fit in tighter spaces, it might be a city musician's dream car.

From the driver's seat, the Explorer feels pretty expansive. But it's crowded by panels, consoles and bulkheads. You feel like there's room, but don't see how it's possible. I was actually surprised I had as much room as I did, bedded down with my old mahogany beater kit, and all the bulky stands and metal pokey pieces safely away from my ribs. That cupholder/console shock tower shroud was only a minor, knee-knocking annoyance.

Next time I'll demand that the promoters provide, at the bare minimum, a room at the Courtyard Inn. But bunking in the Explorer was nice enough that even Henry Rollins probably would've found it too soft and bourgeois.

Small Outer Mirrors

One thing I like about driving bigger SUVs (and I do like SUVs) is that they have large outer mirrors. Newer cars, like some recent BMWs we've had through here, have tiny outer mirrors due to aero and, more importantly, styling considerations.

Most carmakers realize that on big SUVs you need big mirrors for lane-changing and backing up, and that functionality is priortized over styling given the size of these vehicles.

But this isn't the case on our long-term 2012 Ford Explorer XLT EcoBoost. It has disappointingly small outer mirrors. They would be fine if they were on a regular sedan, but not on this thing.

I guess Ford thought large mirrors weren't necessary if their SUV was equipped with a great blind spot detection system and backup camera, like our test car.

What do you think? Do you want big mirrors on your SUV/truck, even if it has driver assist systems like blind spot detection system and backup camera?

Rolling Health Report

This notification popped up on the screen in the Explorer last night. It was accompanied by a soothing announcement from Ms. Sync that asked if I would like to check the health of the Explorer.

This is part of a regular check up schedule and not the result of a suspected problem. After consulting the manual I found out that registered Sync users can have the diagnostics emailed to them so they can have the info ready should they want to schedule a service appointment. It can also send a text message to your phone if it's a serious issue.

At first it felt a little gimmicky, but if owners actually use the system correctly it seems like a good use of Sync's abilities. It's essentially a more sophisticated check engine light and given most owner's propensity to ignore such warnings, anything that gets them into the dealer to check a potential problem seems like a worthwhile feature.

MyFord Fingerprints

I had this nice view on my drive home from work the other day, with the sun at the exact wrong angle.

And there's the problem with touch screens.

Mini Me's Cupholder

What is that? See that itty-bitty storage thing behind the shifter and next to the cupholders. It's too small to hold a mobile phone. And it's too shallow to hold a pen or individual french fries.

Maybe it's a cupholder designed especially for Mini Me!

What could you put in there besides a few coins or paper clips?

Well I think I found one way use that cupholder if you are not Mini Me.

Ford fanbois: is there a particular item Mini Me's cupholder was designed to hold?

Props used for entertainment purposes only.

Edmunds.com reminds you not to drink and drive!

10,000 Miles

We purchased our 2012 Ford Explorer XLT Ecoboost on September 1st of last year. Last night it hit the 10,000 mile mark. So far the Explorer has defined bulletproof. No issues yet, short of a $25.00 tire repair.

Pushin' It

We have a rule around here: Don't park a car with less than a quarter tank of fuel. It's an editorial obligation, but it's also common courtesy. Sometimes, we get shorted. When it happens to me, I feel it's my responsibility to see just how far I can push it.

I've never actually found out. I like to think this is skill I was born with.

The Explorer, by the way, made it 4.9 more miles before intuition told me to stop.

Boo-yah!

Video Review

Here is Senior Editor Erin Riches with a video review of the Ford Explorer. The video covers the entire Explorer model range but the action footage features our long-term Explorer XLT EcoBoost.

See the video after the jump...

Waiting

One one-thousand...two one-thousand...

The Explorer takes its sweet time feeding out the speed. Give it throttle, then wait for the turbo to spool and for a committee to decide if more speed is a prudent use of fuel. Your request is granted, but it's too late. You committed to the lane change and the car that was 100 feet behind is now hard on the bumper, giving you the lights and a salute. Hate being that guy.

The only real workaround is to drop into "L."

But that only buys you a few milliseconds and only if the turbo is cooking. Otherwise, the EcoBoost turbo-four feels under-gunned for everything except steady-state cruising at 70 mph or loping between stoplights. This engine makes about the same power and torque as the new BMW 3-Series turbo-four, but carries an extra 1,100 pounds.

There's still a lot to like about the Explorer, though. Cushy ride, plush cabin. Tons of space (and seemingly tons of usable space covered in plastic). My Ford Touch is still unloveable, but it queues up Bluetooth music pretty quick. I haven't yet driven the V6 Explorer for comparison, so maybe I don't know what I'm missing. I'd find the EcoBoost's power delivery pretty maddening in daily use, though.

The Look of Silence

The tires on our Explorer don't look like much, but they are perfectly matched to this vehicle.

Now, every modern car is matched to its factory specified tires, but in this case I'm constantly amazed by how little tire noise you hear from behind the wheel. On some smooth surfaces it's almost inaudible, and on grooved concrete that makes some vehicles howl, the Explorer emits only the faintest "whirring" sound. Combine that with fairly minimal wind noise and the Explorer makes for a surprisingly serene highway cruiser.

Safety Aids

I rely heavily on safety aids when driving the Ford Explorer, mostly the Blind Spot and Cross Traffic Alert monitoring systems. It's difficult to see passing cars when trying to switch lanes on the freeway. The headrest of the second row blocks much of the view out the rearmost right-side window. There have been times when I didn't see a car coming up on my right but the little yellow light on the side mirror told me otherwise.

The side mirrors themselves do a good job especially on the driver side, but this car has a huge blind spot on its right side toward the rear.

I also need to rely on the rear-view camera when backing out of parking spots. Even exiting my wide driveway at home is tough. I just can't see. Perhaps if I were taller it wouldn't be so bad but I suspect not. Thankfully, the Explorer's camera gives a wide view which is really helpful.

Last night, I was parked in a diagonal head-in spot near a corner. That corner is notorious for drivers flying around too quickly without regards to the parking spots. On the screen I could see all the way to the street corner. I saw a car approaching the intersection and the Explorer beeped a warning chime before the driver even started making the turn toward me.

A while back I made a short video of the visibility in the Ford Explorer. You can see it here.

Running On Empty

When I first moved to California, a friend advised me to never let my car's gas level drop below a half tank. He said it was an earthquake safety measure. In the event of a large earthquake, you wouldn't be able to gas up anywhere to escape town. I thought that was a little extreme.

Our rule at the office is that you never bring a car back with less than a quarter tank of gas out of consideration for your fellow drivers, unless of course you are doing a pre-planned fuel experiment.

I've been working from home a little under the weather this week. The Explorer's tank was getting low on my way home from the office Friday but I just wanted to get home. I've been in the house all weekend and yesterday I finally ventured out to the doctor but I still didn't have enough energy to stop and fill up. I wouldn't normally let it get this empty. I will definitely fuel up before returning to the office tomorrow.

How low do you generally let your tank go?

The Fix Is In — the Mail

Those howls you hear echoing across the Ford-o-sphere with some regularity are coming from people whose MyFord Touch systems confound and malfunction on a daily basis. The system has almost single-handedly been responsible for torpedoing Ford in quality rankings compiled by J.D. Power and Associates and Consumer Reports.

We've had our own problems with the system in our Explorer, and I experienced the wonders of Touchiness this week when I drove a short-term 2012 Ford Edge to a networking event sponsored by Women in Technology International. The guests for the evening were three Ford engineers, including one who is a specialist in voice recognition and is on the MyFord Touch team.

I used voice recognition in the Edge to set the event's location as the trip destination:1413 Fifth Street, Santa Monica. After three tries at saying the address as clearly as I could, and even substituting "Five" for "Fifth" Street, in case the system thought I was lisping, I had to give up. There was no recognition of the address. I entered it manually and went on my way.

During the evening, I had a chance to talk for a few minutes with the MyFord Touch voice-recognition engineer. (We were off-duty, so I'm leaving her unnamed in this report.) The problems with MyFord Touch are "totally unacceptable," she said. Everybody inside Ford knows how bad they are and employees have been working hard to get them fixed, she said. It's particularly disheartening for Ford peoplle, she said, because the problems are cropping up at a time when the company has been breaking through with vehicles that people really want to buy. I'm pretty sure consumers feel the same way about the disconnect between good cars and bad software systems.

When I described my problem in getting the voice recognition to understand the restaurant's address, she smiled ruefully. She'd had exactly the same experience in a Focus the Ford team had brought to the mixer. MyFord Touch "doesn't like Santa Monica, for some reason," she said. (There's many a rock-ribbed Republican who would agree with MyFord Touch on that score. But that's about social engineering, not the automotive variety.)

She also confirmed — with relief — what I'd read earlier in the day: Improved software for MyFord Touch and MyLincoln Touch is being mailed out to current owners of cars with the systems on March 8. In its official release, Ford says that more than 300,000 owners will get the kit in the company's effort "to improve their driving experience even further."

Ford says that the packages will include "a USB flash drive with the updated software, a notification letter, detailed instructions for the 60-minute download, and an updated user guide. Navigation-equipped vehicle owners also will receive an updated SD card with all-new, updated map data." Yes, a 60-minute download. Pack a lunch.

If customers don't want to wait for the delivery, or don't want to do the upgrade by themselves, they can take their vehicles to Ford or Lincoln dealers and they'll handle it.

Finally, for a classic example of what journalists call "burying the lead," please see Ford's press release on the matter. The software upgrade is not even mentioned until the last few paragraphs. And aside from a comment about the upgrade incorporating user "feedback," consumer ire at system's problems is not mentioned at all.

Roof Art?

I came across this house in my neighborhood, and thought it was so, uh, unique that I pulled over and jumped out of the Explorer to take a photo of it.

So now I'm shamelessly using this Explorer-in-the-foreground pic to post here and get your opinion. Someone told me it's called "Roof Art." Weird.

What do you know?

More Cookie Cargo

Another week of hauling Girl Scout cookies. This time, it was the Ford Explorer's turn.

That's 26 cases in the Ford's rear cargo area with the second-row seats still in place.

Not bad, considering the boxes don't block rear visibility, either.

Buckle Up the Hounds

If you're familiar with this blog then you've no doubt seen my dog reports where I write about how my dog Mya fares in various long-termers. In every case, I always make sure to buckle her in. (The above photo is taken in our 2012 Ford Explorer.) Not only for her safety but for mine. In the event of an accident, a free-flying 60-pound dog can do a lot of damage. However, this morning I experienced yet another reason folks should buckle in their dogs.

While I was taking her for a walk, we reached an intersection with a stop sign when we suddenly heard a dog barking/whining loudly. It was coming from the backseat of an approaching Ford Explorer. The dog, a Boxer mix, was hanging out the window and seemed to get more and more anxious as its car approached us but I didn't sweat it because 1) the car was moving, 2) the window opening was high up since this was an SUV and 3) the car. Was. Moving.

But as the Explorer was passing before us, the dog then decided this was a good time to jump out of the window, at which point it fell on its side, stood up and shook it off, and then limped over to where me and Mya were standing, dumbfounded. Meanwhile the driver kept driving down the street. Eventually she stopped and ran out to retrieve her dog, who, thankfully seemed to be OK and really intent on smelling Mya. And all the woman said to me was, "Well she's never done THAT before!"

Now, I know that this doesn't really have anything to do with this particular car but it does go to show that even if you are driving a tall vehicle like our Explorer, your dog might still go out the window. Please, folks, buckle up your dogs.

Rear Back-Up Camera

Don't worry, automotive photographer Kurt Niebuhr has been in plenty of more dangerous spots than this one.

Kurt's holding up a test car's key tag to demonstrate the clarity of the Explorer's rear camera on the interior display screen.

Can you guess what the tag says?

Drives Big Part Two

I haven't spent as much time as I'd like in the new Explorer yet, but one thing I have noticed is that it seems positively huge from inside.

Usually you want a vehicle to drive smaller than it is, but the Explorer is the opposite: It drives far bigger than it looks.

The styling is very clean, quite modern, and from the outside it doesn't look gigantic. But once you start driving, you're like, "Hold it, where are the edges of the fenders? How close am I to the lane line? Did I just run over a Fiat 500, or was that a Mazda 2?" Okay, it's not quite that bad, but the edges of the Explorer seem very far away.

On the bright side, the ride is certainly cush and it's an exceedingly comfortable vehicle to spend time in.

I just wish it drove a bit smaller.

Top Ten Seat

That, right there, the front seat of the 2012 Ford Explorer XLT, has made my list of Top Ten Automotive Seats.

Okay, I don't actually have a list of top ten seats, but if I did, I'm positive this one would make the cut.

How do I know?

Because the Explorer's seat is even more comfortable than the Nissan Quest's, which would make my imaginary top ten list as well.

The Explorer's combination of soft and supple leather and overstuffed plush padding in all the right places is what does it for me. Of course it has power-adjustable lumbar support, but the seat is so supportive that I usually have it turned to the minimum setting.

Sure, there isn't much in the way of side bolstering. But then, the Explorer isn't exactly a demon around the corners anyway.

This seat, combined with the cushy suspension, make the new Explorer a great highway hauler.

Easy to Park, But...

Everyone here agrees: our long-term 2012 Ford Explorer XLT EcoBoost feels big and drives big. However, parallel parking with this Big Bertha is a breeze.

That's because our Explorer is equipped with rear parking sonar (standard on the XLT and Limited) and a backup camera.  When you combine the feedback from the parking sonar tone and the green, yellow, red zones from the backup camera, you can park the Explorer in some very tight spots. I love it. You can even zoom in on the backup display if the space is really tight (bottom pic), but I don't see why you would need that.

Unfortunately, you have to buy a Rapid Spec package — starting at $1800! — to get the back-up camera unless you get the Limited, where it's standard.

That's ridiculous. The back-up camera should be included with Navigation and it's not. In the future backup cameras may be mandated as standard, and perhaps they should be — on SUVs.

What do you think? Would you pay for the at least $1800 Rapid Spec package to get the backup camera? Me — I would not, but would end up getting a Rapid Spec package anyway.

And should backup cameras be mandated by USDOT?

Maybe We'll Like This One Better?

You might have read that Ford will be showing off a new variant of the Explorer on its Explorer Facebook page in two days time. Common speculation seems to be it'll be an Explorer Sport with the twin-turbo V6 Ecoboost engine.

Makes sense. You can get one in the Flex, so why not the Explorer? But seeing as how most of our staff's complaints center around MyFord Touch and the Explorer's "drives big" personality (and not our comparatively puny EcoBoost four-cylinder), I'm not sure if more horsepower would cure what ails our vehicle and its relationship with the staff.

MFT Update? Still Waiting.

Some people have posted comments wondering whether we've received our MyFord Touch software update that Ford says it's mailing to owners of vehicles with MyFord Touch. So far, we haven't received the required USB drive in the mail. Odds are I'll probably just head over to the Ford dealer later this week to have it done.

I want the 2013 Explorer Sport

There are two big complaints about our 2012 Ford Explorer EcoBoost that don't involve MyFord Touch: 1) It's kind of sluggish. 2) No way to get AWD and a turbo.

With "at least" 350 horsepower from a 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6, AWD and some unique tweaks (including an upgraded MyFord Touch), the 2013 Explorer Sport fixes both of those issues.

I Do Like It

Our Explorer has taken its fair share of criticism since we acquired it back in September. But you know, I still like the thing. Maybe it's because, as a suburbia-living parent, the Explorer is pretty well suited to my lifestyle, and that greatly outweighs the negatives.

It's quiet on the freeway. It rides comfortably around town. The driver seat is comfortable. I like the storage well for holding grocery bags. If I want to haul more stuff, I can. It looks pretty cool in my driveway. I think the steering, which I find light but still direct, is well suited for urban duty. I like the cross-traffic alert safety feature. Oh, and fuel economy from the four-cylinder is pretty good as long as you don't boot the throttle all the time.

So, yeah, you know you're not in for 91-octane excitement with an Explorer. But I'm OK with that.

Airport Shuttle

There's an old joke that says it's best never to get to know your neighbors. If you do, sooner or later they will ask you to pick them up at the airport.

Sadly, I was heedless of caller id and so got shamed into agreeing to perform taxi duty. So I picked the Ford Explorer to be my airport shuttle, it being large and luggage-friendly. Of course, it drove pretty much like an airport bus, too.

You get new respect for shuttle bus drivers when you try to thread the Explorer through the stream of vehicles headed for the white zone at the curb. (“For immediate loading and unloading of passengers only; no parking.”)

Ford designers styled the Explorer to seem as large and trucklike as possible to the driver in order to disguise its Volvo-esque crossover heritage, so you can't see either the front quarters or rear quarters. Every minute, a smash with a giant passenger bus or hidden midget car from Korea always seems imminent.

And when I finally got to the curb, I thought my passengers were going to need some kind of portable jetway to make it across the gaping chasm between the Explorer and the sidewalk because I had misjudged the distance so badly.

Ah well, they won't be asking me for airport transportation again, I'll bet.

Update On MyFord Touch Update

Last week I posted how we hadn't yet received our MyFord Touch update in the mail and that my plan was to just go visit the dealership and have it done. I had an appointmet set for this morning. Then it got interesting.

I showed up at Lithia Ford (in Fresno, Calif.) and met my advisor. Told him I was there with the Explorer for the MyFord Touch update.

He said: "Great! Did you bring the kit with you?"

Me: "Umm, no. That's why I'm here, so I can just have it done."

Advisor: "Oh, sorry. No, all we can do is perform the update for you. We still need the kit you get in the mail."

Well isn't that great? It would have been helpful if the advisor had told that to me over the phone when I made the appointment. Or if I had known. But I just assumed a dealership would be able to do the update.

Next up: I called the Ford Sync/MyFord Touch help line. Figured I'd ask if they could tell us where our upgrade kit was. The advisor on the phone was friendly, but after taking our Explorer's information, her response was essentially: "It's in the mail."

I also asked her if a Ford dealership would be able to do the MFT update. She said it would depend on whether the dealership had the necessary upgrade on hand.

So I called two other dealerships. An advisor at Future Ford of Clovis (a dealership further away and less convenient from where I live) said yes, they could do the update. But he also said it would take three hours to do. Three hours? If you do it yourself it's only supposed to take 60 minutes, tops. So I'm not sure if he knew what he was talking about.

I also called Santa Monica Ford (near our office). They said no, they wouldn't be able to do the update.

So right now we're in MFT Update limbo. Neat, eh?

Child Safety Seat Fitment Test

If you're buying a Ford Explorer, odds are good that you've got kids. Since that's me (the kid part, little ones), and I've amassed quite the collection of child safety seats, I figured the Explorer would be a good vehicle to subject to my occasional blog post series, the Child Seat Fitment Test. Ford versus Britax, read on.

First up is the Recaro booster seat pictured above. Honestly, boosters fit in just about anything, so that's not really a problem.

The only thing of interest is our Explorer's optional inflatable outboard seatbelts. Chris covered them in a previous post, but in terms of safety seat fitment, they didn't seem to be an issue. There are two main things that are different about them, though. One, the main part of the belt (the part that's inflatable) is thicker, meaning it might be harder to thread through holes on some safety seats (if you're going the seatbelt anchoring route). Also, the automatic locking part of the belt is on the lap belt part, not the shoulder belt, which is opposite of normal.

Next up is a Britax Marathon reversible seat (meaning it can be forward facing or rearward facing). The rear-facing is always harder because it takes up more space. And for the Explorer, I had to move the front passenger seat forward a few inches in order to clear the seat. My wife could still sit in the moved-up front passenger seat OK, but she commented that she wasn't all that comfortable.

The same could be said for the Britax Companion reverse-facing infant seat I also tested out. It takes up about the same amount of room, though the positioning is lower. Even so, I had to move the front seat up a few inches for fitment. This was a little surprising if you go by the assumption that Explorer equals big, and big equals safety seat goodness. But referenced to the Jetta and TSX Sport Wagon tests I did, the Explorer had less space for these safety seats than the Jetta and maybe even the TSX.

Fitting the Marathon seat in the forward-facing position was easier. The key here is securing the safety seat snug against the seatback, and that usually means being able to remove the rear headrests. No problem in the Explorer.

The LATCH anchor points in the Explorer aren't the easiest to access. They're a bit buried in the seat, and the upholstery on the bottom is pretty firm, meaning I had to struggle some to push the seat's anchor in there and get it to click on.

>Without having tested other biggish midsize three-row crossovers (a Durango or Pilot, for instance), I don't want to criticize the Explorer too much about space. Making room for a third row by cutting into the second row is just part of the game. But at the same time, my expectations are a little higher here, and the lack of room for big reverse-facing seats is a little disappointing.

I'll probably test our Camry next.

Another MFT Update Update

Dan's ongoing series of posts from Moab in our Jeep Wrangler are a lot more interesting than the latest travails of our Explorer's MyFord Touch system. But if you're curious, here's the latest.

This morning I was at my in-laws house in Orange County, and a dealership (Fairway Ford) is just up the street from where they live. Inspired by a note made in my previous MFT Update Update post by commenter LASHAWN (who says he's an advisor at a Ford dealership in South Carolina), I decided to just drop by Fairway's service department and see what they said in person.

I approached an advisor and told her how we haven't received our update kit yet but that I wanted to see if they (the dealership) had the required software update on hand. She said she did (yes!), but she also said their ability would depend on what kind of MFT we had (huh?). She wrote down our Explorer's VIN and checked it on her computer.

The details escape me, but effectively, she said, no, they couldn't update our Explorer's MFT. Something about MFT being a "02" or "03", and if it's "03" like our Explorer's, then we have to wait for our kit to arrive in the mail. I asked her to explain this. She couldn't, at least not in a way that made sense. She then suggested calling the Sync/MFT help line, which of course I already did earlier in the week and was no help.

On one hand, I'm sure all of us have had exasperating issues with cars and dealer service. And really, we're just talking about a software update here — the Explorer drives just fine. But it's also getting a bit ridiculous. You'd think Ford would be more on the ball here considering how important MFT is to consumer preception of quality.

MFT Expectations

As we wait for the MyFord Touch saga to come to an end, I thought I'd add what I hope comes of the update. I had a chance a few weeks back to try out the latest MFT in some 2013 Ford vehicles, and overall, I was pleased with the results.

According to Ford, the interface has been tweaked to exorcise some of the previous version's demons. First off, it's much more responsive than before. When you hit a "button," you don't have to wait a few seconds for the system to react. It's fairly immediate. Also, it seemed to me that the screen layout seemed a little less cluttered and the font was a bit more legible.

During the drive, however, I wished our Explorer was available with the Sony sound system (as far as I can tell, you have to spring for the Limited trim level to get it). Yes, it sounded better than the unit that we have, but also, the faceplate was a vast improvement. The slick iPod-like face, while pleasing to look at, was also much easier to read at a glance. Form AND function? Where do I sign?

Oil Change Time Again

You may recall that we did the first oil change ourselves at around 3,000 miles. That one was to clear out any unwanted residue from the initial break in of the engine. From there on out we decided to rely on the Explorer's on-board computer to determine when it needed new oil.

So, here we are, roughly 9,000 miles later and the warning popped up last night. This time, we just dropped it off at the local Ford dealer to see how quickly and efficiently they would handle it. We'll let you know how it goes.

Passed Oil Change With Flying Colors

So yesterday I saw an "change oil soon" warning pop up on the way to work. Naturally, I did nothing in response. Later in the day, after completing nearly every possible task on my running 2012 to-do list, I got around to bringing our Explorer to the dealer to get the oil swapped out.

Since we did the oil change ourselves the first time out, I figured this time we would see how well the dealer would handle it. For the most part, Santa Monica Ford did just fine. I called in the morning, told them I needed to drop it off for an oil change and they said no problem. They, of course, had an oil change special that included a tire rotation and a brief inspection. For $40, I didn't feel the need to insist on anything less.

A couple hours later I returned to the dealer, paid my $47.91 and got this multi-colored report back just like the one on the Mike Rowe commercial. As you can see, our Explorer is all green at the moment. Whew.

Big Cupholder

This is my "BFF" water bottle. My friend and coworker Bryn gave it to me. Cute, right? Anyway, it's big and a good test for cars as it doesn't fit in every cupholder. Or if it does, it's just sort of half wedged in. But the Explorer's two front cupholders are sized differently. The bigger one works out well for BFF. Go America!

Beating a Dead Horse Edition

Yes, I know the MyFord Touch is due for an update. Yes, I also know voicing my harsh opinion of the system only adds to the chorus of those on staff who agree, but I've been living with the Explorer for six days now and I need to vent.

What you see pictured here is a completely non-responsive touchscreen which encompassed all its functions (phone, navigation, climate control,  audio, and so on) were locked out behind the utterly dead screen. Beyond that, all of the redundant controls below like the on/off/volume hard button/knob (not pictured) were also on the fritz. After a few minutes of driving, the system re-booted itself and all was (almost well).

Were that the only problem I experienced, I would have been mildly perturbed. It's not just the glitchy, recalcitrant, touchscreen, virtual buttons that are so slow to respond to "MyTouch" (causing unintended double touches). No, it's the contrast of this slow response to the overly sensitive touch-sensitive "paint drip" buttons on the rest of the center stack that really makes the whole system infuriating. Yes, even I dared to rest my thumb on the flasher-activation button and drove with my flashers on for a while before I realized it. I'll finish with this: When I attached my iPhone through the USB port, it would sometimes be completely invisible to the audio system, other times it indexed and played as expected, and yet sometimes it would play for one song then become unresponsive as if invisible again. Finally, sometimes my iPhone would connect to the audio system as a "Docked Device" and not through the SYNC protocol. This update better come soon. Yo, Schmidt. Anything in your mailbox yet?

Doubles as a Minivan

I was scheduled to drive our long-term Nissan Quest this weekend for its kid-carrying capacity, but I had a brian fart and forgot to sign it out on the right day. A quick glance at what was left on the infamous clip-board revealed an equally kid-friendly Ford Explorer. Both can seat five kids (though only four on this occasion).

Why did I care? It was my daughter's 8th birthday and I was one of the shuttle drivers to and from the "I Scream" party. Because my daughter told her friends, "You're going to be famous on the internet," here are a few more photos... Happy Birthday, Sweet Pea!

Pessimistic(?!) Self-Reporting

We've all grown accustomed to mildly-to-wildly optimistic self-reported fuel economy. I'm here to report that our 2012 Ford Explorer XLT EcoBoost is under reporting its own fuel economy. Pictured above is a self-reported 20.3-mpg average when, in fact, it earned 21.8 mpg. On the next fill up, it displayed 23.5 mpg when it actually earned 24.3 mpg.

By the way, just to see how efficient I could be and maintain some dignity, I drove like highway furniture (right lane, cruise set to 70-72 mph for about 250 miles) to achieve that 24.3-mpg average. That's well below the EPA-rated 28 Hwy mpg it should achieve.

Spring Has Sprung

This post is nowhere near as gripping as this one of Mike in the NSX, but one of our family's favorite places to visit closes from December to March every year. I'm happy to report it's open now. Avila Valley Barn is an active farm and produce stand that still offers hay rides, an impressive array of salt-water taffy, locally-made ice-cream, chocolates, honey, self-pick seasonal fruit & veggies, as well as showcasing a small collection of farm animals (a new set of calves and pigs arrived — see below) that kids can feed, as and so on. It's really nice to get out of the house, away from civilization, slow down, and let L.A. kids be kids the way most kids used to be kids.

Convenient Mobile Office

The Time Warner internet service in my new house has been anything but reliable, and after three outages in four days, it was finally time to request a visit from a technician instead of continuing to troubleshoot the problem over the phone.

Problem is, with an intermittent connection, how can you work from home while waiting for the tech to show up?

This morning's answer was my local McDonald's. I wasn't up for sitting inside, but parking next to the building got me close enough to connect to their public wi-fi.

The Explorer's front seat is spacious enough, so if I put the seat in the far-back position, I have room for my laptop flat on my lap. And the center console makes a great mouse pad.

Much easier than working on an airplane, for sure.

Haz-Mat Run

In honor of Earth Day, (and a pressing need for general garage cleanliness), we loaded up the Ford Explorer with empty paint and glue cans and made a run to our local household hazardous waste disposal center.

They take electronic waste, too, so that's my 46-inch flat screen standing upright in the cargo area. It recently took a shot to the screen, an accident I'm still mourning.

Feel Good Wheel

I sit in traffic. A lot. And this morning as I was trying not to come unglued at the slow moving parade of cars trapped alongside me on the freeway, I found myself gripping and releasing our Ford Explorer's steering wheel in an attempt to release some frustration.

A nice wheel, I thought. Good shape and heft, supple, yet firm leather, and flawless detail stitching.

Reflecting on the steering wheel took my mind off the traffic for all of 60 seconds. But I'll continue to appreciate the wheel's quality everytime I drive the Explorer.

I'm Five

'Nuff said.

Will Riswick Fit?

All 6-foot-3 of me was legitimately comfortable sitting in the third row of our dearly departed long-term Ford Flex. The boxy tail end allowed for plenty of headroom, while the Vista roof glass panels and big rear quarter windows provided an open atmosphere. Because our Flex had the second-row captain's chairs that slide forward (the bench does not), leg room was excellent too.

So how does the Explorer do? Well, as you can see above, I certainly fit. My head is grazing the roof, however, and my bent knees are touching the non-sliding second-row bench. I could sit back there for maybe an hour, but I'd need a breather for anything more. I could've gone forever in the Flex.

As I recall, though, this amount of space is consistent with other large crossovers like the Durango and Mazda CX-9. The GM Lambdas and Honda Pilot (also boxy) are a bit better. In total, I would say the Ford Explorer's third row seat is very useable since a vast majority of its tenants won't be 6-foot-3.

Drives Big, Part Trois

And yet another "It drives big" post on our 2012 Ford Explorer, but heck, it DOES drive big. I feel like I'm wearing a fat suit when I pilot this thing, all floaty with not too much road feel. Because of this, I found a lot of my phobias are aggravated in this car, phobias I didn't even know I had like fear of crashing and fear of scraping. (Granted, these are MY issues and those who are used to driving large vehicles will just chalk this up to my being insane, which is fine):

1) When in the far left lane, the sound of Botts' dots reverberate through the cabin as I try to avoid swapping paint with the car in the next lane or any incoming lane-splitting motorcyclists. I'm sure there's plenty of room but I just don't want to take any chances since I can't really see how close they are to the side of the car. The blind spot on the passenger's side is huge. The blind spot monitoring system makes it seem like there's always someone there, even though there's plenty of room to switch lanes.

2) Even when using the back-up camera and side mirror to parallel-park, I can never seem to get close enough to the curb for fear of curbing the wheel. I get out of the car, check how close the tires are to the curb and repark it. Rinse, repeat.

3) Feels like no parking space is big enough to accommodate it.

Customizing Your Liftgate Height

See that? Our 2012 Ford Explorer XLT EcoBoost's liftgate has that option where you can program a desired height for it. Pretty cool if your parking space has a low ceiling or beam. And the new liftgate height will be saved even if the battery is disconnected.

Simple steps to follow (from the owner's manual).

To set the height of the open liftgate:
1. Open the liftgate.
2. Manually move the liftgate to the desired height.
3. Press and hold the control button on the liftgate until a chime is heard, indicating the new height has been programmed. Note: If the liftgate position is too low, the height cannot be programmed. The new open liftgate height will now be recalled when the power liftgate is opened. To change the programmed height, repeat the above procedure. Once the power liftgate is opened it can be manually moved to a different height.

Mirror Dependent

I can't think of another car in the fleet in which I'm almost entirely dependent on the mirrors and rearview camera when backing up. Not even the Quest. Even as rearview cams become more common and my reliance on them grows, I still by force of habit twist around, throw an arm around the passenger seat for stability and crane my neck to see just where the hell I'm pointing the vehicle.

But it's a pretty futile effort in the Explorer. You can turn and twist, but the beltline on this car is so high, you still don't see much out the rear windows. Taller drivers can maybe see a little more of the greenhouse of the car they're about to back into, but good luck trying to find a bumper or hood for visual reference. And that shopping cart or fire hydrant, forget it.

We've beat on the Explorer for feeling big and driving big. But that's apparently what many Americans want: Ford sold 13,400 Explorers last month, its best April since 2005, and has sold 47,000 Explorers year-to-date. But the Explorer's compromised visibility, especially the thick C-pillar and second-row headrest combination, only contributes to a sensation of navigating a bulk carrier up the Colorado River.

Auto-Off Blinker

The turn signal in our 2012 Ford Explorer XLT EcoBoost turns off after one minute of continued use. I wouldn't know this if I hadn't been stopped at a left turn for over four minutes this morning and, as the last person in line, I wanted to keep my blinker on to avoid being rear ended by a bus. Every minute I had to switch it back on.

I tried it again at speed and sure enough, it turns off after a minute. Last week the SAE published results of a study that said turn signal neglect was responsible for twice as many accidents per year as distracted driving. Their solution was more attentive drivers. Kidding, kidding. Their solution was, of course, "smart turn signals" that turn off automatically after a period of time or give a warning should you forget to indicate. Looks like our Explorer already has half of that down.

Junior, Senior

It's been so long since I cared that I forgot the Explorer once offered the two-door Sport model. If I ever truly knew, that is. I think I did, because it crossed my mind before I bought my two-door Cherokee 11 years ago (a two-door SUV made sense way before offspring and domesticity).

This was a serendipitous parking opportunity a few days ago here in Santa Monica. The naked-eye size comparison isn't all that fair. The red Sport is about 180 inches long, and an XLT model of similar vintage was about 10 inches longer. Our 2012 long-termer stretches out to 197 inches.

The wheelbase difference between the Sport and new Explorer is similar, about 11 inches. The difference between XLT model and new Explorer, however? One inch.

But the bigness we're always yapping about in the Explorer? No doubt some of it comes from growing about nine inches around the waist. The current Explorer is nearly 79 inches wide, while an older XLT is a hair more than 70 inches.

And the new Explorer feels big because it is big. Like steady corn syrup diet big. Or evolving crash safety standards big. Or Mom just wants a large metal box around her big. The Sport in this photo probably weighs around 3,700 pounds. An XLT, about 200 pounds more. Our long-term Explorer: 4,458.

The lesson? Avoid two-door SUV if kids are in your future.

How Not To Haul a Couch

For those of you who wondered. This old Ford Explorer I encountered during evening rush-hour demonstrates an alternative solution to hauling that sofa.

Is It That Big a Deal?

Last night this warning came up in our long-term 2012 Ford Explorer's instrument panel. Oh no, I thought. I probably said it, too, because I talk to myself often. I heeded the little arrow prompt to view the warning which said only "Grade Assist."

Huh? I turned on the hill descent control?

No, of course not. It turns out Grade Assist is Ford's terminology for "overdrive off," and all I'd done was inadvertently hit the button formerly known as the overdrive-off button on the side of the shifter.

But it took me a few minutes to realize this, because there's no listing for "Grade Assist" in the index of the Explorer's owners manual. Instead, I flipped to page 280 for hill descent control and kept leafing forward until I found something useful.

I don't think I need a full-on warning if I happen to turn the overdrive off accidentally or deliberately. At most, all that's needed is a simple "O/D off" light in the instrument cluster. There's lot going on in this cabin; no need to elevate the threat level for such a minor issue.

Just Passed 15,000-Mile Mark

I got into our 2012 Ford Explorer XLT 2.0 EcoBoost on Friday night and saw that its 15,000-mile birthday was imminent. I was determined to hit the milestone on the nose.

Alas, I was too busy soaking up the atmosphere of the eastbound East L.A. Interchange as the odometer clicked past 15000.0. There's no shoulder here, so I didn't even consider pulling over — not that this would have been safe anyway. Instead, I nerdily took the first exit off the 60 (Lorena St./Whittier Blvd) and snapped this photo.

The Explorer is now well past the 15,001-mile mark, as I made a quick trip to San Diego over the weekend and spent a lot of time on the freeway after that. I specifically chose the Explorer for this mission, as I wanted something big, comfortable and forgiving — and knew I wouldn't have any qualms parking it, what with its sensors and camera. It's just a big Taurus, right? It ended up being a satisfying choice. More thoughts from the trip tomorrow.

Gets a Passing Mark for Road-Tripability

My decision to drive our long-term 2012 Ford Explorer to La Jolla, California, and back last Saturday had as much to do with my wanting to try something new as it did with the vehicle's availability. My inclination is usually to take something like the Mazda 3 or Sonic on these adventures, but when I thought about how many errands I had to run after the trip, I realized it was going to be a 300-mile day on L.A. freeways and I just wanted something cushier.

Our Explorer filled the bill. Yeah, there were only two of us most of the time (though we also carried a set of parents for a couple hours), but man was it comfortable.

I like the driver seat a whole lot. It's well shaped and supportive. The driving position is also good — well, good considering the Explorer's tall hood and large D-pillars limit visibility. My only complaint about the seating is that I bumped my knee on the steering column trim a couple times while getting in and out of the Ford — most likely, that's a consequence of my decision to crank up the seat height to get a better view over the hood.

Ride quality is also very comfortable — as it should be on a family crossover with P245/60R18 all-season tires.  

But you pay a price for the compliance. The Explorer doesn't feel nearly as steady through corners as some of the minivans that have passed through our fleet recently (Sienna, Odyssey). I was a little put off by the amount of body roll around cloverleaf ramps. It still feels better than the older, truck-based Explorers, but compared with the current population of 7-passenger crossovers, it's not so great. This thing may share a platform with the Flex, but it feels like a different team of chassis engineers did the tuning. I really like the steering, though. It feels accurate at highway speeds and in parking lots.

Acceleration is adequate with the EcoBoost 2.0-liter four-cylinder. Full-throttle it up an entrance ramp and you'll arrive at 65 mph in a reasonable amount of time. Trouble is, when you need to pass, the torque just isn't there regardless of the rating on this engine. The six-speed automatic isn't lighting-quick with downshifts, either.

I can see how this drivetrain would work well in a lighter vehicle like the 2013 Escape, but in vehicles that are well past the two-ton mark, I'm not ready to advocate for getting a turbo inline-4 over a V6 — unless it's a diesel.

Overall, I enjoyed my time in the Ford. I even liked the MyFord Touch interface; the menu system is logical to me and I appreciate how much information I can see on the screen at any one time (our Quest's nav-audio system shows you a lot of info, but Ford displays even more). My one complaint is the one you've heard over and over — the touchscreen's glacial responses to finger input.

Fix that one thing (and eventually, our turn will come up and we will), and swap in the right engine, and I'd be pretty content in the Explorer.

New High for Cruising Range

I had a jam-packed schedule during my weekend road trip in our long-term 2012 Ford Explorer XLT EcoBoost, and I hadn't built in time for a fuel stop. The distance-to-empty display ticked down to 50 miles, then 30, then 20, then 10 and then this... I was about 5 miles from my destination and running late, so I pressed on. I'd say I drove for a total of 8 miles before finally fueling up somewhere in East L.A. No question, I wasn't monitoring the trip counter as closely as I should have been.

This produced the Explorer's first 400-mile tank — 415.4 miles. Its previous high was 388.8 miles.

I put in 18.434 gallons of 87 octane. Ford's published fuel tank capacity is 18.6 gallons, so if true, I apparently wasn't very far from stranding myself and my passenger for no other reason than poor planning. I actually stopped at one gas station, realized the pumpside credit card swipers weren't working, and was too lazy to go inside and wait in the long line. I then drove 2 miles to another gas station.

Notably, I didn't come anywhere close to laying down our best-ever mpg. I got 22.5 mpg. We've logged one strange tank at 39.1 mpg thus far, though I suspect that must have been recorded on one long downhill grade, and plenty of tanks in the 24-25 mpg range.

Had I drive efficiently enough to get 24-25 mpg, this easily could have been a 450-mile tank — which would be quite impressive in a 4,458-pound SUV with a turbocharged four-cylinder engine that has to work hard in fast-moving freeway traffic.

I know cruising range doesn't mean as much to some of you as it does to me, but when I think back to the Explorers I was driving 10 years that were struggling to get 15-16 mpg and certainly weren't approaching 400 miles of range, I do think this is progress. Mind you, the Explorer isn't as popular as it used to be, but I'm betting that the people who do buy the new ones are using them the same way — as family vehicles. And having 400 miles of range in your family vehicle is simply convenient.

Still Waiting for Tech Update

We've been waiting awhile for a "performance update" for the MyFord Touch system in our Explorer. We tried to get it loaded at the dealer but it didn't take. The factory was supposed to send out a USB sitck but it hasn't shown up either.

So for now we're stuck with the system as it came from the factory last year — and that's not good. Actually, it's not just a blank screen, it's just slow. And as far as I'm concerned, they're almost the same thing.

UPDATE: I've been informed that although our Explorer has been to the dealer, an update was not been attempted yet as none of the dealers we've tried had the proper software at the time. We've been told that the software is now available and we'll make another go of it. At this point I can only reiterate what Brent said about trying to get this done in the first place: it's a hassle.

MyFord Touch Update in Reach

This happened to the navigation screen on our 2012 Ford Explorer yesterday. The screen went blank. Coincidentally, I was on my way to the dealer to get the elusive MyFord Touch update installed. It was almost as if the old system wanted to get in one last shot before we sent it packing.

Stay tuned for a full break-down of our visit, the installation process and a before-and-after (a.k.a. night-and-day) comparison of the two systems. Hint: We finally met with some success.

MyFord Touch Updated

After much back and forth, the MyFord Touch system in our Explorer has finally been updated. The revision was supposed to clear up a few glitches that made the system a little less than user friendly.

I drove it home last night and noticed an obvious difference in the reaction time of the on-screen controls. When you push a button something actually happens. Bravo. The hard buttons for the radio and climate controls below the screen are still a little slow to react, so I'm not sure if the update hastened their reaction time at all.

One thing I do like is the "Do Not Disturb" button on the home screen. This may have been there before, but I didn't notice it. Not a bad feature to have when you're in the car with multiple people and you don't want to answer your phone over the speakers.

We'll keep tabs on the new features included in this update as we discover them, but so far it's a noticeable upgrade.

Kid Seat Compatible?

Don't use Recaro kid seats or boosters with the Explorer's trick new airbag-equipped seatbelts. That's what Recaro says, at least for now. They haven't tested the seats with the seatbelts yet. I did notice that it was very difficult to jam the much thicker seatbelt through the routing slots on the booster when I was buckling it into the seat for this photo (without a kid in it). Made me wonder how safe it was if I couldn't properly route the strap.

Ford's consumer page for the Explorer says that the new seatbelts are compatible with child safety seats, and there are a good number of child seat manufacturers who do recommend their seats with the inflatable seatbelts. This document from Safekids.org compiles many of the child seat manufacturers' positions on use of their seats with inflatable seatbelts. As with all child safety seat questions, it's important to read and follow the instructions in the seat's owners manual, or contact the manufacturer if you have further questions.

Toro Rosso

I was absolutely positive that the third cupholder (or whatever it is) in the Explorer would be perfect for an 8.4 ounce can of Red Bull. Had to be. And thank you, Ford, for thinking of those of us who occasionally drink the sweet elixir.

Most cupholders do a crappy job of holding these slim cans in place.

But...

No. The can just rests on top, maybe a quarter inch or so sinking in at all. Definitely not what this holder was designed for, and certainly not enough to keep it in place around corners.

Needs A Skosh More Boost

I was saddled with moving again this past weekend. I like to move every other weekend just because it's so much dang fun.

This time I had the Explorer. Now while I've found the Explorer with the EcoBoost four to be fine scooting around town with just me in it, piled with a truck-full of my assorted crap was a different story. It's underwhelming. Or more appropriately, the engine is bit overwhelmed.

The slow-reacting transmission doesn't help. But for sure there were several times when my call down to the engine department via a floored throttle brought fairly lackadaisical forward progress. Especially when asking for more acceleration at higher speeds.

And...

For those of you freaking out because it appears the Explorer is parked in a red zone...calm down, guys, everything is going to be okay. It was parked there for the length of time it took to crack off a photo.

Small Thing, But I Like It

This is my favorite MyFord Touch display in our long-term Ford Explorer's gauge pack. It's a 2D representation of the spherical compass my grandparents had on the dash of their last Taurus.

Not only does it look cool, it's functional for general navigating/knowing-where-you're-going purposes. And I like that it also tells you which street you're on and the posted speed limit — useful when driving in areas with unfamiliar traffic patterns.

A Little Confused

No, the cast of Glee has not recorded The Godfather theme. Our MyFord Touch has been updated recently but I've been experiencing some wackiness. I don't usually pair my phone to a car. But I do like to connect my iPod.

When my iPod started to play, it sounded all warbly. Have you ever spoken into a rotating fan? We used to do that when we were kids and it would chop the sound of your voice. That's what this sounded like. I had to unplug and replug it several times before it played normally. This happened last night and again this morning.

Then when I used the seek button to fast forward through songs (like the moment when I realized I still had the Glee cast on my iPod), the song updated but the performer did not. This happened repeatedly. As you can see in the picture below, the display near the gauges was correct but the display on the nav screen was not.

A Look Underneath

We've been living with our long-term 2012 Ford Explorer Ecoboost since September. But just this morning photographer Scott Jacobs and I finally put it up on our 2-post Rotary Lift for a look at its dirty side.

More pictures after the jump.

Vineyard Voyage

The missus and I recently took a day trip to Temecula wine country (about 100 miles southeast of L.A.) and as you'd likely expect, the Explorer proved to be a comfortable choice. The well-shaped, heated front seats deserve props for easing our sore lower bodies on the drive home after a 90-minute horse ride through the vineyards.

As with other staffers, I've mixed feelings about the fitment of the EcoBoost turbo four in the Explorer...

I recently sampled this engine in the Taurus, as did my colleague Bill Visnic and share his sentiment that it works surprisingly well in that full-size, two-ton sedan. Although it's still fairly smooth and quiet and provides decent performance most of the time in the Explorer, running up long highway grades or booting it to merge onto a fast-moving freeway has it laboring a bit like the old Nelly I was astride during our trail ride. Saddling the willing EcoBoost four with another quarter ton of mass (compared to the already pudgy Taurus) is pushing it.

But it gets great gas mileage, right? "Great" might be overstating things, but to its credit, we've pulled 27.9 mpg on one tank, essentially matching the 28 mpg EPA highway number. We're averaging 20.4 mpg compared to the 23 mpg combined EPA estimate, but that's not bad considering our Explorer's steady diet of notorious L.A. traffic and our team of leadfoots.

Setting a Course for Home

Yesterday, I attended a special tour of the Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard, followed by a dinner associated with the Michelin Challenge Design. I attended the same event last year in our Equus, and like the last one, the drive home gave me plenty of time for personal reflection.

Somewhere in between my thoughts of where I've been and where I might be headed, I was comforted by the Explorer's wide headlight spread that pierced the inky blackness of a moonless Pacific Coast Highway. I'm not an SUV-type-of-guy, I'll take a low and lean sports car any day, but the Explorer's elevated headlights shone the way through multiple curves without the need for high beams.

Of course, I did have to flash the high beams a few times to remind a few inattentive drivers going the opposite direction that I did not appreciate being blinded.

If there was one complaint, it'd be a slight whistle coming from the passenger-side A-pillar that kept bringing me back to reality. Otherwise, the smooth ride and decent sound system allowed me to collect my thoughts.

Packed House

My sister and her family are in town visiting from Michigan, which means the obligatory trip to Disneyland. Her young boys both require child safety seats, so seating in the seven-passenger Ford Explorer is tight for the rest of us.

Just ask my daughter, who is relegated to the third row with Uncle Jason...

Aunt Jill rides up front with me. She's smart enough to feign carsickness, even before I start the engine.

Can't Miss These Mirrors

Will you look at all that stuff on the Explorer's mirror? And by that I mean stuff other than the actual mirror itself. The turn signal, the logo, the puddle lamp, the wind vanes. There's more technology in this our Explorer's mirror than my entire '75 F-250.

The only thing my truck's mirrors have on the Explorer is size. And actually, now that I think about it, that makes my truck's mirrors way better. At least if you want to see stuff. For everything else, the Explorer's are better. 

Beating a Dead Horse Edition (Part ??)

Do you ever get the feeling that somethings will never "fix?" Apparently, our MyFord Touch has been updated to the latest, greatest version. Yet, after an entire weekend of unremarkable Bluetooth connectivity, several trips, using both the phone and Bluetooth audio without a hitch, our Explorer and my iPhone inexplicably wouldn't talk to one another this morning.
More after the jump...

First I tried to do in from the touchscreen in the Explorer,

but the system timed out before it paired to my phone. Then I tried to connect to SYNC from my phone, and finally, I tried to synchronize the connection process between the two at roughly the same time. Nada.

NaviGlare

Okay, this is nothing new, but it sure seems to me that the idea of a touchscreen (simply as an idea) is a flawed one — especially when it is used for practically everything in the infotainment universe of Ford. Am I all alone on this one?

There's a video after the jump...

MyFord Touch Issues Return

I can confirm the Bluetooth pairing issues in our 2012 Ford Explorer that Chris spoke of yesterday. This is the warning message I recieved today, pairing failed. So I dug a little deeper into the problem...

My phone was stored in the car's computer and the Sync connection was stored in my phone. Yet it would not pair the two. I deleted both and started over. When I pressed the button to add a new phone this screen popped up, as it should.

But it was all I could do to snap the picture. Not two seconds later it faded, replaced by the warning given in the first image above. I then tried a basic reset of the car. I turned the car off, opened and closed the door, locked it, waited several seconds, unlocked it and started it back up again. No luck. I even tried deleting all phones stored in the car and on my phone. The problem remained.

I noticed that the button response times also slowed considerably during this process. Now I am a supporter of the MFT update we received. It improved the previous iteration considerably, in ease of use and speed. But whatever is going on now is no better than the original. I'm going to do some more poking around and see if I can determine the cause before we get the dealer involved. Wish me luck.

MyFord Touch Master Reset

When last we checked, MyFordTouch was unable to pair phones to our 2012 Ford Explorer. We tried everything we could think of to repair the connection short of calling in for a master reset. So it was time...

The reset itself was easy enough. Forget the 3-key, Ctrl/Alt/Delete salute that we've relied on all of these years to save our e-bacon. This system requires a 5-key salute. From the home screen its: settings/system/master reset/warning one/warning two.

When the reset was complete our phone synced up to the system like nothing ever happened. Let's hear it for the wonders of technology.

No Joke Liftgate Cylinder

That's a burly hatch prop right there. This multi-stage gas shaft is about an inch/inch and a half in diameter, doubles as a good personal weapon, and will only set you back about $130 each to replace if it goes bad (like if you drop it and have to scrap assembly; see next photo), according to one online OEM parts warehouse. Keep a couple of broomsticks handy, and maybe a rope-and-pulley, though. That liftgate has to be heavier than Black Sabbath when those struts go limp.

MyFord Touch Saga Continues

Stop me if you've heard the one about MyFord Touch and our 2012 Ford Explorer. For those of you new to this saga, the original system was deeply flawed so we went in for an update. Well, since then we had to trip the master reset once. And then this weekend happened.

Take a look at the picture. There are several things out of whack here:

1) The car is in reverse, but the backup camera is not on.
2) In the top, right corner "navigation unavailable" is displayed.
3) Note: I blacked out the address to protect the innocent. That was frozen also.
4) The center home screen button was pressed (gray), but nothing happened.
5) The clock reads 9:03, but it is in fact 2:15.

In summary, MFT seized up again. I was out running errands. But even after cycling the car off and on 5-6 times, the issue remained. At one point, I turned off the car, exited, closed and locked the door, yet the radio was still playing. That couldn't be good, I thought. Then this happened...

When I started the car back up this time, it automatically rebooted. Thirty seconds later the "scheduled system maintenance" completed and it was as if nothing happened at all. MyFord Touch worked fine again. Should that make me feel better?

Second Guessing Ecoboost

Way back in October of last year, I declared that the Ecoboost engine in our new Explorer was perfectly adequate for everyday driving.

It still is, but I'm less enthused with it than I used to be. I'm now in the habit of timing its power surge when I'm making a lane change on the highway. Sure, I do this with just about any engine, but in this case the lag time between floored accelerator and actual thrust is annoyingly long.

And that's with just me in the car. With a full house this sucker would feel seriously slow. Now I'm thinking I might stick with the standard V6 and put up with the minor decrease in fuel economy.

Easy Fit

Needed to pick up some shelving for my garage, and the Ford Explorer was totally up for the challenge. And, it took the shelving without any need to fold down the second row of seats.

Turns out you can fit 48.5 inches of whatever behind the second row.

Handy.

Nice Detail Work

May not seem like a big deal, but I think it's cool that Ford took the time to put this "Explorer" detail into the side of the SUV's headlights. That's the kind of subtle touch that I could see owners getting a kick out of. Particularly the ones that get up close and personal with their vehicle, like when they wash it by hand.

Fan

The Explorer's fan knob bugs me. Not because it's a knob — I like that. What irritates me is that neither the knob nor the display screen tell you the current fan speed. Or what you're changing it to. If you want to see that then you have to go into the Climate-specific screen.

And that's silly. It's at least one too many steps.

There should either be some delineation on the knob, or anytime you change the fan speed it should show up somewhere. Even just for a few seconds. Could be on the central screen or the instrument panel, whatever.

Why? Because that's the way it should be. And because if I'm already at the lowest fan speed, I'd like to know I'm at the lowest fan speed.

MyFord Touch Takes A Beating

The MyFord Touch system seen in our Ford Explorer hasn't exactly been a hit with our editors and owners in general. Yesterday, Consumer Reports weighed in.

In a blog post entitled "Why the MyFord Touch Control System Stinks," it criticized the system for being "distracting," saying it "wouldn't recommend dealing with the frustrations of MyFord Touch on a daily basis even to an adversary."

2013 Explorer Sport Certified At 365 Horsepower

The Explorer Sport is the high-performance version of the Explorer, and Ford recently revealed exactly how much horsepower it will have on tap for 2013.

From Edmunds.com News: "The 2013 Ford Explorer Sport is certified at 365 horsepower, Ford has confirmed. The Explorer Sport, the high-performance version of the popular SUV, is equipped with a 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 engine. Ford originally predicted that the Explorer Sport would produce at least 350 hp. It shares the engine with the Ford Taurus SHO sedan."

Scheduling Service Online

We decided to try something new for the 20,000-mile service on our 2012 Ford Explorer XLT EcoBoost. Rather than call by phone to schedule a service appointment, Huntington Beach Ford offers an online scheduling feature. We've seen this from other dealer websites but have yet to try it until now.

The process was simple enough. Fill in your vehicle information and available service slots appear on the calendar. Click one and it is done. Our appointment is for 7:00 am. A confirmation page follows the one above. This, we hope, will save the extra time spent waiting while the advisor enters the VIN and vehicle info prior to our visit.

We will let you know how it works out.

Scheduling Service Online, Part 2

Yesterday we scheduled service for our 2012 Ford Explorer XLT EcoBoost online with Huntington Beach Ford. The system seemed like a slam dunk. Click here, click there, fill in some basic info and that's it. But as it turned out, HB Ford wasn't up to speed quite yet...

If you recall, our appointment was made for 7am, which was when the service department opened. The appointment page online failed to mention that mechanics arrive at 8am. Why would it allow us to schedule a 7am appointment? I don't have the answer. I could see this being a complete time-suck if I hadn't brought my laptop. There was another glitch.

I spent a few minutes entering the year/make/model, VIN, transmisison type, engine size and contact info on the scheduling page. I even entered my email and phone number, which I hope doesn't come back to telemarket me into madness later. After all of this, the advisor informed me,"You know what? We updated our computers about a month ago. I don't have access to the information you entered online. Sorry." So he entered it all again.

The service itself was the high point. Our advisor was polite and professional. He did not try to upsell us, and he was sympathetic to our failed online scheduling attempt. We were in and out before 8:30am with fresh oil, a tire rotation and a wash. We would come back. But we would avoid the online scheduling process, which at this point, appears to be a work in progress.

Total Cost: $52.76

Total Days Out of Service: None

Child Seat Report

The second row seatbelt receivers in our 2012 Ford Explorer XLT EcoBoost tuck so nicely into the seat bottoms that they are nearly flush with the surface. That is great until it comes time to install a rear-facing child seat in the center position.

Notice that the child seat straps obscure the seatbelt receivers from view. Well, that also means you can't stuff the belt in there to buckle it. So the outboard second row seats are more-or-less unusable when the child seat is installed. This could be a deal-breaker for some families.

Totally a Carmax Car

Whenever we take our long-term cars to get appraised at Carmax, a few of our editors make friendly bets on what the offer will be. When we think a car will get a solid offer, we call it a "Carmax Car." These cars, like our departed Toyota Sienna, are easy for Carmax to sell and so it can make us a better offer.

Edmunds trade-in TMV was $27,683. I was the optimist of the group and said Carmax would offer $28,000. Phil Reed said $27,500. Mike Magrath was like that guy in "The Price is Right" who says "One dollar." He guessed $27,000.

Take a guess for yourself before you click to the next page.

Turns out I was right on the money. Carmax offered us $28,000. This was $317 more than trade-in TMV. Here are some other numbers to put it into perspective. MSRP on this car was $38,485. We paid $35,402 before taxes. The Explorer depreciated about 21 percent in a year. This is about average for a car.

Carmax made us a good offer and we would have trouble beating it if we tried to sell it ourselves. Private party TMV was $29,689. That's too close to $30K which is a big psychological barrier for a used car. It's too close to the price of a new car — albeit one with fewer options.
I called Abe at Trade-In Solutions, to get a second opinion. I read him the VIN and told him the Carmax price. "Take the money," Abe said.

If we sold the car ourselves, we would probably have to price it at $28,900. Then, after negotiation, we'd end up at $28K or potentially less. We saved ourselves the trouble and sold the Explorer to Carmax.

And so the Explorer leaves our fleet. It was a car that drove big, had an engine that was too small and a MyFord Touch interface that acted up on us a few times. That said, it was a comfortable car and had no problems finding its way to 20,000 miles.

Wrap-Up

What We Got
The Ford Explorer was fully redesigned in 2011 and it was no small overhaul. For the first time in its life, Ford's midsize SUV was built on a unibody platform instead of a more trucklike body-on-frame setup. The aim was less weight, better mileage and a smoother ride, so we decided to see just how well it achieved those goals.

On the list of must-haves for our 2012 Ford Explorer long-term test were the midgrade XLT trim, the new turbocharged EcoBoost engine and the new MyFord Touch driver interface. The 2.0-liter EcoBoost inline four-cylinder produced 240 horsepower and was, according to Ford, "for a buyer who has utility needs that the vehicle provides but who doesn't require as much capability.... It's for someone invested in fuel economy." That was us. We were also eager to give the innovative but sometimes frustrating MyFord Touch system a fair shake.

We sifted through a sea of highly accessorized Explorers in an attempt to locate a two-wheel-drive model with our must-have options. We finally found one that was close, although it had a bit more equipment than we hoped. The full list included MyFord Touch, Sync, a rearview camera, dual-zone air conditioning, power liftgate, blind spot monitoring, voice-controlled navigation and the Comfort package. The MSRP was over $38K but after Ford rebates we paid $35,402. Our test was under way.

Our Impressions

"I drove the Explorer 200 miles in three days and not once did I wish it had more power. This is a fine engine. And it works in the Explorer." — Scott Oldham

"It is not a quick crossover by any means. There are times on the freeway when it struggles to build speed and your average family sedan will smoke you away from a light every time. Then again, most of that doesn't matter. In most driving situations our Explorer feels adequately powered, without any noticeable peaks or valleys in the delivery." — Ed Hellwig

"In concept, MyFord Touch (MFT) makes a lot of sense.... It is clean-looking and modern. Plus, MFT allows levels of customization you could never get away with in a button system.... The main downside...is that you lose tactile confirmation when pressing a touchscreen button. Occasionally you'll press a button and, due to a lag or a non-response, you're left staring at the screen wondering whether your button press actually worked. Rather than keeping your eyes on the road, you're keeping your eyes on the screen. Not good.... The answer is Sync. With Sync, you can use voice activation to do many things. To be honest, though, it's kind of a workaround. And workaround implies there's a significant problem." — Brent Romans

"Well, after several days of driving the Explorer I still never got the hang of the center stack buttons. Sometimes I would give the temp buttons a quick tap to change the settings and get nothing. Then I would press them again and get four or five degrees of movement.... For now they are more trouble than they're worth." — Ed Hellwig

"I know the Explorer is a challenging piece, since it's supposed to combine the truck themes of its past with the modern, family-friendly cues of GM's Lambda-class crossovers. But the styling execution makes this vehicle more challenging to drive than you want in either a truck or a crossover." — Michael Jordan

"I remember two things very vividly.... The first was that it was impossibly smooth at highway speeds. So smooth you had to constantly monitor your speed.... The second thing that's stuck in my mind was the way the car felt on the highway: huge, wide, imposing." — Mike Magrath

"I drove our long-term EcoBoosted four-cylinder Ford Explorer for the first time this week. The power's adequate with the turbo four, but I won't be in a hurry to drive it again — certainly not on a road trip.... I don't care for this SUV's electric-assist power steering. It's limp and vague on-center to the point that I don't have confidence in my directional heading (on the freeway), so I'm continually making small corrections to keep the big lug pointed straight. This got old after 50 miles of commuting." — Erin Riches

"While wheelspin is possible (during acceleration testing), it occurs well after launch and then the boost gets carried away and really lights the tires, making the run slower. It exhibits very smooth and moderately quick upshifts. Engine noise is well isolated and it never sounds strained." — Chris Walton

"That, right there, the front seat of the Explorer, has made my list of Top 10 Automotive Seats.... OK, I don't actually have a list of top 10 seats, but if I did, I'm positive this one would make the cut.... The Explorer's combination of soft and supple leather and overstuffed plush padding in all the right places is what does it for me. Of course it has power-adjustable lumbar support, but the seat is so supportive that I usually have it turned to the minimum setting." — Mike Monticello

"I recently changed the oil in our Explorer. The procedure was very straightforward — so straightforward, in fact, that the process will be documented in an upcoming Edmunds how-to oil change piece." — Dan Edmunds

"Another week of hauling Girl Scout cookies. This time, it was the Ford Explorer's turn. That's 26 cases in the Ford's rear cargo area with the second-row seats still in place.... Not bad, considering the boxes don't block rear visibility, either." — Kelly Toepke

"The other day I was banished to the third row of our Explorer. Actually, in all honesty, it wasn't bad. I had ample legroom and my knees weren't touching the seatback in front of me (FYI, I'm 5'5" so those taller than me may have a different experience). And I even felt comfortable enough to catch some Zzzs. Mind you, this was only on the way to the mall that was about 30 miles away and there's no way I'd want to sit there for a road trip." — Caroline Pardilla

Maintenance & Repairs

Regular Maintenance: Routine service for our 2012 Ford Explorer was scheduled in 7,500-mile intervals. We handled the first oil change ourselves for $41. When we realized that the dealer charged just $48 for the same work, we let it turn the wrench at 15,000 and 20,000 miles.

Service Campaigns: Our life with the Explorer was not all by the book. Beyond the scheduled dealer visits we stopped in to update both the cooling fan PCM and the maligned MyFord Touch system. That, of course, followed an earlier, failed attempt to have MFT updated by the dealer. A flat tire, requiring a patch, concluded our extracurricular maintenance. Aside from the $25 flat repair, we spent nothing additional out of pocket.

Fuel Economy and Resale Value

Observed Fuel Economy: The EPA estimated fuel economy for the 2012 Ford Explorer EcoBoost is 20 city/28 highway and 23 mpg combined. We averaged 20 mpg over 20,000 miles. Our single-tank best of 28 mpg supported the EPA rating, but required careful throttle management. A range of 400 miles between fill-ups was possible with similarly deliberate driving habits. On the other end of the spectrum, our worst tank returned just 14 mpg.

Resale and Depreciation: We purchased the Explorer for $35,402. One year later the odometer read 20,000 and it was time to sell. At the time, Edmunds' TMV® Calculator valued the SUV at $29,689 based on a private-party sale. So when Carmax made us an offer of $28,000, we could not refuse.

Summing Up

Pros: Solid, usable power from 2.0-liter EcoBoost engine, very quiet cabin on the highway, excellent driver seat comfort, usable third-row seats, compliant ride in nearly all conditions.

Cons: MyFord Touch system makes simple adjustments frustratingly difficult, marginal fuel mileage from four-cylinder engine, limited visibility for shorter drivers.

Bottom Line: You're not going to get huge mileage numbers from the four-cylinder turbo engine and you should avoid the MyFord Touch interface. Other than those two misgivings, we liked just about everything else about the new 2012 Ford Explorer and would recommend it to anybody looking for a roomy, comfortable, quiet SUV that offers three rows of seating and solid all-around performance.

Edmunds purchased this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation.