2001 Ford Explorer Limited review from North America

I have not bought this car (thanks god!!). I am living in the San Francisco bay area and I have rented a Ford Explorer to go to Death Valley National Park, California. Here's what happened in only 3 days.

First a tire blew out. OK, that's not linked to the car, so why not...

And then, the alternator went down, and the battery was not recharging anymore.

We tried to escape from the heat but the Ford never left the valley and we became pedestrians in Death Valley, with a temperature over 110F. Fortunately, a ranger was able to help us and we were finally towed to Las Vegas where we got a Jeep Grand Cherokee to drive back to San Francisco.

When I arrived from France, I did not know that American cars in America were so unreliable. In Europe, Ford models, for example, don't seem so crappy. If you have a look on the reviews made for the Ford Mondeo for instance, it appears that most of their owners seem to be satisfied.

I really think that when you buy a car more than $25000, you should not have these kinds of problems with only 15000 miles on your odometer. This is completely unacceptable.

As far as the performance is concerned, it isn't glorious. The V6 engine is completely enslaved by a crappy automatic transmission. The V6 powered Grand Cherokee we got to drive back to San Francisco was really better. This was also an automatic transmission, but this one was correctly designed.

The only good point I have to say about the Ford Explorer is the comfort. It was not too bad actually, for a Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) of this size.

Unfortunately for Ford, it is not enough to make a good car...

Of course, I certainly do not recommend this SUV to anyone on Earth.

As far as I am concerned, I will never buy a Ford on the North American market.

And for the European market, I will be always suspicious...