1996 Ford Explorer Eddie Bauer review from North America

In the spring of 2000, the left rear window began to make a horrible screeching sounds. Not long after, the rear child-safety lock on the left rear door malfunctioned so that you couldn't open the door from the inside (I had never engaged the child lock, so I don't know exactly how this happened). I had to have the whole locking mechanism replaced.

In the fall of 2001, the rear left speaker began to make funny noises. Then, one day in mid-November, I started up the car after my morning class to find that the stereo (radio, CD player, clock, etc.) was completely kaput (non-operational). The Ford Authorized Dealer/Mechanic in my town said it was not a bad fuse, but after keeping my truck for two days, he scratched his head and said I should buy a new one and we would see if that solved the problem. I still have not had this problem corrected (Nov 2002).

In January of 2002, I was back at the dealer with a problem in the four-wheel drive system. Again, the Ford Authorized Mechanic could not diagnose the problem -- even after keeping my car for over a week! So I took it to a four-wheel drive specialty shop in town, and they diagnosed the problem in two days. I had to have both the speed sensor and the T-case shift motor replaced (the parts cost about $480, and the labor was another $400).

Beyond that, all other problems have been rather minor. The lights on the steering column (the cruise control buttons) have a sporadic illumination history -- sometimes they all light up, sometimes a few of them do, and sometimes they are all dark. It's not too bothersome since you only need the lights at night (and even then you pretty much have their locations memorized). But if you let someone else drive your truck it can be a problem. I had a mechanic look at it, but nothing was ever done to fix it.

Sometimes the rear seats can be stubborn about folding down -- the release mechanism doesn't seem all that well designed.

The directional air vents do not hold their positions on bumpy roads, which leaves your upper body out in the cold (or heat, depending on the weather extreme) when driving off-road.

I would not recommend the leather interior -- it does not stand up well to regular use.

Besides the above mentioned problems, I can honestly say that I LOVE this truck! This is a pretty amazing thing to say when you consider I have driven this truck across the country several times and throughout the remote wild regions of Colorado in all kins of weather (and, for the past year, without a radio)!!!

My truck handles snow and mud with ease, and it has tackled some pretty tough four-wheel drive roads for a stock vehicle. I can't say I have babied this truck -- I rarely get to clean it and I am always carelessly tossing my toys on top (kayak, skis, snowboard) and all my gear in the back. I also use it to carry around 500+ pounds of birdseed on short trips from the storage shed to work almost every day.

The gas mileage isn't nearly as nice as my Ford Probe that I drove for ten years before getting my Explorer (the Probe got between 30-36 miles per gallon while the Exploder only gets between 14-22 MPG). But the Probe would never have been able to carry me to all the places that my Explorer has carried me.

If I had $500 to put into this truck right now (to fix the radio and give it a professional, detailed cleaning) I think that it would be pretty much as good as new. And I would see $500 as a solid investment in a solid, hard-working truck. Despite anything you may have heard about the Explorer, I can tell you that my 1996 Explorer was a good buy that will be with me for a long time to come.