Faults:

The day that we brought the car home, the air ride system went bad, of course this was covered under the warranty.

I don't really know when, but the memory seats don't work anymore. When I called the dealer to find out about a price, I was told I would have to pay the dealer something to the tune of $60 an hour just to diagnose the problem. I decided to let it alone.

The power lumbar driver seat no longer works anymore. It probably went around 70,000 miles. I decided that I really didn't need the power lumbar seats that much anyway.

The Explorer goes through a lot of O2 sensors. It seems as though whenever the check engine light comes on, an O2 sensor needs to be replaced.

General Comments:

I wish the car had the V8 engine because when the explorer is half-full, it is VERY sluggish.

I always have to drive with the pedal down to the floor to have any acceleration.

This may be the cause of the poor gas mileage. I get about 13.5 in the city, and depending upon how fast I am going on the highway, between 17 and 20.

The Limited version comes with awesome features like the on-board computer and the rear air.

The 4 wheel drive works like a dream in the bad weather. But without it engaged, you WILL skid, even when the road is just wet.

I got this car when I turned 16 two years ago when my mother got a BMW. My parents decided to give me this car because it had 4 wheel drive and was a large vehicle.

If buying this car for a student, please keep in mind that s/he will have to work constantly to keep it filled with gas. I go through one tank per week, and with a 20 gallon tank, it often costs around $30 to fill it up. Even though it is a gas hog, I love having the extra room for all the crap that students have to haul around. (Book bags etc).

Faults:

Very little has gone wrong with the truck since I've owned it.

Some of the dash lights don't work anymore, namely a light in the cluster, the fog light switch and some of the cruise control switches.

All the switches still work they just don't light up anymore. Fortunately Ford has designed all the switches at least on the cruise control to be a different shape so you can tell what they are even in the dark. Smart design on their part.

Other than that the power mirrors just stopped working one day. I'm told it's just a 35 dollar switch that needs to be replaced. And the front ball joints will need to be replaced fairly soon which is going to be expensive as they're more costly on all wheel drive explorers.

General Comments:

I love this truck, it's fast, has loads of power for passing and is very reliable.

This is our second Explorer, we used to have a 91 Eddie Bauer. It was a very reliable truck as well. The only reason we got rid of it was because it had serious rusting problems and it really couldn't handle the weight of the trailer we wanted to pull with the 4.0 L 6 in it.

Excellent stock sound system with speakers matched perfectly to the head unit.

The only exception being the remote six-pack changer in the console is a cheap Clarion unit which I've already had to pull out and have fixed once.

Very solidly built truck, massive sway bars and strong front end. I t-boned a Honda coming off an ice covered parking lot off ramp at 15 mph last winter. The Honda was written off and the only damage to the truck was a scratch on the bumper.

Very comfortable on long trips, decent ride and quite good handling for a truck. Much better than my 91 Explorer.

Guzzles gas like nothing else I average around 14 mpg around town and only slightly better on the highway at about 17 mpg.

That's the same mileage as the new 5.9L dodges.

The V8 is worth it though especially compared to the original 4.0 L six.

You just have to drive both to be convinced.

The original 4.0 L six was a good motor we never had any problems with it, but the V8 is something else again, rocket like acceleration and boat loads of torque.

Plus the 8 sits lower and makes the truck handle better than six cylinder versions.

It's supposed to be more reliable too, especially compared to the later (95 - up) sixes.