2001 Ford Explorer Limited from North America - Comments

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...

I completely agree. I bought a Ford Explorer XLT (2001) it has been in the shop several times. First the SUV wouldn't start, then they had to replace the manifold gaskets 4 TIMES, now the blinker switch is smoking out of the hazard lights button. I have had it replaced once already and it is doing it again. I have had the brakes changed and now something is rubbing on the tires. It is a piece of crap and I would recomend that nobody purchase a ford. Any ford that I have ever come across has had problems. I completely agree that when you pay as much as they run you should not have any problems. You might as well buy a Daiwoo.

My ford explorer has been falling apart since the day I bought it. I'd sell the awful thing, but can't justify forcing this horrible experience on anyone else. 4 years left 2 pay!

The transmission is gone. The front end has literally fallen apart. All the rods and bolts, etc have broken. The footbars rusts. I could go on, but basically don't buy a ford. I'll never ever buy one again.

I couldn't disagree more with you all. I bought a 2002 Ford Explorer Sport in December of 2006, with 79,000 miles. It now has over 91,000 miles on it, with no problems whatsoever. It is very comfortable, nice to drive with tight steering and handling, and you can't even feel the transmission shift. I drive it on a 750-mile round trip about every other month and have never had a problem. On the most recent trip, it got 26 mpg doing 65 mph. Needless to say, I WOULD recommend one to anyone.

On the other hand, I agree that the older models, with the 4.0 L V-6 automatic, were doggy and underpowered, but when they went to the 4.0 L SOHC and the 5-speed automatic, it made a big difference. We had a 1999 4-door Explorer at work, and I would have felt sorry for anybody that paid $25,000 for that thing. I would also tend to agree that the early 2000's Jeep Grand Cherokee was a smoother ride with more power than the contemporary Explorer.

Also remember that renting a vehicle for a couple of days does not really count as "owner experience". The problems that you experienced are most likely a result of lack of maintenance by the rental company combined with abuse by the previous renter. Think about it --- you took a vehicle out to Death Valley to beat on it, and that is exactly what the previous renters did as well. The problems that they caused caught up with you. Face it, you didn't take your own car out to Death Valley, right? You rented an SUV because you wanted something you didn't really care about abusing. You ran the AC at max while crawling at idle speed over the road to Teakettle Junction or someplace, and ran the battery down. You have to treat stuff a little better.