How Ford Wants to Make the Explorer "Hot"
The Ford (F) Explorer is the generic family station wagon of the late 1990s to early 2000s. It's just about the opposite of what comes to mind when you think of customized hot rods, but Ford is trying to change that.
The redesigned 2011 Ford Explorer is a good industry benchmark to show how attitudes have changed with regard to trucks and SUVs -- in a nutshell, in favor of a much more car-like truck.
In fact, Ford recently announced there will be souped-up and stylish versions of the new Ford Explorer at the Specialty Equipment Market Association trade show next month in Las Vegas. The SEMA show is better known for hot-rods than for family SUVs. Parts and accessories makers added "bling" features to the new Ford Explorer like hugely oversized tires and brakes, or high-tech accessories like an iPad. Ford doesn't expect to actually sell these customized Explorers, but the SEMA show is an exercise in jazzing up the Explorer's brand image.
The old Ford Explorer was the poster child for the stampede to SUVs in the late 1990s to early 2000s. According to Ford, sales of the Ford Explorer averaged more than 400,000 per year from 1995 to 2003, including a record 433,000 in 2002.
Then along came higher gas prices and a shift in tastes away from traditional SUVs like the Ford Explorer, the Chevy Blazer or the Jeep Grand Cherokee. In 2009, Ford Explorer sales in 2009 were only 52,190, according to AutoData.
This year, Ford Explorer sales have begun to rebound. Through September, Ford Explorer sales were up 17 percent to about 43,000, AutoData said. That's still a far cry from the good old days, when Ford could sell nearly that many in a month.
The new Ford Explorer is built on a car platform, with some of the same underpinnings as cars like the Ford Taurus and the Volvo S80, as well as the Ford Flex crossover. Like other SUVs, the old Ford Explorer was built on a truck platform with a ladder-like frame underneath. That made it stronger and more capable off-road, but heavier and less fuel-efficient. The new Ford Explorer is optimized for on-road ride and handling and better fuel efficiency.
At the same time, it keeps other attributes of older SUVs that people liked, like a higher seating position and room for both people and cargo. It also saves Ford a lot of money to build more models off a single platform. The new Ford Explorer isn't expected to recapture sales of 400,000-plus per year, but it doesn't have to, in order to be a success.
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Photo: Ford