Our local cable news channel ran a pre taped syndicated report on a recent auto show in North America..I didnt catch the city, but voted the " Car of the year" was the overpriced and generally unavailable Chevy Volt ...no real suprise there I guess.
Then the reporter went on to the winner of "Truck of the year" and the reporter was giving a rundown on the new Ford Explorer ..... telling how this had been changed and that had been improved and so on and so on, and then she said and I quote...."all these improvments make this vehicle a lot more Land Rover like " !!!!!!!!!!!

I LMAO and was quite pleased, I'm not sure how the board of Directors at Ford are taking it though !!

 

Just read the target vehicle for the Explorer is the LR2....they're not shooting for the stars I guess

 

Just another Urban SUV to give the masses pretensions of "exploring" on their way to the Supermarket or on "tough" gravel roads for a mile or two. I "love" the new ridiculous Ford Explorer TV commercials which give the impression that they actually have off-roading ability. This comes from a guy who actually bought and owned three Sport Explorers in the 90's and used them extensively in wandering all over CO and UT. At least the Sports I owned had some kind of "exploring" potential off-road and were driven thusly.

 

That was the Detroit Auto Show, it is the North American auto show that starts the auto show season in North America.
It is pretty much awesome to go and see.
All of the new SUV's are that way, they have the look but not the function.
I read somewhere before that over 90% of SUV's sold in the US never leave the pavement.
So thats who they make them for, soccer moms who might run into a grassy field or a sand drift at the beach.
And of the pick up trucks that do they are by farmers and construction workers.

 

Risking potential ridicule....I like the new Explorer commercials. And I like them more than the LR4 commercials I have seen. I think it is a good looking vehicle and honestly would love to have some of that gas mileage. A few times this winter I have driven someone else's vehicle and am surprised at how crappy the handling is in our Michigan winter.
I love the Rover, but we could use some better ad campaigns than are currently being featured. Ford is moving in the right direction, honestly for most of what I do, I think an explorer would probably be just fine. (I would miss my lift and the capability it gives me, but my wife at 5 foot 4 would not).
If you all disown me for these comments--meh.

 

I honestly would not mind having a new Explorer as I believe Fords are made well. Better than Rovers by a long shot. It would be a great highway and easy offroading vehicle but it wouldn't take me very far off road in the 4-corners area so I will drive my highly capable old Disco until it totally dies but I sure wouldn't mind owning a new Explorer along with my old Disco. I have no desire to own any of the newer LR's. Over-priced, over-electroniced,rich guy, gizmo SUV's. I would never trust one to take me off roading, not break down electronically, and then back home as I do my 97 Disco even the new LR4. Owning a new Explorer plus continuing to own my capable Disco would be the best of both worlds.

 

i had a ford. it was awesome. bought it brand new. 6k in the tranny started slipping brought it back to the dealer they did something to it it never worked properly towards the end of its life at 110k i had to manually shift thru the gears 1-2-3-d-od reverse didnt work i woudl have to park on hills and roll backwards the wipers stopped working i had to use a string to move them with the windows open. never again will i buy another ford. my disco is much more reliable than that POS was.

 

That's too bad about your Ford experience. The 3 Explorer Sports I bought new were all from the 1990's. One of my sons still has the 1998 Sport I bought new and it's still going strong. My Ford experience was very positive but maybe I was lucky.