2002 Ford Explorer Review

Find your car!

provided by

Review:

It's bigger, longer, and more powerful. It has a stiffer body and a third row of seats. There's more ground clearance and plenty of new safety features. But is that enough for the 2002 Ford Explorer to remain the nation's best selling sport-utility vehicle?

When you've been number one for a full decade, selling a combined total of 3.5 million vehicles, you take a lot to risk refreshing a product like the Explorer. Indeed, the market has changed a lot since Ford's popular, compact SUV first hit the road. There are roughly 40 sport-utes vying for the heart, mind and pocketbook of the American consumer, more than double the number of SUVs on the market when Explorer first appeared. And the segment is going to grow increasingly crowded, Ford officials acknowledge. By mid-decade, there could be as many as 70 true utes and SUV-like crossover vehicles, including Ford's own new Escape.

So, when it came time to work up a replacement for the current-generation Explorer, the Ford team knew it couldn't compromise any of the key details. They only had to look at what happened when the 1996 Taurus debuted. With a quirky design that compromised key features, such as interior space and rear seat access, sales all but collapsed. In a daylong background briefing, Ford designers, engineers and marketing managers made it clear they weren't going to let that happen with the 2002 Explorer.