2015 Road Test

[dave91gt]

The addition of the Ecoboost may bring us back to the Expedition. We had an 08 EB all loaded up we bought 2 years ago. Traded it in March of this year on a 14 Explorer Sport with the 3.5 ECO. The Expy was abused before I bought it and had a reman motor. It got lousy fuel mileage in daily driving (13-14) but returned 18-19 on a trip with it's 3.31 gears. We ended up having a VCT solenoid go out and I got into a nasty fight with the dealer. Anyway, we decided to downsize and get the Explorer for the wife. We just took it to the beach and it returned a 22mpg average. Straight highway was 25 mpg. And the power? Wow. It just spools the turbos and gains speed. I also have the benefit of having a F150 with the 5.0. I have 27K on it and love the motor. In my opinion, either motor is worlds above the 5.4 3V. Our expy was a turd. Constantly downshifting to get power. My truck has 3.73 gears and with that combination, it would be OK in the Expy, but I wouldn't want it with 3.31's. It pulls to 6K and is a great towing motor. But in the Expy I think people will fall in love with the EB. Tuned, these motors are a beast. Guy in the F150 forum just ran high 12's in the 1/4 in a full weight crew cab 4X4. Yeah, you don't buy an Expy to dragrace but torque is there. Just off idle. They tune it back in the Explorer due to torque steer. In the Expy, they wont have to. We also love the MFT and tech in the Explorer. Nav works great. Glad they are making their way into the expy. We have 2 kids and the beach trip was a little cramped compared to the Expy. I personally love the body style and think the new GM twins are ugly. Their third row floor space is a joke with the floor design due to the solid axle.