Planning to buy 2020 Expedition

Which vehicle would you choose?

  • 2020 Ford Expedition Limited

    Votes: 23 85.2%
  • 2021 Chevy Tahoe Premier

    Votes: 4 14.8%

  • Total voters
    27

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Huy Nguyen

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Hi All,
I am planning to buy a new SUV very soon. I am looking at either the new Chevy Tahoe Premier 4x4 or Expedition Limited. I am leaning toward the Expedition in term of pricing, but my wife is hesitate about getting Ford after bad experience with our current 14 Explorer XLT. I have a few questions that i would really appreciate if you guys/gals can help me out.

1.) Fit and Finish of Expedition? It's terrible on Explorer, uneven panel gaps, trims do not flush, etc...
2.) Ride Compliance, Comfort when fully loaded (6 people with tons of craps)
3.) What are the commons issues with Expedition? Does Waterpump/timing chain inside the engine like the 3.5 on Explorer?
4.) What features are the must have? Problems i should watch out for?
 

Gumby

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1. I found the fit and finish on my 18 Expy to be quite good. One of the rear doors is a little off but overall interior is solid with very little squeaks and I have over 110,000 kms on the odo
2. I have the Platinum, so I have CCD. Ride is quite nice. I don't find it too stiff at all. WAF is high on ride comfort. We took a family trip to BC recently (12 hr drive) and we were loaded to the gills. The Expy handled the twisty uphill climbs and downhill joints no problem. I found that it performed better when you switched the drive select to SPORT, not so much for the power band, but more to stiffen up the suspension when fully loaded in the mountains.
3. I had issues with Rear main seal, cam phasers, water in taillight lense, running board motors that have failed (I just turned them off) and the cooling lines to the transmission leaking a few times.
4. This is subjective, but as mentioned I run a platinum so it literally has all options.
 

Deftones

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I have only owned my MY20 XLT FX4 for a few weeks, so I don't have much to add since my trim level does not have a some of the limited finishes. I will say I don't find any issues with my vehicle so far. Personally, I would never buy a vehicle in 1st year after a redesign. There are always issues and I don't want to be someone else's guinea pig.

That said, the Expedition still has several issues that persist 4 years into the life cycle. Cam phasers and leaking shocks appear to be the main issues.
 
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JasonH

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Hi All,
I am planning to buy a new SUV very soon. I am looking at either the new Chevy Tahoe Premier 4x4 or Expedition Limited. I am leaning toward the Expedition in term of pricing, but my wife is hesitate about getting Ford after bad experience with our current 14 Explorer XLT. I have a few questions that i would really appreciate if you guys/gals can help me out.


3.) What are the commons issues with Expedition? Does Waterpump/timing chain inside the engine like the 3.5 on Explorer?

What oil change interval did you use on the Explorer? There's been a lot of speculation that Ford is not conservative enough on the oil change intervals, resulting in stretched timing chains and prematurely worn phasers.
 

sanman28

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There arent any more or less problems than GM....out of fairness. My experience has been that my GM's have had more issues. Everybody has their anecdotal experiences. I like the ford fit, finish, and switchgear better.....but the new gm's are, well, new.
 

grumpyoleman

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2018 XLT 4x4 here and I am quite happy with ours. Fit and finish is quite good, I mean its not a BMW or Mercedes but I think it is much better than average for a non luxury brand.
No CCD here and I am very pleased with the ride quality. Smooth and capable (no mountains for me, but lots of rolling hills and dirt roads.) Several road trips with 2 adults and 4 teenagers and lots of luggage have proven this to be the ultimate road trip vehicle.
 

FormerGermanFan

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1.) Fit and finish have been great on my Expy, no issues here to report. I had one sunroof rattle/squeak but there was a TSB out for it and the dealer took care of it.

2.) Ride is really good, keeping in mind the Platinum has the CCD shocks that don't have the leaking problem/are smoother. About a dozen times or so now I've brought 5-6 people with me and loaded the trunk so full of stuff I couldn't see out the rear window. Fully loaded I swear the ride is even smoother.

3.) Common issues that I know of are the turbo rattles a little bit when you coldstart (goes away after a few min), the sunroofs can squeak (there's a TSB fix for it) and timing chains can go out (usually only for those that stretch their oil changes out).

4.) In terms of features that are a must have: electric running boards (my mother, girlfriend, basically most women love this), B&O sound system (the stock one is just terrible and hard to upgrade yourself), COOLED seats for those 100F+ days and the Max Tow package that gives you the rear locking diff/upgraded cooling/9000lb tow limit.

There will be issues with any brand. Buying a $4K comprehensive 8yr/150K warranty from Flood Ford will keep your mind at ease and let you enjoy the vehicle knowing any issues will be fixed without your wallets involvement.
 
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Huy Nguyen

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What oil change interval did you use on the Explorer? There's been a lot of speculation that Ford is not conservative enough on the oil change intervals, resulting in stretched timing chains and prematurely worn phasers.

Personally, i think regular oil change is the cheapest preventive maintenance you can do, so i change it every 5K miles with pennzoil Platinum 0-20w.
 

Expedition Dave

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Bear in mind I have a 2020 XLT with only two option boxes checked: FX4 Package, HD Tow 11K on the odometer.
1.) Decent, however the center console is painted and some paint is chipping.
2.) Ride Compliance is great--have had it loaded with gear, towing, etc. No large amount s of people though but the rear seat is cavernous.
3.) Turbo noise on startup (wastegate issue IIRC). Transmission is a little spastic. Driver side had a light window rattle, and rear backup camera, then the sync radio volume got screwy a few times. All of these fixed themselves. Transmission "autopark" feature is... gone and not sure I miss it? Dial shifter still blows IMHO and takes too long to shift in/out of gears.
4.) See above for me, YMMV--but all the gizmos are cool too.
 

dlcorbett

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I havent driven the new gms, but some people here have so maybe they can let you know how they feel btw the two. What pkg of limited are you looking at? I had the 301 pkg, but i also driven ccd equipped expys. The expy blows away the explorer, even the new one in terms of drivability and interior quality so thats a none issue. Not a lot issues are being reported for 2020 compared to older models, and on the gm forums, the 21s seem to be having a good amt of issues(like the expy had at launch), so reliability is neutral. What i discovered, its not the problems of the vehicle, its how far the dealer service dept is willing to go to help please you. Biggest issues are shocks and liftgate, you can bypass shocks by getting a ccd equipped truck or replacing the stock shocks on base suspension. My advice is Drive both, come to a decision on which you and wifey like, then read through all the forums pertaining that truck.
 
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