Reliability and user satisfaction

[Right Person]

Dear forum contributors.
I never own any truck or large size SUV. Currently I am driving Nissan Pathfinder.
I want to upgrade to large size SUV. I test drove Suburban, Yukon, Cadillac Escalade, Mercedes, Audi, Acura, AND Lincoln Navigator & Ford Expedition, Ford Explorer by going to different dealerships.
I liked Ford Expedition the most, specifically handling of the car despite it is being a huge size truck.

I want to close my eyes and buy Expedition but only thing I am skeptical about long term reliability and user experience. I joined this forum to get real user experience although many car review websites put Expedition in the top of the list.

I have read many threads in this forum and by reading some of them I got really scared.

Can few of you who have been driving Expedition for long time can comment about long term reliability, and user satisfaction? By "driving for long time" I mean to say you have been buying Expedition only (upgrading from older model to newer model since you love the car).
I need to get confidence (in other words piece of mind) on this SUV before investing lot of money.

Thank you all so much! Looking for your kind reply.

 

[RaginCajun87]

You will get scared to buy any vehicle by looking through the forums related to that vehicle. That's where a very small percentage of owners go to voice their issues and solve problems. For every negative post there are a ton more happy customers with 0 issues like myself.

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[Right Person]

Thanks RaginCajun87 for your quick reply. May I ask how long you have been driving Expedition? Many thanks in advance

 

[dlcorbett]

Ive been an expy fan since the first gen and as such been ridden/driven all gens of the expy. I owned personally a third gen nav and now currently a 4th gen expy. I was skeptical about the nav, i wanted the 2nd gen but didnt want the air suspension as its an expensive and costly feature, but wife and i loved the third gen nav so bought a used one. I knew i wanted a 4th gen and waited 6 yrs for it (the current gen was supposed to be released alongside the 15 f150 with the refreshed third gen comin out in 12, but they scrapped that plan and was gonna kill the expy pd, customer demand saved it but pushed the redo back). Outside of the driver window goin out, nav was bulletproof and we loved it to pieces. Current expy was a first run, built the first week of ok to buy. As such, it has most of the issues of a first run for a new gen, but not all. We love this one as well. Test driven many a vehicles and theres not many thats better and none are the same class.

My biggest issue with it is mainly a ford problem. Lately, ford pumps out their products without polish or quality, and i can feel this in my truck. I had a paint bubble on one of my interior stack buttons the same week i bought, the paint looks like trash, sync and electronics can be problematic, it shimmies over bumps, condensation in lights which caused one of them to go out and the suspension has a mind of its own. Im using my nav as a benchmark and though the suspension had a mind of its own in that as well, i figured that was the air springs, but no paint or electronic issues to speak of. To me, these arent the trucks issues, as it excels at what i use it for. To me, Its fords lack of quality control and sending it for consumer consumption before it was 100% done.

As a car, its phenomenal, once i get back to the states, i fully intend on getting the refreshed model. I am interested in the wagoneer as well though. I am happy with my purchase however and i still think with all the quirks, its the most rounded vehicle in terms of usability, comfort, efficiency, and value this side of a minivan. Looks fantastic to boot!

 

[RaginCajun87]

Thanks RaginCajun87 for your quick reply. May I ask how long you have been driving Expedition? Many thanks in advance

Only 3k miles on mine but my brother in law has an 18 with 50k miles and no major problems.

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[Fozzy]

My Expy is only a year old. It has been flawless. But the forums are way more gloom and doom than reality. But I would also consider the dealership as important as the vehicle itself. No matter what you drive they will have problems, recalls and just weird crap happen to them. If you have a good dealer it makes the problems if you have any a lot better.


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[Right Person]

thanks dlcorbett for detailed response.

 

[Right Person]

My Expy is only a year old. It has been flawless. But the forums are way more gloom and doom than reality. But I would also consider the dealership as important as the vehicle itself. No matter what you drive they will have problems, recalls and just weird crap happen to them. If you have a good dealer it makes the problems if you have any a lot better.


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Thanks for the reply

 

[aggiegrad05]

Welcome! This is my first Expi, but I have had two F150s prior to this. I will agree with @dlcorbett a bit in that most problems you are going to run into are Ford problems, not specific Expi problems. I sold my first F150 because when I hit 120,000 miles it blew an exhaust manifold...then it blew the replacement 5000 miles later. My second F150 lost two cylinders at 50,000 miles and got a whole new short block (under warranty). But here I am with another Ford. At the end of the day, Ford is a domestic, non-luxury automaker. It's not asian so it's not going to last for 1,000,000 miles and it's not european so we're not all leasing a new one every three years (well, most of us).

You also have to remember that a lot of the issues brought up on this forum are one of two things:
1) teething issues related to the fact that this was a brand new vehicle 2 years ago and a lot of us bought the first model year...so we are here complaining about and looking for solutions to those teething issues
2) personal preference issues (I dont like this new feature, I dont like that they don't offer this anymore, etc.)
If you look at ownership as a whole, and ignore teething issues and personal preferences, I think you will find most of us are really happy with the vehicle. I know I am. I've got 25k miles and almost 2 years in mine and I love it.

 

[Right Person]

Welcome! This is my first Expi, but I have had two F150s prior to this. I will agree with @dlcorbett a bit in that most problems you are going to run into are Ford problems, not specific Expi problems. I sold my first F150 because when I hit 120,000 miles it blew an exhaust manifold...then it blew the replacement 5000 miles later. My second F150 lost two cylinders at 50,000 miles and got a whole new short block (under warranty). But here I am with another Ford. At the end of the day, Ford is a domestic, non-luxury automaker. It's not asian so it's not going to last for 1,000,000 miles and it's not european so we're not all leasing a new one every three years (well, most of us).

You also have to remember that a lot of the issues brought up on this forum are one of two things:
1) teething issues related to the fact that this was a brand new vehicle 2 years ago and a lot of us bought the first model year...so we are here complaining about and looking for solutions to those teething issues
2) personal preference issues (I dont like this new feature, I dont like that they don't offer this anymore, etc.)
If you look at ownership as a whole, and ignore teething issues and personal preferences, I think you will find most of us are really happy with the vehicle. I know I am. I've got 25k miles and almost 2 years in mine and I love it.

thanks a lot for your reply aggiegrad05