Trace the lines around its sheetmetal, and you'll see the genetic material it's carried since the name was new in 1991. This time around, it's trucked up a softer shape to do the opposite-to make the carlike Explorer look more like the utes of the past.Įither way, the Explorer nails the finer points while still speaking that particular SUV dialect of straight lines and square angles, with a modernist fillip or two, here or there. With the last-generation Explorer, Ford styled a sophisticated crossover vehicle that really was a more workmanlike truck beneath the sheetmetal. A runaway sales hit, too, the Explorer is happiest when it's behaving on the highway-but it's more than willing to get a little dirty when you want to. It's been named a North American Truck of the Year, as voted by this continent's most respected journalists, and it's truly a 21st-century SUV, as Ford wants you to think. And in truth, it does what the wide majority of us want to do in a crossover-it makes plenty of room for lots of people, or lots of stuff, and it does it much more efficiently than it ever did in the past, while holding on to a good bit of the mud-running bona fides that probably remained weekend ambitions for most of their suburban owners. The Explorer still looks reassuringly ute-like, though its rounded corners and subtle details register on a carlike plane, while the interior does its best impression of a Taurus sedan. The 2012 Explorer also woos gearheads of another kind with MyFord Touch, the convoluted but promising system that uses voice, button or touchscreen control to govern infotainment and other vehicle functions. It's one of the safest vehicles Ford builds, with inflatable rear seat belts and rearview cameras and blind-spot detectors. That leaves it more equipped to excel at on-road handling, which it does convincingly with quick steering and terrific ride control that's due in equal part to an independent suspension and its still-substantial curb weight.
Since it shares running gear with the likes of the Flex, even the Taurus, the new Explorer can't quite hit the trails with the likes of the Grand Cherokee.
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