The History of Ford's Explorer, from the 1990s to Today

Place Ford’s Explorer up there with Jeep's Grand Cherokee for helping to start the modern SUV craze in the early 1990s. Essentially station wagons but with four-wheel drive and far less stigma-remember, in the early '90s, wagons were about as cool as minivans are today-sport-utility vehicles like the Explorer captured the American public's imagination and have refused to let go even today. With Ford having just unveiled its latest Explorer, it's the perfect opportunity to look back through the best-selling model's history, from 1990 to today.

For the 1991 model year, Ford replaces the unloved Bronco II with the Explorer. The new SUV borrows much of its underpinnings from the Bronco II, including its suspension, but is offered in both two- and four-door configurations (its predecessor was two-door-only). Ford touts the Explorer's relentlessly rectilinear body shape as "aerodynamic" in its press materials and boasts of the truck’s "low" 0.43 coefficient of drag. For comparison a modern Mercedes-Benz A-class has a 0.22 cD.

A 155-hp 4.0-liter V-6 (dubbed "Cologne") is the only engine offered and rear-wheel drive is standard. A pushbutton-activated four-wheel-drive system is available (low-range gearing is included, and also is activated via a button on the dashboard). Ford presses the Explorer's chops as an adventure vehicle-this when the term "sport-utility vehicle" is just taking off-which explains the standard five-speed manual transmission. A four-speed automatic is also offered.

From the get-go, Ford's top-level Explorer is named for the Eddie Bauer outdoor-apparel brand (a 1993 model is pictured). Sitting above the XL, Sport, and XLT trims, the Eddie Bauer Explorer comes fully loaded with premium cloth upholstery, two-tone paint, and every available power option. Ford would put the Eddie Bauer trim to pasture nearly twenty years later-pretty much around the same time the Eddie Bauer brand ceased to generate much excitement.

By the time Ford redesigns the Explorer for the first time, the SUV is a runaway sales success. For 1995, its look is softened by body contours and rounded headlights and taillights. Its frame isn’t much changed from before, but a switch from the original Explorer's Twin I-Beam front suspension to a more space-efficient (and modern) control-arm design enables Ford to stuff a bigger engine into the redesigned model one year later, for 1996. The new, larger engine is a 210-hp 4.9-liter pushrod V-8, positioned above the old 4.0-liter V-6, which continues on.

Ford splits the two-door Explorer off from the primary Explorer lineup, calling the resultant model the Explorer Sport.

Even though Ford continues to use its pushrod Cologne V-6 as the Explorer’s base engine, it adds an overhead-cam version with slightly more power for 1997. This more modern engine produces the same 210 horsepower as the optional 4.9-liter V-8, but less torque. Its arrival is joined by a new five-speed automatic, which is optional on both V-6s; a five-speed manual remains standard on both, and the V-8 continues to use a four-speed automatic. In 2001, Ford finally drops the pushrod V-6, leaving the SOHC V-6 as the sole six-cylinder option. It soldiers on until the 2010 model year.

In the late 1990s, a public furor begins brewing over Ford Explorers’ supposed propensity for rolling over. In reality, the incidents in question involve the Explorers’ Firestone tires failing, drivers losing control of their vehicles and, in many cases, rolling them. It is later found that, under certain conditions, some Firestone SUV tires are prone to fail when their treads separate from the rest of the tire.

Even so, there's no single scapegoat for the spate of Explorer rollover accidents that grip the nation’s attention. Instead, a confluence of issues are found to have contributed to the accidents: Improperly maintained tire pressures, driver error, and tall SUVs’ high centers of gravity and Jurassic suspension designs. We wade into the controversy in 2001, purchasing an old Explorer and conducting tests proving that a catastrophic loss of tire pressure, even in an SUV, isn’t an automatic death sentence or cause for losing control.

Before 2002, the Explorer had been mechanically very similar to the contemporary Ford Ranger pickup truck. In a bid to offer something slightly larger and more up-market, Ford generates the somewhat redundant Explorer Sport Trac for 2001, a crew-cab pickup that looks like an Explorer. The composite pickup bed is unique at the time, but sadly Ford only offers the Sport Trac with the Explorer’s V-6 engine. Its position in the market is not unlike that of today's mid-size pickups, which are larger than the then-compact Ranger (which has been resurrected after a multi-year hiatus for 2019).

For its third-generation Explorer, Ford ditches the first two generation models' Bronco II heritage for good. An all-new rear-drive platform (four-wheel drive is optional), in an Explorer first, incorporates an independent rear suspension. The two-door Explorer Sport officially dies, leaving only the four-door Explorer; the Sport Trac, still based on the old Explorer and Ranger (thus using a solid rear axle), carries on largely unchanged through 2005. The ol' SOHC 4.0-liter V-6 remains standard, while the V-8 is upgraded to Ford's fresher "Modular" 4.6-liter unit.

A mid-cycle refresh cuts down on some of the third-generation Explorer's generic boxiness with a new waterfall grille design and reshaped headlights. The easiest giveaway that you're looking at a 2006 Explorer and not, say, a 2002–2005 model? The little round elements poking out from beneath each of those headlights. In our first drive review of the '06 Explorer, we note that despite its updated styling, the SUV remains "the vehicular equivalent of a pair of khaki Dockers." Maybe generic boxiness is just what SUV buyers want, because by 2005 Ford has sold over 5.5 million Explorers. Engine choices again include the trusty 210-hp 4.0-liter V-6, as well as a 292-hp 4.6-liter V-8 shared with the Mustang GT. A five-speed automatic comes with the six, while the eight uses a six-speed.

Think Honda's Ridgeline is the only modern mid-size pickup truck with an independent rear suspension? Think again! The second-generation Explorer Sport Trac, which Ford finally redesigns to match the third-generation Explorer for 2007, gains its SUV sibling's independent rear suspension, as well as its updated-for-2006 front-end styling. Once again, the 210-hp V-6 is the Sport Trac’s base engine, but a 4.6-liter V-8 is newly optional on both the regular 'Trac and the hot-rod Adrenaline model. The Adrenaline isn't much of a sport truck, but it’s quicker than the six-cylinder model.

For 2011, the Explorer makes arguably its biggest shift yet, transitioning from a rear-wheel-drive-based, body-on-frame truck to a car-based, front-wheel-drive crossover with unitized body construction. (All-wheel drive is optional.) Even though the bones are new to the Explorer, they aren't new, per se: The "D-platform" underpinnings are derived from Volvo's P2 architecture that first appeared in the late 1990s. (Volvo had been owned by Ford as part of the latter's "Premium Auto Group.") A naturally aspirated V-6 engine is standard, while a new twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V-6 EcoBoost engine is available in the Explorer Sport model. The EcoBoost-powered Explorer proves quick in our testing, leaping from zero to 60 mph in 5.9 seconds.

Well-proportioned, Range Rover–esque styling makes the Explorer crossover an instant hit, with 135,000 units sold in 2011-more than double the previous year's sales. And despite its heavy curb weight, lackluster fuel economy, and mediocre interior packaging, it continues to grow sales throughout its lifespan, becoming the best-selling three-row vehicle in the U.S. in 2018. A refresh in 2016 makes the Range Rover styling connection even stronger, although the Explorer doesn't change much mechanically beyond the addition of a new turbocharged 2.3-liter four-cylinder to replace the previous turbocharged 2.0-liter base engine that hadn't provided quite enough oomph for this large family vehicle.

Ford's all-new Explorer enters 2020 on a new rear-wheel-drive platform, returning at least partially to its roots. You won’t find any frame rails beneath its newly dapper styling, however-the Explorer remains unibody. As before, it looks vaguely like it came from a Land Rover factory, mostly because Ford doesn't mess with the angular look that made the Explorer's predecessor so popular. Look closely, and you’ll notice the hood is longer (because the engine again sits longitudinally under it, not transversely as in the 2011–2018 Explorer), the roofline pinches gracefully into the tail, and the front-end styling is slightly softened. A turbocharged 2.3-liter four-cylinder once again serves base-engine duty, while a 3.0-liter twin-turbocharged V-6 makes the same 365 horsepower as the previous year’s twin-turbo 3.5-liter V-6. For the first time, Ford offers a hybridized Explorer, as well as a high-performance ST model.