The sixth generation of Ford’s Explorer SUV hit the showrooms early this year – and then hit the rock bottom. Why?
Despite its considerable popularity, the Explorer has a mixed history. For instance, the company had to recall a few million SUVs in the early 2000s over the risk of them tumbling over after a single burst tire. The previous generation infamously had chassis integrity issues (cracks, to be specific), which prompted another urgent recall campaign that affected 1.2 million cars worldwide.
The sixth-gen Explorer has brought much innovation with it, including the longitudinally mounted engine and the rear-wheel drive by default. However, the company once again hurried a bit more than it should have upgrading its Chicago assembly lines.
As a result, the overall build quality of the Ford Explorer – and its technical twin the Lincoln Aviator – once again took a nosedive, resulting in three recall campaigns since the beginning of 2019. The company reports that all issues have been definitively resolved, but they naturally undermined customer trust, which led to only 146,557 SUVs sold in the first three quarters in the United States. This represents a dramatic -25.6% plunge from the previous year.
The Explorer was at the pinnacle of glory in 2000 with around 450,000 units sold, and the fifth generation did moderately well last year with 250,000 units sold.