Exploring The Waters: A Day with the Ford Explorer Limited 4WD

A few years ago, Ford Philippines quietly introduced the sixth generation Explorer mid-size crossover SUV. At that time, we were still in the middle of a pandemic and various supply issues hounded the automotive industry and that included local supply of what is probably the most popular model in the segment.

Fast forward to 2024, with everything pretty much back to normal the blue oval brand invited us on an afternoon drive to Subic Bay to experience what is now their flagship SUV has to offer, and enjoy a sunset yacht cruise to cap the day-off.

And just to get it out of the way, Ford already revealed a few months ago a heavily facelifted version of the Explorer. Maybe you’re wondering why we still don’t have it here and why Ford Philippines is still doing this drive with an older model, do note that even their home market still has not begun sales of the newer version.

READ: Ford Explorer gets a big refresh for 2025

The good thing is, the pre-facelift Ford Explorer still looks really good and has aged-well with its premium-looking exterior, much needed for buyers in its segment. It mixes both elegance and machismo very well and has a lot of presence. 

It’s nowhere as large and stately as a Toyota Land Cruiser or the no longer available Ford Expedition, but will give you the respect of other motorists that you cannot get with a Ford Everest or Toyota Fortuner.

Opening the doors reveals the Explorer’s rather simple interior which is more of form follows function. Ergonomics are excellent with everything where you’d expect them to be. Hard buttons and dials make using various functions much easier as well.

Showing its age though is the infotainment system which is rather small for this day and age at just 8-inches, made to look even smaller by its placement. In addition, it uses Ford’s older SYNC3 system making it feel rather dated. Thankfully it has Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity (both wired), which modernizes things by a little bit. Its 12-speaker Bang & Olufsen premium audio system could have also been better.

Anyway, for the first part of the drive, I volunteered to be a rear passenger which unfortunately showed the Explorer’s flaws. First, the rear seat is flat with very minimal support for your bottom and back. Thigh support is also weirdly minimal for a vehicle built for larger people.

This time also gave me the chance to get a feel for the interior materials and well, the unit assigned to us did have some issues such as leather on the door cards peeling at less than 1,000 kilometers on the odometer.

On the bright side, the Explorer does show why many buyers like to be chauffeured around, provided you disregard the rear seats. Its suspension does a pretty good job of soaking bumps on our roads. It may not be as smooth as some of its direct rivals but I’ll take it. It’s also very quiet with excellent outside noise insulation.

A few hours later, we arrived at our destination where we boarded a yacht, had an early dinner, and enjoyed the sunset with our fellow motoring media people.

With the sun now gone and our yacht back on the dock, it was now my turn to drive the Ford Explorer. Let’s talk about what’s under its hood first. It gets a 2.3-liter EcoBoost turbocharged Inline 4-cylinder gasoline engine that produces 300 horsepower and 420 Nm of torque, mated to a 10-speed SelectShift automatic transmission.

Once I got moving, it was apparent that the V6 engine that was available on the previous generation need not be missed as the four-banger was more than capable. Acceleration is smooth and effortless and unlike the 10-speed automatic transmission on the Everest and other models equipped with it early on, it was very smooth shifting and was barely confused on what gear to choose, a common problem for transmissions with one to many gears. There will be a slight delay when you put your foot down on the accelerator but it’s manageable.

For most of my drive, I kept the vehicle in Normal mode. I just found Sport mode to be a bit too much, while Eco mode ended up making the drive feel too sluggish. Normal was well, normal as it should be.

Another plus in the driving department is in its steering. Ford vehicles are quite known these days for extremely light steering. That is not the case here in the Explorer as it does have some weight and decent feedback to it.

What I’ll say though is that when taking corners at higher speed, you’ll find that the Explorer does have quite a bit of body roll which is weird considering its low and wide stance compared to other SUVs. Regardless, it wasn’t designed for that anyway.

As for fuel economy, I did try my best to drive as efficiently as I could from time to time. This returned a maximum of 10 km/l which isn’t exactly that good considering we stayed mostly on the highway. We’ll try to do another test both in and out of the city once we get to borrow one for a longer period.

Now, the Ford Explorer has its own niche. Priced at Php 3,498,000, most of its rivals are admittedly much better-equipped and built, and are much newer for the same price or less—or even just a little bit more expensive. That’s also in addition to being more premium than this. That’s not to say that the Explorer is a bad choice as it still does everything it needs to do as it should be able to. 

For this drive, I’ll say that the Ford Explorer did not disappoint and does show itself as a compelling option in the local mid-size crossover SUV segment, especially to those who are extremely loyal to the blue oval. Admit it, not everyone likes the brand but a whole lot of people out there definitely do. They’re number three for a reason.