Apprehensions, gossip, rumors and the likes have at last been put to rest with Ford revealing its 2011 Ford Explorer officially. Whatever was being spoken or dreamt or yearned about this car has been proved a reality by the Ford team.
The car comes to the market as a lighter unit with a streamlined body. Under its hood, it has a more fuel efficient engine of smaller capacity along with quite a few innovative technology related to safety added to the model.
The car has the “4WD” badge. This caters for the 20 percent of the Explorer owners who do like to take their cars off road. The car also comes with a 7.9 inches ground clearance and the addition of Terrain Management System to it. This system has been developed by Ford in conjunction with Land Rover. Depending on the road surface as the driver has selected, ranging from normal, sand, mud and ruts, or snow, the driving mode changes accordingly. There is even a hill descent mode that has been included in the new Explorer wherein the driver needs to only steer the car while the unit rolls down at a safe speed.
The engine fitted on the new 2011 Ford Explorer is more fuel efficient than its previous version. There is the option for customers to select between the four cylinder EcoBoost engine which delivers 237 hp and 250 foot pound torque while having a displacement of 2.0 liter. Or there is the option of going for the V-6 naturally aspirated engine having a displacement of 3.5 liter while delivering 290 hp and having twin independently timed overhead camshafts. Fuel efficiency of the engines are 30 percent for the EcoBoost engine and 32 percent for the V6 engine better when compared with its V-6 and V8 power plant of before. This makes the new Explorer a generation ahead of its predecessor that had more of a truck-like stance and behavior.
The transmission is a six speed automatic transmission system. The system involves lowered initial gears and this gives for improved off line acceleration as well as higher gearing for delivering better efficiency when engine is running at lower rpm such as at cruising speeds.
The new Explorer will also set new benchmarks as far as safety aspects of the car is concerned. Towards this, the car is the first to incorporate inflatable safety belt technology which is applicable to the two outboard seats in the second row. The reason to go for the middle row seats is due to the fact that it is these seats that Ford considers “family oriented” and is more likely to seat the family. The belts are so designed that they inflate to an extent to restrain load if triggered and in turn reducing the force that is felt on any body part. The seat belt also ensures the forward motion of the head is restrained.
In addition the car comes attached with an array of airbags, side canopies which gets triggers in case of a car roll over and a number of other electronic safety wringing systems. These include blind-spot assist, cross-traffic alert, radar-based adaptive cruise control with automatic brakes, new SYNC with 911 assist and SOS Post-Crash Alert. The car also has a new curve control feature which helps to slow down the car to as much as 10 mph and illuminates the brake lights automatically. This occurs even if the driver enters into a curve at high speeds. With high strength steel the Explorer is indeed a very safe conscious pick.
The sleek looks of the car disguises its size which is in fact, five inches wider than its predecessor. Seven people with all their gear can easily be accommodated inside the car. The odd pavement capabilities of the car are given away solely by the rotating Terrain Management System knob on the console. Else the interior is more elegant than the previous Explorer.
There would be 12 class exclusives for the 2011 Ford Explorer and that would be all for the safety and connectivity features. The car would have MyFordTouch interface system and the MyKey system nanny monitoring feature. This allows parent to limit certain parameters like the volume of the radio, max speed seatbelt usage as well as active parking-assist system, LED ambient interior lighting, and the cap less EasyFuel system.
Sales slated to begin later in the year.
Source: motorauthority
