2016 Ford Explorer Sport



Ford likes to tout the 2016 Explorer as the sixth-generation model. It may be a quarter-century since the Explorer pretty much launched the whole SUV craze, but the 2016 rides on the same platform—one it shares with the Taurus and the Flex—as it has since 2011 when Dearborn made the big leap from body-on-frame truck to unit-body crossover and called it the fifth-generation.



Ask Ford people what’s really new, and you find out the 2016’s wheelbase measures 0.2-inch longer due to a minor suspension tweak, while the new nose (fascia, hood, and front fenders) adds another inch or so of overall length. The suspension layout—struts up front and a multilink rear—is the same, although freshly tuned for the new model year. Redesigned front and rear styling and several welcome equipment upgrades help the Explorer fend off newer competitors while broadening its appeal, but all that makes it a better SUV, not a new one.


What makes the Sport worth a starting price US$ 12,450 higher than the base Explorer and US$ 2200 beyond the Limited is its 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6, which makes 365 horsepower and 350 lb-ft of torque. Previously seen only in the Sport (and in Police Interceptor Utilities, a version Ford doesn’t call an Explorer), this mill now also powers the new Platinum model. All-wheel drive is standard, as is the same six-speed automatic as before, with paddle shifters for those with delusions about what a Sport badge can do for a 5000-pound, three-row SUV.

The 2016 Sport gets to 60 mph in 6.0 seconds flat, a tenth behind the version we tested in 2013, and it ran the quarter-mile in 14.6 at 96 mph. Nothing has really changed. Except that this car was riding on optional summer-only Continental tires, whereas the earlier one was on the standard all-season Hankooks. Overall, though, the Sport label really means more power with trimmings that are less glittery than those of the Platinum.


The Explorer has a comfortable, non-jarring, and quiet ride even over the cratered apocalypse that passes for roads near our Ann Arbor base. So the stiffer tuning of the suspension isn’t all that stiff, but it’s also noteworthy in that the Sport has standard 20-inch wheels with 50-section tires. Most competitors ride this well only when the wheel size is constrained to 18 inches or so. Eighteen inches also is, coincidentally, the size of the steel rims Ford installs on the Police Interceptor, which also gets the whole heavy-duty-this, more-rigid-that treatment and also sits more than an inch lower.


For the more ordinary sort of options, tick box 401A to inflate the sticker by 10 percent (US$ 4300). This gets you a package that includes voice-activated navigation via Sync with MyFordTouch (a generation, ahem, behind the latest technology in Dearborn’s toy box—Ford promises the latest, much-improved version of Sync comes next year), plus inflatable outboard rear seatbelts, blind-spot monitoring, a tailgate that opens when you kick your foot under it (seen previously in the Escape), a power tilting/telescoping and heated steering wheel, and a front camera (the rear camera is standard—they have washers on ’em this year). Add US$ 1150 and your forward-looking systems will include adaptive cruise control and collision warning. The dual-panel sunroof added US$ 1595 to our test car, allowing our second-row passengers (two, in the bucket seats, a US$ 695 option) to look at the sky. They might wish for DVD screens in the back of the front headrests, the costliest option (US$ 1995) that this vehicle lacked. A few more indulgences, like Ruby Red metallic paint (US$ 395), and soon this family hauler costs more than US$ 53,000. But, you know, Class III towing (up to 5000 pounds) is standard. And the character lights on both ends are LEDs. And so on. New flavors of jam spread on a familiar crumpet, but tasty stuff all the same.