I am considering buying a white 2011 Ford Explorer XLT with 4 wheel drive, and almost 109,000 miles, listed for almost $28,000. Scotty what's your take on this purchase?
Severely over priced.
Welcome to the forum. I am new myself. I saw that you had read one of my posts, so I looked up your user name and found your post.
Best of luck with your car purchase!
What do you like about the Ford Explorer XLT? How will you be driving the truck, and what will you use it for?
I know you asked Scotty and not me, but I feel, though I am not informed about the truck segment, that that's a huge amount of money to risk on truck with 109,000 miles. The reason I say that is that after 100,000 miles, there is likely to be an increasing probability of parts failing over time. Now it is true that Ford has great expertise in trucks. However, my experience with Fords is that the failure rate of parts is pretty high--meaning that I feel their quality is not that high, and that they don't last as long as one would want them to.
I had a Bronco II with 5 speed manual transmission. Was reading about the Ford Explorer XLT and discovered that it's a descendant of the Bronco II. I enjoyed driving my Bronco II (1986). I had it about 23 to 25 years ago. Here's what I remember:
--This vehicle rode high. It had a short wheel base. This was good for lowering the turning radius, but it was not good for high speed stability. Aerodynamics were very poor. Huge drag and stability decrement due high wind resistance, which increased exponentially with vehicle speed.
--I replaced the tires with tires that had a larger diameter. This made the vehicle ride higher. However, the driving performance increased dramatically. What I mean is that before I changed the tires, the wheel circumference was less, so the gear ratios were effectively smaller. I did not like that because I had to get to high RPM's while accelerating to get to each gear change (shifting point). This made efficient acceleration all but impossible. The drawback of the larger tires was that the center of gravity raised, and the rolling stability decreased significantly. I had to be very careful not to roll the car. But I liked driving it a lot better. I also feel like the braking performance improved, because there was more braking leverage, due to a larger moment arm from the wheel axles to the tire tread surface.
--I enjoyed the engine a lot. It made this awesome sound, like a jet engine.
--fun to drive, easy to get in and out of, wonderful driving position, great visibility out of the windshield, great windshield angle (pretty vertical, low distortion and low glare)
--4 wheel drive was extremely useful for mud, rough terrain, and snow. 2 wheel drive mode was good for cruising and gas mileage but handling was much worse.
Thank you,
