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MM Retro-Write-Up: 2000-2005 Ford Excursion
IN A NUTSHELL: Massive, controversial, under-engineered, and was IMO arguably the worst-driving SUV I have ever experienced.
Ever since the truck-based Chevrolet Suburban was introduced in 1936, it has had a steady and loyal following that has only increased over time…and still remains quite popular today, even in an era of increasing gas prices. Ford, of course, has had its own successes with truck-based SUVS, such as the Bronco, Explorer, and Expedition, but, nevertheless, the Suburban’s continuing success, over decades, was not lost to Ford marketers. So, in the late 1990s, a plan was devised to one-up even the massive Suburban and Ford’s own shorter-wheelbase Expedition. The long-wheelbase Expedition EL, which was roughly the same size as the Suburban, was not introduced until 2007. The all-new SUV for 2000, to be called the Excursion, was derived from Ford’s Super-Duty F-250/350 platform, which is substantially larger and beefier than the standard F-150 truck-platform that went into the Expedition. The result was a vehicle that was truly massive by modern standards, although its length was actually not as long as the big full-size luxury American cars of the 60s and early 70s. But it was ultra-wide, bulky, and heavy in weight…and I do mean HEAVY. Curb weight, empty (without people on board), was 7230 lbs. for the gasoline version and 7688 lbs. for the turbodiesel……in contrast, Suburbans typically weighed between 5500 and 6200 lbs. empty. So, add a full load of cargo and 9 passengers (in the top trim version)…and you are talking an almost unimaginable amount of weight for a family-SUV (as opposed to a commercial truck). Depending on version, it could also tow from 6600 to 11,000 lbs. And, again by contrast, the even longer full-size American cars I sampled in the 60s and early 70s weighed from around 4800 lbs. to 5300 lbs. The Chrysler Imperials were the longest, the Lincoln Continentals were the heaviest, with most of the standard non-limo Cadillacs somewhere in between.
So, needless to say, the Rock-of-Gibraltar-weight Excursion was not exactly an econobox in the fuel-use department…..it almost never saw a gas station it didn’t like. And, again not surprisingly, the Excursion quickly became the media Poster-Child for the growing Anti-SUV movement among environmentalists. This LE forum generally discourages politics, so I won’t get into that subject too deeply, but, in the interest of historical accuracy and being factual for this write-up, I think it is necessary to say that these environmental groups waged a constant PR campaign against the Excursion for several years. It was portrayed as the ultimate gas-guzzler (Some truth to that), the ultimate emissions-polluter (Not much truth in that, considering that it had the latest state-of-the-art emissions hardware), and a virtual battering-ram in an accident that would crush small vehicles like cardboard (yes, also some truth to that).
When I test-drove an Excursion, I also found what was IMO another big fault, which I’ll get to in a minute, which was partly, but not completely, related to its size and weight. I never had any personal interest in owning or leasing an Excursion, as it was much too large and bulky for my driving needs. But, after reading this constant barrage of Anti-Excursion ads and articles in the media and Internet, I figured I might as well pop on down to the Ford shop and sample this gargantuan for myself. At Tyson’s Ford in suburban Virginia near D.C. (it closed down a number of years ago), they had a couple in stock, so they went and got a key and a dealer-plate for me. As I recall, from the low-range clattering the engine made, it was the 7688-lbs. turbodiesel version. By then, diesel-technology had gotten to the point where starting up a diesel had little difference from a gas engine….gone were the long wait-times for the glow plugs to heat up, the marble-can idle when cold, and black soot out the tailpipe.
Putting it into gear (5-speed automatic (on the diesel version…..4-speed for the gas engines) and driving off, as aforementioned, it was not quite as long as the big American luxury cars I remembered from 30 years previous, but had enormous bulk, and was (facetiously) as wide as a cruise-ship. The turbodiesel produced a little bit of clatter, but not like the unrefined diesels of earlier periods. The design needed further improvement underneath..…..the steering-gear seemed adequate for something this size, but the suspension and chassis-underpinnings, IMO at least, were clearly not up to this kind of weight. I don’t know why the engineers allowed this…perhaps in the conversion to an SUV, they tried to make it a little more civil for passengers riding inside, as the equivalent Ford F-250/350 trucks the design was taken from were notorious for a kidney-pounding ride. But, from my experience at least, the result was a suspension that allowed the vehicle to bounce up and down over bumps and road-irregularities (even with the long wheelbase). Shocks from the bumps, even with the revised suspension, could be heard as thumps, would jiggle the steering wheel, and sometimes cause the vehicle to dart slightly from side to side and require small steering-corrections. Slowing down and coming to a stop at traffic lights and stop-signs, the suspension couldn’t adequately support the heavy front end…just as you stopped, it would slowly bob up and down like a purpose a couple of times. You could watch and feel the bobbing over the hood from the driver’s seat.
So, again needless to say, I was VERY careful with this vehicle, did not push it in corners, made sure I didn’t have to brake hard, and more or less babied it back to the dealership. I didn’t want to end to end up in a ditch or off the road somewhere from overtaxing the (IMO) inadequate chassis-components. I can say with confidence that it was (arguably) the worst-driving SUV I have experienced to this day. I say “arguably” because the 90s-vintage body-on-frame Chevy Tracker/Suzuki Sidekick 2-door fabric drop-top SUVs I sampled also had design and roadability problems…they shimmied and wobbled like a wet dog, even on a smooth road.
After several years, the constant media-blitz against the Excursion eventually won out with the public, sales dropped, and Ford had little choice but to discontinue it, although I also suspect that sales also dropped because of its somewhat scary road-manners. A few years later, in 2007, the long-wheelbase Expedition EL was introduced, had FAR better comfort/stability and road-manners than the Excursion, and IMO was a much better competitor to the always-hot-selling Chevy Suburban. The extended-wheelbase Expedition has been successful, and remains in production to this day.
And, as Always, Happy-Vehicle-Memories.
MM
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