Back in June, Ford provided me with a 2013 Ford Explorer Sport for a week. As you know, I love to test out new wheels, who wouldn’t, right? But, it is also my way of finding the best suited vehicle for my family of four as our current vehicle has caused us some challenges recently!
It was an amazing opportunity for me as this vehicle used to be my dream vehicle when I was much younger. This was my first time ever driving a Ford Explorer and admittedly, I was surprised with how BIG it felt. It wasn’t a bad big, it just took some getting used to!
For me, as big as the vehicle was, what made it special were the little things…
- slide-on-rod sun visors for extra sun protection
- inflatable seatbelts
- intelligent access key (don’t need to put a key in the ignition)
- unlocking/locking the doors from touching the door handle
- illuminated entry
- power liftgate
- power tilt and telescope steering column
- information display using the steering wheel
- cluster display control features using the steering wheel
- the nice instrument cluster
- adjustable pedals
- 1 touch up or down front windows
- easy ability to lock/unlock rear windows
- Blind Spot Information System (BLIS)
- Auto-Dimming Mirror
- auxillary input jack allows you to connect and play music from portable music players
- dual front climate control
- easy entry feature where the driver’s seat moves back 2 inches when in N or P (this can be turned off through the information display
- Third row is very easy to pull up when PowerFold is not an option
- Auxillary power points for (dvd players)
- Hill Start Asssist – when you remove foot from brake and you are on a slope, the vehicle will not move for 2-3 seconds
- terrain management (grass/gravel/snow, sand, mud, normal)
- hill descent control
- rear sensing system
All of these features made life more convenient, comfortable and in some cases more fun!
The back of the vehicle was very large and fit our luggage conveniently. I love the fact that there is a split option in the 3rd row too. While the particular model that we had was a manual configuration for flipping the back row up and down, I was really surprised with how quickly and easily they moved, without the uses of too much muscle power.
