which one should i get explorer,expedition or excursion

we need a 2nd vehicle with 3rd row seating and a van is out of the question. we are looking at spending under 10k on whatever we get, we have found several excursions with v10 and expeditions with v8 all are 4x4 around 2000-2003 with right at 100,000. what have you guys owned and what do you recommend, gm products arent out of the question either but chryler is. what king of MPG's can i expect out of these vehicles

we just got and 05 explorer with 125k on it and the 4.0 we really like it alot. It gets just under 20mpg also. and thats driving 70mph on the highway. our explorer does not have a 3rd row seat though

we have 8month old twins so 3rd row is a must, i was wanting a v8 or v10 just because :) curious what a v10 ex gets my brother has a 2007 crew cab logbed with the v10 and gets 10-12 mpg. i have no idea what an expedition gets mpg wise

get you a psd excursion. you could probably get around 20mpgs or better with supporting mods

I would get a expedition. My parents used to have one it was a 2000 bought it used with 65,000 miles and ran it till 19x,xxx never had problem 1 out of it. Just tuned it up twice. Got around 18 mpg. Make sure you get a 5.4 though if not you will have really bad mpg and no power. Truck had oil changed every 3k and trans/transfer case every 30k. Replaced altenator at 170 something. Also make sure you flush the hell out of the cooling system when you get 1 and use a good quality antifreeze. Alot of people tend to not do it and give them problems later on at higher milage. oh yea and lower ball joints. Besides those little things that veichle was great never left us stranded. Sold it and got a 03 Lincoln Navigator. It was threw a divorce so we got a good deal 7,500 with 86,000 miles.

get you a psd excursion. you could probably get around 20mpgs or better with supporting mods

find me a 4x4 diesel ex under 10k

I would get a expedition. My parents used to have one it was a 2000 bought it used with 65,000 miles and ran it till 19x,xxx never had problem 1 out of it. Just tuned it up twice. Got around 18 mpg. Make sure you get a 5.4 though if not you will have really bad mpg and no power. Truck had oil changed every 3k and trans/transfer case every 30k. Replaced altenator at 170 something. Also make sure you flush the hell out of the cooling system when you get 1 and use a good quality antifreeze. Alot of people tend to not do it and give them problems later on at higher milage. oh yea and lower ball joints. Besides those little things that veichle was great never left us stranded. Sold it and got a 03 Lincoln Navigator. It was threw a divorce so we got a good deal 7,500 with 86,000 miles.

i think all of them had the 5.4 we were looking at, i wouldn't mind finding a navigator either. we drive an 09 accord for our work car so the suv we buy will be for local commuting for the wife while im at work.

i think all of them had the 5.4 we were looking at, i wouldn't mind finding a navigator either. we drive an 09 accord for our work car so the suv we buy will be for local commuting for the wife while im at work.

I know some of the navigators got the 4 valve engine and its got alot more TQ then the valve but at max on mpg on the highway is like 15. 12 around town. Last year when we went to arkansas we had the expedition and got on average towing this box trailor a woping 9 mpg. and the gator stayed around 12 the hole time from the power difference in the motors on the mountains. It needs a tune up to cause coming back it started to buck some on hills. But 97,000 miles on the original plugs and fuel filter aint to bad...

Also it rides real nice with the air bags and the seats are way more comfie LOL also has the overhead DVD for the kids so I would look at getting one of them for your case. Also watch your speed in the Gator its real easy to speed in if your not used to driving. Got pulled over doing 80 in a 55 work area. It was a good thing I was the DD that night for the guys cause he said theres bigger fish to fry tonight so slow down and drive safe.

7.3 Excursion. I love mine to death.

I bought a 2000 expedition for the winter, to be honest, the trans in these are crap. the heli-coils burn out repeatedly (motorcraft brand), spark plug #3 usually gets blown out of the engine, the heating system sucks, need I say more.

do a quick search for expedtion recalls,

John

Just buy a gasser for now and drop a Cummins in it later :evil:

I bought a 2000 expedition for the winter, to be honest, the trans in these are crap. the heli-coils burn out repeatedly (motorcraft brand), spark plug #3 usually gets blown out of the engine, the heating system sucks, need I say more.

do a quick search for expedtion recalls,

John

You most have got a woar out POS then. The trans in are never missed a beat and we drove the hell out of it. The spark plugs wouldnt blow out of them when it was tuned up the dumb ass tightened it down all the way... Heating system sucks cause no1 ever probly did the regular antifreeze flush like it should have done. What are some other recalls?

Woodduck

did you do a recall search for the 2000 expedition, eddie bauer? everything is listed there.

2000 Ford Expedition Recalls, Defects, & Safety Problems at Automotive.com
(http://www.automotive.com/2000/12/ford/expedition/recalls/index.html)

here's a quick search result

All the 5.4's spit plugs from that erra. I have fixed so many it makes me dizzy to think about it.
They fixed it later on, so it has evolved into a better motor. We have a few in the fleet. Other than the skweeking when shifting hard, they have taken a beating and kept on ticking.
7.3 Excursion will cost you more, but it will also hold its value much better, and if it was taken care of it will last forever.
Explorer with the 4.0 is a good truck as well. Those motors were real tough.

Consumer complaints about Ford Expedition (http://www.consumeraffairs.com/automotive/ford_expedition.htm)

here's another

the problems I have are:
trans slipping
heating system, (no heat at all and no rear heat)
button for o/d not working
4 heli coils failed
had to replace 3 of 4 u-joints (made sense to do all 4)
very poor mileage, 14 hwy 9 city
I've only owned it since Oct. '09 come spring I will be selling

John

Sounds like that thing may have taken a swim or something. I don't like the Expeditions, I think they are kinda ugly and overpriced.
To be honest I have no idea why the 5.4 was offered in the Excursion. My buddy has one and he loves it, but when he told me he bought it I kinda cringed a little.

I can't complain about the price, it was reasonable, it is very roomy, comfy and the 4x4-AWD has massive gripping power, I haven't broken traction yet in 22" of snow or on ice
I was curious though, if it's full time AWD, why the additional 4x4? or do I not understand it correctly??

I can't complain about the price, it was reasonable, it is very roomy, comfy and the 4x4-AWD has massive gripping power, I haven't broken traction yet in 22" of snow or on ice
I was curious though, if it's full time AWD, why the additional 4x4? or do I not understand it correctly??

It say's AWD on it????

That's weird. Maybe someone here knows them better. The Mountaineer was AWD. Some of the Exploders were too.

Was there a Mercury version of the Expedition?

yes AWD, on the right side of the steering column, mounted on the dash is the switch, if switch is all the way to the left, it says "A4WD" in the middle is
4Hi, ghtn 4Lo. that is confusing, maybe it just means "AWD"?????

John

Consumer complaints about Ford Expedition (http://www.consumeraffairs.com/automotive/ford_expedition.htm)

here's another

the problems I have are:
trans slipping
heating system, (no heat at all and no rear heat)
button for o/d not working
4 heli coils failed
had to replace 3 of 4 u-joints (made sense to do all 4)
very poor mileage, 14 hwy 9 city
I've only owned it since Oct. '09 come spring I will be selling

John


How many miles is on this POS you own there buddy? I guess its only the expedition 5.4 blowing the spark plugs out. :poke: Not the 150's and 250's or any other veichle ford has put this engine in. Also most of the time after the first heli coil it blows out it wont stay again or who ever is doing your work is doing a ####y job. Rear heat not working I guess heater cores never go bad or get stoped up. Maybe it needs a Water pump do to the milage its not flowing like it used to. The over drive button I guess that shifter was only put in these suv's not any other suv or truck cause it looks them same in all of fords viechles. But its in a expedition so its junk. I mean just cause you had bad luck doesnt mean there junk. I mean man sorry to get nasty but your acting as it is a complete peoce of junk. Maybe if it was taken care of it wouldnt have these problems... Look at the 6.0 Look at all the recalls they have. DO people keep buying them yep. Why? cause they want to.

My wife has had 4 Expeditions and only one ever had a problem and that was with the driver door lock on the 1999 Expedition and that was fixed under warranty. My daughter has a 2001 with 122,000. It's a 4.6 liter and her husband is a clean engine freak. He kept having spark plug problems and was finally told not to power wash his engine. Once he quit that, no more spark plug problems. I have 53k on my V-10, and I don't plan on washing my engine either. It may look dirty, but I don't mind.

Pap

A lot of the earlier 4.6's and 5.4's had the spark plug problem. I don't think they fixed it 'till '05? It's not the big of a deal. 5 minutes and a thread-sert will get you going again. The coils on the engine do not like water, so power washing the engine is not advised. If I do clean the engine up, I pull all the coils afterwords to blow the water out.

Whoa there Woodduck,
slow your roll bud, I didn't say they were all junk, I simply stated the problems that I had and posted up the searches that came up for the Expedition, so people can be aware of what they are looking at. I also said the 4wd was pretty darn good. my truck has 144000 on it, 10 yrs old, that's about 14000 per year, actually good mileage. and the condition I got it in, you're right the previous owners didn't take care of it. and yes, the rear heater core was blocked up, therefore, no rear heat, front heat is working ok,
anything else you'd like to bitch about in this thread????????????

It just seemed as you were complaining allot about this truck and the recalls and all that. Thats all. As long as you get a well maintained veichle there should be very little problems.

Woodduck,
agreed, not everyone is meticulous about their maintenance, but the new owner doesn't find all the problems untill after the purchase.

I heard that man. I like to maintain my veichle as I can see you do too. Hope it dont give you to much hell before you sell it...

we ended up buying 01 expedition xlt 4x4 with 80,000mi for $7000. truck is clean inside and out and new tires the only complaint is that the centercaps are missing. i'm wanting to change out the spark plugs but im getting scared of breaking one off

Why are you worried bout braking one off? These are not like the 3 valve engines... When you do your tune up put some new coil boots on as well.

theres all kinda of stories of them blowing out or stripping the treads getting them out. i guess that there is only 4 threads holding the plugs in the head on all of the 4.6, 5.4 and 6.8 engines up to 04. if it does i guess i'll be forced into buying some Trick Flow heads:D

We have never had a problem pulling a spark plug out of a 2 valve yet... We had one come in with a blown out spark plug and we had put a helicoil in and its still getting it after 2 years... Just make sure you tighten them down good and I dont think you will ever have a problem.

find me a 4x4 diesel ex under 10k

sorry i didnt know what you were exactly after. but i see where you say that GMs are a possible option. look into a 6.5 suburban. we have one and if the injection pump wasnt going out of it it would be a good rig. even with a bad IP it will still get 18mpg on my daily commute