2002 Ford Exlporer, who's got one? (1 Viewer)

[Owen S]

Charles J P, a few points.#1 The air bags on your mom's Explorer are NOT supposed to deploy unles you hit something with the front end hard. #2 Your parents should have the vehicle maintained by a dealer not "family friends". #3 The Explorer/Firestone debacle was a Firestone debacle. More Explorers rolled over because there are alot more of them on the road than any other SUV. Judged rightly,rollovers per 10,000 vehicles or per 1,000,000 miles driven Explorers rollover at a LESSER rate than the over all industry average for SUV's but that doesn't sell newspapers so you don't hear that side of the story. Owen

 

[DonnyD]

LOL ....... after all these visits to all these assembly plants....... I just totally missed the fact that GMC and Chevy are the same.......... LOL.. dadgum......learn something everyday........
BTW: There is a reason GM keeps these trucks seperate.... and doesn't wish to have them counted as one.
Having watched all of them made from scratch, you are not dependant on the brand for your quality or lack thereof, but rather on the whether the person on the line came to work that day to do his best....... or otherwise. It's kinda like bologna or franks, if you watch'em made, you'll never touch one again.
In the early 80's, you could actually call GM and get the production date and # to actually see your vehicle being processed..... that all came to a halt when persons began turning their car down after witnessing some of the process..... That being said, I had to drive a car built by the GM plant that I was in most of the time which ended up being a Monte Carlo which I watched through most of the assembly process and I have to admit it was a fine car.
There are lemon laws for vehicles like the ones that have been mentioned in above posts and no brand is exempt. But....... You WILL find that most lemons come from a small number of assembly plants on certain shifts....

 

[Charles J P]

Judged rightly,rollovers per 10,000 vehicles or per 1,000,000 miles driven Explorers rollover at a LESSER rate than the over all industry average for SUV's but that doesn't sell newspapers so you don't hear that side of the story.

I would love to see you use this defense with someone who actually owned one of these horrible vehicles. Sure, it may be technically accurate, but there were very real design flaws with the vehicle.

 

[Dennis Reno]

I would love to see you use this defense with someone who actually owned one of these horrible vehicles.

IMO it is a valid defense. I too speak from experience.
My wife drove a '96 Eddie Bauer for nearly six years. Back in 1998, before the whole Explorer/Firestone fiasco erupted in the press, she was on the freeway when the rear driver side tire blew (yep, it was a Firestone.) She called me from the vehicle to tell me what had happened and to inform me she would be late. At first I thought she simply had a leak and had not noticed it until the tire was shredded on the freeway. I wasn't too pleased with her until she explained that it had actually blown while doing 60+mph! No warning, no signs prior to failure.
One night while watching another report regarding the failures of Firestones and the rollover "problem" with the Explorer I asked my wife about her event. She informed me that yes, some of the tread had come off the tire. However, she said that the vehicle was never irratic, even at highway speeds! I asked if it was difficult to keep the vehicle in the lane and she responded "No, not at all. I felt the rearend 'dip' a bit, that was all." She said the car did not go wildly out of control and that it did not take a momentous struggle to keep it in under control at all times.
I'm willing to admit that her situation may, for some unknown reason, be completely different than the rollover scenarios. They certainly sound similiar though!
Car and Driver did some tests on an Explorer trying to recreate the rollover situation. It is a very good read:
Why are Ford Explorers crashing?

 

[Kyle Richardson]

I just bought a 2002 Mitsubishi Montero and I love it! It isnt the cheapest in its price range but I wanted a truck and my wife wanted a suv. She will be driving it 75% of the time so she won but this was the most "truck like" of the suv's that we looked at. I would take a look at them before you buy.
BTW, I also like it because they are not as popular as all of the other suv's on the market and I feel a little "unique".
Kyle Richardson
Acoustic Visions

 

[Owen S]

Charles J P, was the vehicle bought brand new or used from a dealership other than Ford. In other words are your friends employed as mechanics at a Ford dealership? If so I'll cede one point, if not, I won't. By the way I hope your mom fully recovered from the accident. Owen

 

[Charles J P]

The dealer owns a Chevy/Olds/Pontiac dealership in one city and a Ford/Lincoln/Mercury dealership in another. Mechanics at both dealerships worked on the car. Lets get real though, how different is a ford windstar engine and tranny from a chevy venture? By the way, my mom is recovering. Just had a broken collar bone. Even though the car was a POS reliability-wise, and I'm not convinced about the airbag not going off, I will say that windstars always got 5-star safety ratings and it makes me wonder if it could have been worse. We feel very lucky.

 

[Mike_Mig]

I work at an assembly plant and know that GMC and Chevy really are basically the same. Like was said before the trim is really the only difference. If you are looking at the Chevy Trailblazer check out the GMC Envoy. It has won many industry awards while the Trailblazer is slightly behind. Now obviously, industry awards don't mean everything, but those decidions are made by honest evaluators IMO. My sister just bought an Envoy and loves it. You can even get a DVD player in it, this is Home Theater Forum after all
On the quality side. Assembly processes are controlled very tightly. Especially the most important components, like airbags and sensors and lug nuts and anything you can think of are controlled by computer monitored and or controlled power tools. The operator still has to run the tool, but on many operations if the torque the part was tightened to is out of spec, the system will stop the line to allow for correction and the job number is noted in the system and is shown at a verification station the nature of the problem. The problem needs to be fixed there and "bought off" as having been fixed. I used to think quality was just not a concern of American companies, but after working at a plant I know how much effort goes into quality, and believe me it really is VERY closely watched.
Just my opinion, but don't forget the GMC Envoy.

 

[DavidMich]

Very interesting thread.....I have been comparing SUVs for a few weeks now. I have finally decided to drop cash for a new Acura MDX. It's the best by far....