2011 Ford Explorer consumer reviews

I bought this SUV around this time last year. It had about 70 thousand miles on it when I bought it so, I was a little nervous but, I only wanted to spend 15 thousand on a car and it needed to have ok gas mileage, be able to seat adults comfortably, and tow a 4000 pound boat. I stumbled upon a white limited explorer with a tow package and I bought it after a comfortable test drive. I've put about 25 thousand miles on it over the past year and it has been a very good car so far without any issues. I average around 22 mpg combined so, it does pretty well for my 40 mile round trip commute and I drive like an idiot. I bought a FWD version so, that makes things interesting when pulling a 4 thousand pound boat full of people and stuff out of the lake but, it does it, unhappily. Against my better judgement, I have had it up to 80 towing the same boat so, it has the power, which is nice. Mine has the dual sunroof and I think some wind noise results from that but, nothing terrible. All in, I am happy with it, especially for the price I paid. Also, make sure yours has the spare tire option because mine didn't and that was an annoying discovery at 11:30 pm on the way through the smoky mountains in the rain. I bought a spare time from a junk yard out of a wrecked explorer for 25 bucks and it fits perfectly. One neat thing is that I have been asked how well I like my range rover on more than one occasion so, apparently, to some, it looks like a range rover.

Honestly, I like everything about this car. The only downside is that when I traded it in I was upside down and now I owe way more on it then it is worth.

I loved this car. It was great for me and my children. When I bought it my children were younger and being a single mother I needed something that I didn't have to call for help on all of the time. It was a great car. I only traded for space, the 3rd row only had 2 seats in the back and I needed a full 6 seats, and my boys have grown a lot and barely fit anymore. It is a great car.

Great overall car. Drove Mercedes Benz before and this Explorer is on par as for performance, comfort, instrumentation, and feels great...all for a fraction of the price.

Love it! I have always wanted an Explorer and now I have one . It is a great drive, I feel very safe in it! A little bit of a gas hog but that comes with the territory of a SUV. Overall I am very satisfied this far!

Great vehicle. We had the Limited 4WD model. Fully loaded. Impressive features. Pros: Comfortable Ride, Quiet, Ford SYNC, Sound System, Styling, 4WD Cons: The A and B pillars are so large it creates a blind spot when turning. Felt under-powered at initial acceleration.

Best vehicle I have ever owned. Excellent gas mileage, comfort and space for the kids. Currently looking for a newer model!

Needed a reliable SUV with a third row seat (not a vinivan person) for our growing family. Love the performance- I am 5'2" and this did not feel huge to me. The second row could use a little more room to accommodate car seats though without having to move the front seats up so much.

Back up camera screen going out. It controls radio and can't control heat. I have talked with other owners and this has been a problem for others. This is a safety hazard. This should be on a recall for repair.

I'm picky about what I drive, and I never thought I'd enjoy driving a vehicle like this. It actually handles extremely well for a SUV. Turn-in is quick and it corners very flat, there is almost no body roll. It's very maneuverable in parking lots and the all electric steering is quite light, but still gives good feedback. The fit and finish of the interior is excellent, the backup sensor and camera system are integrated very nicely with a great view and good warnings, the keyless entry system with remote start is very well executed (even though these things never have enough range, no matter who makes them), e.g. it auto unlocks when I have the key in my pocket. This car has so many bells and whistles, things I never expected to be there. Adaptive cruise control automatically slows when you approach a car in front of you, and you can adjust the gap to your comfort level, rain sensing wipers, etc. It does just about everything that I would expect in a high end european SUV. The collision warning system is kind of useless though, I think, I mean the only time I've noticed it is if a car is turning in front of me and I dont slow down (because I know its going to clear out) and the alarm goes off... otherwise there are a lot of other good features on this vehicle. The navigation is well done, even shows you speed limits for the road you are on. Oh, and I like that you can pair more than one phone over bluetooth... it lets you set priority too so for example, since this is primarily the wife's car I can be sure her phone pairs before mine if we are both in the car. The power rear lift gate is well thought out too, to the point you can set how high it opens (which in my case is great because I dont want it to go too high or it hits the top of our garage door). The touch-based radio screen can be a bit annoying sometimes. Its not terrible, but just different. I will say that I wish the climate controls below the touchscreen were traditional buttons. I keep brushing them accidentally when turning the volume knob and triggering them unintentionally. Another thing to get used to. I can't comment too much on reliability since we've only had it a few months and are only at about 45k miles, but I will point out that the 2011 is a new-release year and there are bound to be little gremlins or bugs to be worked out. The noisy A-pillers due to bad mounting clips are a good example, and so is the "shift to park" problems that are caused by a faulty switch in the shifter that can be resolved by simply tapping the trigger on the shifter if/when it rarely does happen. Honestly guys, these are very minor issues and nothing to really gripe about. If motors start blowing up at 100k miles or so, or driveshafts start making noises, then we should start complaining and urge people to "run away". We have been very very happy with our explorer limited. This is a really nice vehicle, very well done in my opinion.