Cincinnati.com's view

Somewhere along the way to becoming THE hot segment, sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) lost some of their utility. They did this by becoming too darn pretty, too luxury-car-like. Would YOU want to take a $50,000, or even a $30,000, machine crashing through the bushes? Even if you restrict it to quasi-paved surfaces, like fire roads, would you want to toss a motorcycle into its plushly-carpeted cargo area after a day of motocrossing in a bog? I think not. That’s what pickups are for. But then, how often does one actually use a pickup’s load bed, unless it’s a working machine?

Typical suburban usage MIGHT imply using it that way as much as 2/7ths of its lifetime, more likely 1/7th. Meanwhile, the space devoted to carrying air might better be utilized for passengers, who generally have a tough way to go even in extended-wheelbase, four-door “Club Cab” designs.

Click! That’s the sound of a light bulb going on at Ford’s design studios. Why not produce a vehicle which combines the best qualities of a civilized, passenger-friendly sport-ute and a small pickup? They did, and they called it Adrenalin. They trotted it around on the car show circuit in 1996 and it drew crowds – so much so, Ford lore has it, that they pulled it back into the laboratory lest the competition also get a “better idea.” Production approval soon came, and it was decided to build it on the Explorer platform, never mind that the plants in St. Louis and Louisville were already humming to meet demand for the country’s top-selling SUV. Renamed Explorer Sport Trac, it was ready by the end of last year and was released as one of the first 2001 models.

To accommodate reasonable loads of both people and stuff, Ford stretched the Explorer frame by more than 14 inches, buttressing it at the same time to increase lateral stiffness by a whopping 40 percent. The Sport Trac, available only as a four-door, is thus more of a garage stuffer (205.9 inches overall, vs. the standard four-door Explorer’s 190.7), more accommodating to second-row passengers and more apt for shouldering heavy loads.

Commendably, Ford bulked it up without adding an undue amount of weight. A four-door, four-wheel-drive Explorer goes 4,113 pounds, while a comparable Sport Trac weighs 4,400. The one area where stretching hurt was in turning circle, which jumped from a nearly carlike 37.3 feet to a tugboat-recommended 43.1. The front cabin is abundantly roomy for 95th-percentile adults, and the rear is reasonably comfortable for a couple of large people or perhaps three sprouts. One hapless passenger volunteered that it was “like a nice car” back there, though the test machine did have the optional leather package, which definitely kicks it up a notch.

The cargo bed received a great deal of design attention. It has a 30-cubic-foot volume (load floor to top of box) with the tailgate up, and is fashioned from fiberglass-reinforced sheet-molded composite plastic finished in mar-resistant black inside and body color outside. It’s 20 percent lighter than the more usual steel bed and, Ford claims, more durable, too – it certainly will never rust. There’s even a weatherproof 12V power tap built in, for those who don’t quite want to get away from it all. Available accessories include a cargo divider, which bisects the load area, plugging into ready-made receivers, a lockable hard tonneau cover, which folds front and back, and a unique “cargo cage.” This is a contraption fashioned from shiny tubular stainless steel that plugs into the sides of the cargo bed. It can be easily rotated fore and aft, the latter with the tailgate lowered, to increase bed length by 26 inches. It’s quite easy to lock and unlock and to flip, and proved an attention-getter wherever I stopped with it in its extended position. Stowed inside the confines of the cargo box, it provides a tidy place to stand some grocery bags. It can also be completely removed (but only by those who have a key to the gate.) Very sli d extremely well implemented. Stainless costs more, but makes more sense long term.

The Sport Trac can be had as either 2-wheel drive or as a 4×4. With the beefing up that comes with a “payload package,” it can carry up to 1,500 pounds of people and cargo, or tow slightly more than 5,000 pounds.

The Sport Trac is a very handsome-looking machine. The added length is hardly noticeable, so apt are the proportions. The interior is one of the better ones in the class, with good ergonomics and quality materials. Nice berber carpeted mats cover a textured, rubberized floor that can be hosed out if necessary. As with most pickup trucks, the ride quality was merely fair, unladen. It improved slightly with a few hundred pounds in the bed, but would not be very pleasant for just scooting around town. It’s too jiggly, and allows too much road shock to come through.

Handling was good, with power steering that seemed weighted quite well. Road contact with the optional 16-inch tires was very good, and I’d heartily recommend them over the standard 15-inchers. Surprisingly enough, the Sport Trac is fitted with a five-forward-speed automatic transmission, still a rarity in any application. It shifted smoothly and quickly, and even handled the usual array of torture tests like a champ. Fourth gear is a 1:1 ratio and fifth is a 0.75:1 overdrive, which boosts fuel economy and lets the engine settle down at freeway speeds. The test machine had the optional 4.10 final drive cog instead of the normal 3.73. This helps the machine blast off more quickly and gives it more muscle for starting out with heavy loads, at the expense of a couple of miles per gallon in fuel economy. (A five-speed manual is in the pipeline.)

For all that, the Sport Trac isn’t all that swift, since the motive power comes from a single-overhead-cam 4-liter V-6, which makes 205 hp (@5,250 rpm) and 240 foot-pounds of torque (@3,750), merely acceptable in the two-metric-ton range. The engine is a bit noisy and intrusive and didn’t seem all that eager to run to its 6,250-rpm redline, although the torque is spread over a usefully wide range.

The four-wheel-drive options are handled via a rotating switch on the dash. Normally one would leave it in 2WD. When the road gets slick, a few degrees’ rotation (on the fly) invokes 4WD, while a 4WD low range lies a few more degrees away for extremely tough situations. Actuation was quick and unobtrusive.

The Sport Trac has ventilated disc brakes up front and drums in the rear. Pedal feel was somewhat mushy and stopping distances, even without a full load, were not too impressive. The standard antilock was quiet and effective.

The standard stereo showed above-average tuner sensitivity and remarkable clarity. A more potent unit with subwoofers will be available in the fall, they say.

The Sport Trac is plebeian enough to accept regular fuel, in fact, it likes it a lot: EPA: 15/19, our test, 16.2 mpg.

If you need more c arting ability, Ford makes a similar piece based on its full-size F-150, and of course there are plenty of mega-cab pickups from other marques, with nearly as much civility, but perhaps not quite so all of a piece as the Sport Trac.

Base price on the 4×4 version of Sport Trac is $25,270, and that includes such things as air, automatic trans, power mirrors, AM-FM-CD stereo, privacy glass, power side and rear windows (an SUV first), 4-wheel ABS, depowered front air bags and trailer wiring. The test machine also had the stout 4.10 rear axle ($355 – ouch); 6-CD in-dash changer upgrade, $270; power moonroof, $800; the $700 premium sport group (16-inch aluminum wheels with 255/70 all-terrain tires, step bar and fog lamps); a $750 convenience group (cruise control, leather-wrapped tilt steering wheel, autolocking, remote keyless entry with exterior keypad); the $1,495 leather comfort group (floor and overhead consoles, leather seating and power driver’s seat); the cargo cage, $195,adsi plates for off-road work, $125. Total, with freight: $30,535.

“The Gannett News Service”