#98 FORD EXPLORER LIMITED EDITION V8 PLUS#
With a few more sundries that were equallyconfusing, plus a $525 freight charge, the $19,880 Sport became a $26,605SPORT.īut $2,060 in Sport discounts brought the sticker down to $24,545, enoughto buy a Jeep Wrangler and a ticket so Chrysler Chairman Bob Eaton can fly toyour hous e to deliver it. V-6 rated at 16/20, and $1,065 for a 5-speed automaticrather than 5-speed manual. highway, rather than thebase 4-liter, 160-h.p. To that you add $540 for the more powerful 4-liter, 205-horsepower singleoverhead cam V-6 rated at 15 m.p.g.
If you call the option package information department (Ford’s largestdivision, by the way), you find that the packages that added all that moneyalso added a luggage rack, all-terrain tires, cloth-covered captain’s chairs,wheel-lip moldings, door steps, CD player, tow hooks and chrome wheels. The test vehicle started at $19,880, to which was added preferredequipment, convenience and premium sport packages totaling more than $3,200.Ford typically talks in terms of packages without elaborating what theyinclude. The two-door is aimed at youth on a budget, provided you don’t get carriedaway with options. Standard equipment includes dual bags, four-wheel disc brakes withfour-wheel ABS, power steering, heavy-duty gas shocks, rear-windowwiper/defroster, privacy glass, air conditioning, AM/FM stereo with cassette,power windows/locks/mirrors, speed control, tilt wheel and a 12-volt powerplug. Two more doors also would make it easier to loador unload cargo in back. The Sport is a very nice SUV but to get in the second seat, you must firstsign up for Weight Watchers. Ironically, the upcoming sport-ute will have four doors, offer 2WD and 4WDand be powered by a 4-cylinder engine, the small power plant to keep thesticker price in Chevy Tracker and Jeep Wrangler territory. Ford will share it with its Japanese partner. The Sport, no doubt, is a stopgap meant to give Ford a low-cost model untilthe new Mazda-developed Jeep Cherokee-size sport-ute is ready for market inthe fall of 1999. Rather than work on a price that would make thefour-door more affordable, Ford simply went the two-door route.įord says the intent was to have an Explorer that would attract attentionfrom the Jeep Wrangler, Chevrolet Tracker, Suzuki Sidekick, Honda CR-V andToyota RAV4.
And the Sport we tested was a two-wheel-drive two-door, notthe more popular 4WD. Only catch is that the low-cost Explorer Sport is a two-door, not the morepopular four-door. OK, maybe most folks don’t carry $19,880 around with them, but in the SUVworld, that’s a relatively low price considering most go out the door for$25,000 to $30,000. With folks complaining about the high price of sport-utility vehicles, theautomaker came out with a bargain-basement version ’98 Explorer with a baseprice of only $19,880.
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