Jalopnik
As wee ones, my sister and I wanted a dog, but the old man said no. Dogs control your life, he said, so in our household we instead adopted a string of short-lived b-list pets: turtles, hamsters, fish, a guinea pig and several frogs. At one point, we even had a hermit crab, though it died before growing large enough to shed its old shell in favor of a snazzy new one I picked out (and painted) for him. I mention this because if you purchase Ford's outsized Expedition EL, you will die long before you outgrow it.
GMC beat FoMoCo to the "XL" designation as a tag for its longest Yukon SUV. That left Ford scrambling to supply an alternate for its own stretch ute. But why EL? What does it stand for? Extra large? Extra long? Possibly either, though it might just as well be shorthand for El Barge. I cannot overstate this: the Expedition EL is a gigantic automobile. You, seven of your largest, malest friends and a Fiat 500 could all fit comfortably inside. With both rows of seats folded flat, Ford can brag about 130.8 cubic feet of storage. Much more impressive, with all the seats up there's 42.6 cubic footage available behind the third row. Let me put that in perspective. A Honda Fit, which is quite commodious with its seats down, offers 41.9 cubes. Of course, anything that doesn't fit inside the Expedition EL can be towed — over 9,000 lbs' worth.
Call it latent Liberal paranoia, but the big Ford's delivery date of November 27 made me nervous. In the run up to the election gas prices had been as low as $2.19 a gallon for regular, and I was convinced the Bush Administration's oil-company cronies were priming the GOP by deferring their profits. Nonetheless, my delusions remain unproven, as the EL returned surprisingly decent mileage numbers. I was expecting a single-digit nightmare, but hundreds of miles of mixed driving returned 15.6 mpg on the computer. That's about the same as a Shelby Mustang GT500. Still, despite a 500-mile range per fill-up, eventually the Expedition's 33-gallon tummy must be sated.
Nonetheless, the EL's ride is as civilized as teatime at the Pall Mall club. While uneven pavement sends shockwaves through Ford's F-150 pickup, which shares the company's T1 platform with the Navigator, Ford engineers sorted this horror show out with the Expedition. Replacing the leaf springs with a fully independent, multilink rear setup has paid massively comforting dividends. A friend and I made the 100-mile jaunt from LA to San Diego, and though our average speed was 90 mph, we were so relaxed at journey's end it's like we'd been flying business class. I'm not totally unconvinced this sucker's three-ton-plus curb weight didn't simply compress all the bumps, however.
The bottom line is the Expedition EL is useful, comfy and gets better mileage than an Audi RS4. But don't ask me if I'd buy one. Why? It is boring to drive. But aren't all cars of this epic magnitude dullards? No. For five-large over our tester's $50,000 price tag you could be hanging your tail out in a nearly as effing enormous practical Mercedes-Benz GL450, a car that seems to shrink when you flog it. The EL just gets larger and larger and larger and larger still.
Related:
Jalopnik Reviews: 2007 Ford Expedition EL, Part 2, Part 3 [internal]
Comments
I must have one of those to carry my briefcase!
90mph in this barge? Didn't Jalopnik just have a post about unsafe speeding a week or so ago? How in the hell is driving anything this large over 65 or 70mph safe?
Well... we wound up following two jet-black federal Suburbans for a few miles... at speeds over 100mph.
15.6 mpg isnt bad. My Regal gets 16.2-16.8. And thats driving like an old person. And I find it impressive that this thing can go so far on one tank of gas. I cant even break 280 miles in my Regal...it sucks ass. No, it sucks gas!
But I see these things EVERYWHERE. I like them. Better than the last one.
I like how you casually mention you were breaking the law. Good going guys!
saying you averaged 90 is the same as saying you averaged a .09...
what causes more highway fatalities, speeding or drunk driving?
"what causes more highway fatalities, speeding or drunk driving?"
Drunk driving.
Speeding isn't the problem, its weaving in and out of lanes and generally being a huge douche bag on the road. In my expertise, people who drive trucks are generally pretty big douche bags. Just like people who drive Mercedes Benz' are kinda pompous and smug*.
*- All generalizations based on personal experience, and don't necessarily represent you and anybody you might know.
Oh please.
Earlier this year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration NHTSA http://www.nhtsa.gov/ released its updated Traffic Safety Fact Sheets for 2005.
In this report, it is evident that Nationally, and in California, fatalities associated with speeding drivers are equal to or out-number fatalities associated with drunk drivers, or drivers who had a BAC (Blood Alcohol Content) of .08 or greater.
So, how about all the drivers in pre-Clinton America who drove 70mph in 55s?
Were they blood-thirsty murderers?
or are speed-limits completely arbitrary?
supermike2, there are all sorts of flaws with your argument, but let's just start with the big ones.
First, you've drawn no distinctions between speeders at all, lumping someone going 5 miles per hour over the limit with someone doing twice the posted limit. You've then compared this to drivers with a defined range of impairment.
Secondly, you haven't compared the relative populations of your groups. How many speeders are there compared to how many drunks? Off the top of my head, I'd say there may be a few orders of magnitude more speeders than drunks on the road, which would imply that speeding is far, far less dangerous than drinking and driving.
Hey, fine! Speed away! Arbitrarily! Be my guest!
Jon_Furst:
Firstly, you can't measure levels of impairment based on BAC? A .08 is the same as a .18 is the same as a .34?
What Jon_Furst said, supermike2.
I vote for speed limits being completely arbitrary, seeing as how, for instance, a Volkwagen GTi, with a competent driver, traveling at 5-10mph above the posted speed limit is irrefutably safer than a Suburban traveling at the speed limit. To other people, anyway.
No, supermike2, he's saying you can measure "levels of impairment based on BAC". Also, good luck not dying, let alone driving a car, with a BAC of .34%.
Looking over your post again, I'm forced to raise the obvious question of speeding drunk drivers. Are they classified as just drunk? Or both? If both, that kinda throws your whole argument down the clap-trap clap trapper. You clapper.
3-ton EXPEDITION ELXT!!! going an AVERAGE of 90mph on a crowded highway (so it's seeing triple digits at points) - safe or not?
Nowhere is it mentioned that said highway was crowded. Also, supermike, your point would be better made with less hysterical capitalizations and multiple exclamation marks.
On a crowded highway - not safe.
On a high with light to no traffic - safe-ish, insofar as driving an Expedition at speeds over 50mph is safe at all.
I like my argument best:
I speed all the time, and I have not killed anyone yet, therefore speeding does not kill people.
We were in the car pool lane following two FBI Suburbans on a very straight road.
I cannot imagine a safer way to travel.
Instead of el barge, i say you should call the thing el debarge. Hop in, drive around, rock "Rhythm of the Night" on the stereo, write, print.
done and done.
and is the expedition governed at 99, or at 109, just out of curiousity?
Don't know -- at one point I turned to my firend and said, "we're going 100mph" to which he said, "feels like 70mph."
thank imoody! i'll certainly post the WAY YOU TELL ME TO!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111
Thankyou, supermike2, although you're not doing a very good job of it so far. I give you an A for effort, and a D- for execution, but not an F because I admire your sarcasm and spunk.
please stop admiring my spunk.
wow... *note to jalopnik staff: never mention speeding in land barge again*
There is nothing inherently 'unsafe' about speed. I'm utterly shocked that you would bother reading any enthusiast materials.
and i am utterly shocked that you find exception in my taking exception to travelling on a highway at triple digits in this fucking behemoth. utterly.
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