The 2021 Ford Explorer starts at $32,225, though its fanciest trim, the Platinum, goes all the way up to $54,480. Ford said Wednesday it will have a new trim just below Platinum for 2021, a King Ranch edition, which will start at $52,350. It’s a lot of leather and wood.
King Ranch, inspired by the biggest ranch in Texas, has been a trim level on the F-150 for two decades and has also been slapped on Ford Super Duty and Expedition models. For the first time it’s being put on the Ford Explorer. It’s mostly about the badging and the interior materials.
Via Ford:
Explorer King Ranch will now deliver with premium touches and mahogany-colored Mesa Del Rio leather seats with perforated front and second rows with the legendary King Ranch Running W logo. The center console is crafted with a Mesa Del Rio leather armrest and King Ranch logo insert.
The refinement continues in the cockpit with leather door trim rollovers, a leather-wrapped and stitched instrument panel combined with Sapele wood appliqués as well as a leather-wrapped steering wheel with Norias stitching and a Sapele wood insert.
[...]
Outside, Explorer King Ranch comes decked out with a unique Stone Gray-painted mesh grille insert, 20-inch aluminum wheels with Running W center cap, liftgate scuff plate and quad chrome exhaust tips. Capping it all off is signature King Ranch badging.
The Explorer King Ranch will be powered by a 3.0-liter Ecoboost V6, an engine that Ford says makes 365 horsepower and 380 lb-ft of torque. The Explorer King Ranch can be had in rear-wheel-drive or four-wheel-drive versions. (The four-wheel drive version starts at $54,350.)
Ford said that its customers simply demanded the Explorer King Ranch.
For 2021, the company is responding to customer demands with not only the King Ranch edition but the introduction of the available XLT Sport Appearance Package, new interior trim finishes and new exterior colors, with numerous enhancements to the interior including brighter paints, elevated finishes and higher-quality materials for a brightened, more premium ambience.
And if you doubt that any of that’s true, try visiting Texas sometime. Still, it’s hard for me personally to imagine spending over 50 grand for a damn Ford Explorer though, you know, buy what you love.
