Ford Explorer. Any good?

[haggis]

the only problem with the ford explorer is the timing chains .
they get very noisy after about 120000 klms . to replace the chains is a very costly job as they have one at the front & one at the back . you have to take the engine out to do them . service them well and they arent too bad .
cheers fae haggis ................................

[FNQCairns]

the only problem with the ford explorer is the timing chains .
they get very noisy after about 120000 klms . to replace the chains is a very costly job as they have one at the front & one at the back . you have to take the engine out to do them . service them well and they arent too bad .
cheers fae haggis ................................

Jeesus now thats a right shocker...what pinhead thought that was a good design and what shiny bum passed it.

cheers fnq

[DR]

cheech as a prime example,,,, we just sold a explorer v8,,, to a bloke in nsw that has been trying to locate one for about a month or so,,,, placing it through salary sacrafice,,, and its second hand,,,

as i previously stated,,, these things within ""our group"" are considered money in the bank,,,, if you do a search through the various auction sites,,, carsales etc etc,,, they are far and few between,,,,,

a quick and easy way to place minds at ease is to phone or call into your local service (ford) centre,,,, ask the manager/mechanic what their opinion is,,,

but i stand by my comment,,, north qld is nearly 5-1 in sales of cruisers compared to what we sell on the sunshine coast,,, same would apply to commodore,,,, and hence when we get something down here that may pull more dollars up there,,,, its trucked,,,,, vice versa in regards to what we sell more off compared to them

choppa

hi choppa, so what models had problems & which ones are the safest to look at as value for money?? just looking on carpoint & they seem to be pretty good value..

[Cheech]

Thankyou everyone for all your comments good and bad. Has allowed me to make a more educated decision.

Settled on a car today. Put down my deposit and now going through the rest of the rigmarole.

What I took from everyone was this,,,,

get newer if possible as the repair costs will be less
the v8's make for a good truck that is still reasonable economical
The older model or models had problems that gave them a bad name that they seem to still have unjustifiably stuck to them
the 6 cylinder has timing chain problems when they get a bit old
They are not necessarily the best 4x4 around, but still perform ok off road
Nobody that had actually owned one that commented on them had a bad thing to say
Better deals can be had if you look outside Brisbane

So this is what I have bought

2004 ux limited
v8 auto

Being a limited, which is the top of the range, it has everything that opens and shuts. Leather upholstery, the works. Is almost too nice to take off road!

I bought from interstate. had the car checked out, and had my cousin have a look at it and take it for a run. Will be transported to Brisbane as part of the deal.

Very happy with my purchase.

Thanks again everyone for your advice.

Cheech

[DR]

Congratulations cheech, that looks like a nice vehicle.
Was it better value buying interstate?? you don't have to mention price..

[Cobia Kid]

Hey Cheech,they are called exploders for a good reason.You'd be doing well to get over 100k out of one before spending nearly as much on the engine as you payed for the car,there is the reason as to why they are so much cheaper than other vehicles of the same vintage(just like a Disco looses around 70% of its value after a few years)Best of luck deciding

Too Right! We have a Ford 'exploder' and it does the job but the engine light has been on nearly the whole time we have had it. if it goes red we have to pull over imedietly and not drive until repaired(which i doubt it will be).
Any way i like the patrol myself,
Cheers,
Jamie

[Cheech]

Jamie, have a re-read of what you have typed, and you will see how ridiculous it sounds. Your vehicle has an overheating problem, and instead of having it fixed, you just put up with it and then call it an exploder!

DR, there seems to be very few v8 explorers in Qld. That is one of the reasons for looking further afield. The ones here seem to be a couple of k more expensive than NSW and vic. Probably not a lot more expensive, but you then open up a very large market to look at.

This particular truck was significantly less than the average because it has higher than average k's for that year. There is always a tradeoff. About 10 years ago I bought a falcon that was a newer model than I could ordinarily afford. Reason was it was higher than the average number of K for that year. I took the punt and now 10 years later I am about to retire that car and in that period it never had anything break down. Standard services and regas. No other mechanical expenses. So that is first hand experience that a newer car for less money just because of higher K's can work out to be a really good deal. Doing the figures, if I bought an older truck for the same dollars as what I spent on this, I would have then had the higher K's anyway. So it all adds up nicely.

The deal came in at $22,500.00 including new tyres and transport costs to Brisbane.

Cheech

[DR]

thanks cheech, great buying..