In the Edge ST thread people were asking for how this thing drives and/or how I like it.
So yesterday we spent some time driving around town, trying to find a restaurant for Mother's Day lunch that she wanted (in mom's new ride) and I have some initial thoughts.
I have to give some backstory about me. I grew up in 80's and 90's Japanese cars.
Parents had: 85 Corolla hatchback, 89 Camry, 84 or 84 Datsun/Nissan Sentra Wagon, 90 Corolla. We never had SUV's or Trucks. Now my mom has a CRV and has had 2 or 3 CRV's, but she's in her 70's, so that makes sense and it was long after I moved out of my parents house.
My cars that I've had - 89 Camaro IROC, 89 MR2, 91(x2- Turbo and NA) 93 MR2's, a couple of Integras (90 and 94) , a WRX, 01 Protege MP3, Mazdaspeed3, Jetta GLI. I've always driven small, nimble coupe or smaller sedans (except for that "bigger" 08 G35xS sedan). I like that "go kart" handling of a car.
I have never personally owned a SUV or Truck of any sort for my daily driver. Wife had a 00 Civic coupe when we met and then she had an 06 Accord Coupe until she moved into the SUV life. 08 Edge, 15 CX5 and then the 19 Edge ST before this Explorer ST. Her cars have gotten progressively larger. Her brother has only ever had 2 cars since I met her in 01, he's either had a Mustang (V6, V8, supercharged V8) or F150's. He's had more F150's than I can count, V8, the V6TT, the aluminum version. He won't buy anything but one of those 2 and he flip flops between those 2 pretty often. He sold his supercharged 14 last fall and bought a new F150 after the lease on his previous F150 was up. He's already talking about getting an S550 Mustang. Her dad has a nearly identical F150 to her brother. Her brother in law has a Super Duty Ford truck. She comes from a F150 family.
OK, all that being said, here are my thoughts/takes after about an hour and half of driving around town.
meh
I mean, don't get me wrong, it's roomy, seats are comfortable. It's fast as fuck. Probably too fast for the chassis and probably too fast for the brakes it has on it. To me, the Edge ST (and her previous Edge) drove like a "car". This thing, I think it drives like a "truck". And it feels HUGE to me. I mean, it is big, it's a good foot longer than the Edge was and probably a few inches wider.
The Edge drove a little smoother than this Explorer does. Both were on the optional 21" wheels, though the tires are slightly bigger on this Explorer (265/40 on Edge vs 275/45 on Explorer).
She asked if I liked it while driving it and I can't lie, I said it's nice, which it is, but it rides like a truck to me (that sort of side to side bounce that I've only ever felt while driving a truck, one of the in laws or a rental truck from Menards). As a guy who has always drives smaller cars, I am always very aware of how wide this thing is. I feel like I'm having to scan my mirrors all the time to make sure I'm not going over the lines. I always felt that way in the Edge ST too, but this thing is even more.
I found that it was easier to drive at slower speeds than it was to drive a higher speeds. I could feel the weight of it, especially when braking. She's an aggressive driver, so I just hope that she doesn't get overly confident with the throttle in this on her commute. She tends to always "nearly got ran into" while driving, which does happen I guess, but I hear her say that alot.
So overall, it's a nice environment to be in, it's just not my cup of tea. I honestly don't get the draw to big SUV's or pickup trucks, but I'm also biased by having ALWAYS been in and driven smaller more nimble cars.
