The leather-upholstered, heated-seat Limited is luxury grade. The base Explorer comes well equipped, with all the essentials, plenty of niceties and no overly complicated controls. The materials are good and the build quality great. The interior is smartly styled and well finished. It can be reconfigured in seconds, with split rear seats that fold with a button on each side and bounce back up with the pull of a lever. Inside, there is class-leading legroom in the second row, real space for passengers in the third, and up to 80.7 cubic-feet of cargo space. This big SUV actually looks smaller than it is. All are great looking, rugged in a familiar SUV way, but also fresh and aerodynamically refined, and all models seat seven. The 2012 Explorer is available in base, XLT and Limited trim levels. Both the 2.0 EcoBoost and the standard 3.5-liter V6 are more powerful than previous-generation engines, yet mileage improves up to 40 percent. It's four inches longer and five inches wider than the previous (pre-2011), body-on-frame Explorer, with third-row seating standard, yet it's 100 pounds lighter. This latest-generation Explorer has a one-piece, unitized body and frame like the typical sedan, rather than an old-school, ladder-type truck frame with a separate, bolted on body. It has more power than the standard V6 in the previous-generation Explorer, with half the displacement, and it delivers the highest EPA mileage ratings in this class: 20/28 mpg City/Highway. In addition to an expanded palette of paint colors, the 2012 Explorer is now offered with an optional 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine.įord's so-called 2.0 EcoBoost is the first four-cylinder in an SUV of the Explorer's size in a long, long time. The venerable Explorer was essentially re-invented for 2011, and Ford might have taken a pass on further improvements for 2012. It delivers the function and family friendly features of a minivan with a more rugged emotional appeal, off-road and towing capability for those who need it, and SUV mileage that was unheard of back in the day. Out of the box, the Ford Explorer has demonstrated itself to be one the best, seven-passenger sport-utility vehicles available.