Ford's Top Heavy Line-up: Stick with the Sedans
By The Car Family
Sep 1, 2008, 12:29
 Of all the vehicle manufactures Ford has the strangest vehicle mix with a stocking overstuffed with SUVs and hardly a fuel miser in sight. Throw into this shuffle the fact that nearly all of its SUVs are priced in the same segment and you have another problem and that is the cost of keeping all of these in production in a declining market.
Despite this they have five of the best family vehicles in the form of the highly refined Ford Focus, with its roomy interior and superior fuel mileage, the hybrid Ford Escape that can easily get nearly 30 mpg, the under $20,000 Ford Fusion, the safety oriented Ford Taurus, the new smallish Edge, and the Taurus X SUVs. Together this line-up averages well over 20 mpg and offers a comfortable interior and a nice highway ride.
However, over time Ford’s leadership has seen fit to throw into this mix the Explorer, Expedition and the huge and probably illegal to drive on residential roads due to it plus three-ton weight, Excursion. These harvested money for Ford in the past, but that was then. Today people are more environmentally aware and too many Ford is synonymous with pick-up trucks and fuel thirsty SUVs. Of course, since Ford pick-ups have long been the biggest sellers and the fact that Ford. With the addition of the Flex to the line-up the company now has seven SUVs and that isn’t counting the Mercury and Lincoln versions and you can see that Ford is literally and figuratively top heavy in this category. The result is disappointing sales and the questioning of a company that has a Mercury line with very little product and a Lincoln line that must compete against the toughest competition in any category, the near luxury class with BMW, Jaguar, Mercedes, Infiniti, Lexus, and Cadillac among many others. Lincoln’s large Navigator weighs over three tons, and as the Excursion, this type of weight makes it illegal to drive over some highways such as the Pasadena Freeway in Los Angeles and on some residential streets.
Thus when possible customers came into a dealership they most likely were looking for a truck or SUV and Ford’s profits surged. This same message is still in play and some customers are ignoring the fact that Ford has some very environmentally friendly vehicles.
Our favorites are the Ford sedans and the Taurus X. Although we don’t like SUVs based on their poor fuel mileage and safety records, the X is worth considering. The problem here is that it is almost identical to the Edge in fuel mileage and performance with both offering 16-mpg in town and 24 on the highway. Both returned 20 mpg on our tests.
Next is perhaps the most overlooked car in America, the Ford Focus. Available as a coupe or sedan and priced around $15,000 this smooth riding vehicle is rated at 24/35 and we averaged 33 mpg. It is an underrated car and can easily stand up to the competition from Asia. It is pleasing to drive and has an abundance of room. It provides a swell alternative to the legendary Toyota Corolla, and can go toe to toe with it in fuel mileage as well.
Ford’s Fusion is another sleeper with a price well under $20,000, a very large interior, a peppy base engine and 20/29 mpg putting it on a par with the Honda Accord and ahead of many others in this regard.
If you need something larger, make that very large, try the Taurus. This sedan has a fluffy ride, but if you get the all wheel drive version it is darn near sporty. Very comfortable, family friendly, with a large trunk, exceptional visibility, and the ability to be rated among the safest of all vehicles you can buy. Add to this is 18/28 mpg and you have a sedan waiting for an aging America to catch-up. We averaged nearly 24 mpg with the all wheel drive model, but the Mercury version couldn’t bust 20 mpg. We expect that the transmission was reluctant to move into high gear. The all wheel drive option costs you three miles per gallon with the front wheel driver version offering an exceptional 28-mpg on the highway.
Proving to be growing in respect is the Ford Escape. This is a superior handling SUV with a tidy interior and a 22/28-mpg listing. With a base price near $20,000 it is a bargain considering all you get. However, if you want a hybrid the Escape comes with that system and you can expect ten percent better fuel economy. We prefer the Ford Escape hybrid with front wheel drive because it has a good resale and we got nearly 30 mpg on the highway.
In the we don’t get it category you have the Ford Edge and Taurus X which we found to be good companions with similar gas mileage figures of 20 mpg. They both can transport a family and luggage with ease.
Ford’s former queen of the SUVs, the Explorer, doesn’t offer anything significant that the Edge or X does and it has much poorer fuel mileage when pushed. There are hundreds of thousands of Explorers around and this might hinder new sales as the declining value of SUVs makes buying a newer model questionable. As well the 14/20-mpg figures are not as good as Ford’s other models. We much prefer the X to the Explorer.
The Ford Expedition and the Ford Excursion are extremely large, cumbersome, and heavy SUVs with fuel mileage barely reaching 15 and most likely in the 12 mpg average range. They have limited visibility front and rear and they are difficult for a child to enter and a strain on the back when removing a car seat. The resale value of these two has been plummeting lately and we suspect that the X is going to be the better value. If you order the optional 32-gallon fuel tank with the Expedition you are going to pay well over $100 to go about 350 miles and the mileage of the Excursion is less. On the other hand you can carry eight people versus seven for the Explorer and Taurus X.
Finally, we have the new Ford Flex that has a station wagonish appearance, but is not a station wagon. This utility vehicle is heavy and long, but provides a great highway drive and the same fuel mileage as the smaller Edge and taller Taurus X. If this was a bit smaller, lighter, and had a sportier suspension, it could easily find a nice niche in the Ford line-up, but as it now stands it can be expensive. Hopefully, its utility and looks can turn this into a good seller.
Based on our testing the best SUV from Ford is the Taurus X. Is has more interior space, can take up to seven people, has nearly the same power as the others and is easy to drive. Its appearance is monotonous, though, and it is fairly long. We found the ride, handling, and general usability very good considering its size and weight. It is the best SUV Ford has ever produced from a family and commuter standpoint given that the Escape is long in the tooth.
As for the more practical and much less expensive to own and operate sedans, the choice is much more competitive. We are going to go with the Goldilocks decision and stay with the Fusion. The Focus is a bit smaller, the Taurus a bit larger, and thus the handy, it’s under $20,000 pricing, and good fuel mileage make the Fusion a great alternative to the popular Honda Accord and Toyota Camry. We believe that the new Honda Accord isn’t as good as the Fusion and that the Camry pricing is too dear as well.
For more reviews go to http://www.motorists.org/carfamily/
For a list of all vehicle websites go to http://www.reacheverychild.com/business/index.html
This is a comparison of the Ford SUVs, the Edge, Escape, Expedition, Explorer, and Taurus X where you can see how crowded the Ford SUV line-up is in terms of size and performance and basic pricing.
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