Road Trip in a 2016 Ford Explorer

There is something classic about a family road-trip, in fact my little family prefers to drive, especially my husband. He would rather explore a new town, along the way and mark down his next destination to visit. The downside are trips like the last one we took to Orlando, the maps say 12 hours but really it is a 17 hour drive from my home in Louisville, KY.

This trip we added something different.

A 2016 Ford Explorer Platinum Edition.

I have to tell you, Ford surprised me and my car lover husband. A lot.

The car that we drove had a sticker price of $53,000, I received that information ahead of time. I have to be honest, I had a bit of sticker shock that a Ford Explorer cost that much. My husband is a firefighter and his department uses Explorers for command cars, so I thought I was familiar with the brand.

I was very wrong.

With quilted leather accents and beautiful cream leather seats invited us to sink in and get ready for the adventure. My husband and I as driver and passenger had heated AND cooled seats, that offered a massage option if you were so inclined. I used that option quite a bit, especially on our return trip!

The car was absolutely up for the adventure, with my kids settled in the backseat we headed for Orlando.
Both my husband and I drove the car and we each discovered features that we enjoyed, a lot. A few of them are:

• Adaptive cruise control:

  This cruise control truly lets you set the speed and forget about having to brake if you are approaching another car. It slows you down automatically. This takes some getting used to, especially for the control freaks in the group.

• Lane keeping system:

  Ever been driving and have a bit of trouble making out the lane markings? The system can help with this, it uses a camera behind the rearview mirror to detect the lanes. The steering wheel vibrates if it senses you drifting, it will even help guide you back into the lane if that setting is turned on.
  

• Blind Spot Information System:

  Have you ever started to change lanes and even after checking mirrors you STILL swerve back into the lane because you missed a car? The blind spot information system has a small orange dot that lights up when there is a car (or object) too close to safely switch lanes.

In the backseat, there are USB plugs which are a plus AND a standard household outlet. So for us blogger types, we don’t have to worry about getting a special adaptor for our laptops! My kids loved the fact that they had the option of using heated seats in the back. They thought that they were super cool using the heated seats…even in Florida.

Oh! I almost forgot to mention the heated steering wheel. I turned it on while my husband was driving and waited. It didn’t take long for him to say something about the hot sun beating down on the steering wheel, my giggling clued him in on the trick that I was playing on him. Trick or not the steering wheel got plenty warm and would come in very handy in the winter.

Truly the only downside to the car was the gas mileage, we got 20 miles to the gallon on the highway, using cruise control. It is considered to be an EcoBoost engine and there is a good chance that we didn’t have things in the right setting but we really didn’t see a fuel difference.

Ford really surprised me, and will absolutely get a second look from my family the next time that we are in a market for a new car.