Overview & Reviews

The 2016 Ford Explorer gets revised exterior styling, a new engine option, updated safety features and a new top-end trim level.

• Abundant high-tech features
• Upscale cabin
• Expected improvement in fuel economy from new turbo engine.

• Less cargo room than many rivals
• Third row only seats two passengers.
• Current model feels big behind the wheel

User Reviews:

Showing 1 through 10 of 97.00

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  Transmission gave out - 2016 Ford Explorer
  By D Rivera - May 14 - 6:50 pm

  My husband bought us a 2016 Ford Explorer Sports edition....less than a year later, while driving it to work one morning, the car just stopped accelerating, after restarting the car, I drove fwd, then put the car in reverse, NOTHING. Had a tow truck take it straight to the dealership. A few hours later, got a call from the dealer stating the transmission had given out. Never getting a ford again! So disappointing.

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  SERIOUSLY? - 2016 Ford Explorer
  By Johnny H - January 3 - 7:32 pm

  I purchased a 2016 XLT in white platinum with dune leather, moonroof, 20" polished wheels. The dealer said it had every available XLT option other than 4WD. MSRP was around $42,500. I test drove the car during the day and then purchased it at night a couple days later just as the dealership was closing. As I drove off the lot, I realized the car was very dark inside. The ceiling is black, the interior lighting is minimal and the visibility is poor. I have a 2014 Expedition and it has much better visibility and is easier to manuveur than this Explorer (I noticed Car and Driver expressed similar complaints about the Explorer in its review of the 2016 model). The Expedition also has beige colored ceiling, which makes a huge difference, as well as a lot more interior lights. Why would Ford put black panels and ceiling inside a car with tan leather? Speaking of the leather, its very cheap, and instead of making it uniform in color, the fronts of the seats are tan and the back are black. The door panels are also primarily black, giving the interior a very cheap look. It gets worse. When I got home, I realized it did not have a universal garage door opener, and when i called the dealership about this, they advised me that one could not be added. $43K and no universal garage door opener? Give me a break. It never even crossed my mind to check if it had one because every car i have owned since 1996 has had one. The stereo is also a joke for a $43K car; it sounds like a one-speaker radio. In summary, the Ford Explorer XLT, even when loaded with all available options, is bare bones and clunky and I could never recommend it to anyone. Come on, Ford!

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  Watch out for the throttle body!! - 2016 Ford Explorer
  By Peggy Frazier - September 21 - 2:43 am

  Apparently, the throttle body on a 2016 Ford Explorer goes out, on average, at 8100 miles. Mine went out in the middle of a very busy interstate at 8200 miles. Ford Roadside Assistance very kindly contacted a towing company and said they would have it towed to the nearest dealership in Jackson, MS. After driving a limping car to the side of an extremely busy exit, I received a computer generated call saying the towing company would reach me in 1 hour and 15 minutes!!! In the meantime, cars are whizzing by me. I took it upon myself to call the towing company who said they had a man 5 minutes away from me. Sure enough, he was there in 5 minutes. Then, when I reached the dealership, they had no idea what I was talking about and acted more or less unconcerned that there was a tow truck driver sitting in their parking lot wanting to know where to put my car. I assumed that Ford Roadside Assistance would have contacted the dealership and given them a heads up. Not the case. After waiting in the service department lounge for a while, I was told that my car would not be looked at until the next day. But, Ford would rent a car for me in the meantime. Then I learn that Ford, apparently, uses only Enterprise Rentals and the only car they would put me in was a Ford. Unfortunately, all of the Ford cars in Jackson, MS, at Enterprise Rental, had been sent to Texas in the wake of a hail storm. One car remained - a Mustang. I am a 62 year old woman with a not so good back. I thought I would be using it for, at the most, a day, so I could stand it since I had no choice. The next day, I was told that it would take a week for the new throttle body would be in. At that point, I told the dealership that I needed to go home, 3 1/2 hours away, and that I needed another car. Terribly sorry but nothing else is available. I did drive the mustang home and I was given (after insisting) another Ford car by the Enterprise Rental Company in my home town. Today I learn that the throttle body is back ordered for AT LEAST TWO WEEKS! Supposedly due to some catastrophe. I have to wonder if the catastrophe is that the part is so defective that Ford is having to replace so many that they are back ordered. Also, will I ever trust my car again? Will the new throttle body fail after 8100 miles???

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  Dont buy. - 2016 Ford Explorer
  By George Georgie - July 14 - 6:32 pm

  Do not recommend, not a big bang for your bucks, Go with twin turbo charge platinum.

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  Throttle Body Malfunction Turned it into a Lemon - 2016 Ford Explorer
  By Paul - April 7 - 2:14 am

  Great car up until the electronic throttle body broke at 8,700 miles on the highway. Ford apparently had a "nationwide shortage" on the part needed and after weeks of waiting, they offered me a refund under the lemon laws. Luckily, Ford has been cooperative but its taking a lot of time to get this refund.

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  THROTTLE BODY FAILED! - 2016 Ford Explorer
  By Stranded - May 4 - 1:04 pm

  Little over 8,000 miles the throttle body died on a busy roadway. Ford Roadside assistance is a joke! Wrecker was dispatched and a 1 hour forty five minute wait time was estimated. Guess what? That time was extended to another two hours! Called my own personal wrecker service and they were there in 20 minutes. After a three hour wait, I got to the dealership after closing and was unable to secure a rental or loaner car. Another hour or so wait until I could get a family member to pick me up. Listening to the throttle body problems, guess I am not the only one! With the cost of this vehicle, makes one wonder if they could have went to GM and got more bang for the buck!

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  Needs serious redesign of seats and interior space - 2016 Ford Explorer
  By Dan - September 20 - 7:02 pm

  I had a chance to drive 2016 Ford Explorer XLT 4WD for 9 days as a rental vehicle. Throughout the years I have owned, rented and test-driven almost all vehicle makes and models of cars from economy passenger cars to luxury sports sedans, SUVs and even pickup trucks. Unfortunately Im going to cross Ford Explorer off my shopping list and I cannot recommend it as a potential family vehicle even though I liked the previous Explorer I test-drove back in 2011-12. It seems there are two vehicles within the Explorer. On one hand you have a vehicle with a very nice drivetrain: a capable relatively apt and powerful engine (this is just a sub 300 HP V6 mind you in a heavy vehicle); an intelligent 6 speeds transmission; and a very comfortably tuned suspension. We drove on freeways, mountain highways, uphills, downhills and engine and the tranmission coupled with Sports mode and steering-wheel mounted shifters enabled you to accomplish all the feats without much problem. On the steeper hills though, regular Drive mode would behave more intelligently when going downhil, holding on the lesser gear and helping you brake with the engine. On the uphills, regular Drive mode would however tend to constantly upshift even when you would manually downshift. Once in the Sports mode, these problems would go away and the car would behave accordingly. However there is the other part of Explorer and that other part unfornuately makes the Explorer not so much attractive. The faults I will list out are not new, but as have been already been pointed out by others in the reviews here. Seat design/driver comfort 1) Terrible front seats with narrow hard bottoms, hard and high bottom bolsters. 2) Poor legroom area for the driver in width 3) The above 2 is accentuated with absolutely terribly designed foot rest area. The foot rest is very narrow, has a weird angle and also there is no space to rest your foot outward or stretch your foot outward. (And I was coming from just driving a Corolla and Camry). Many people here pointed out that these issues might be experienced partly because of the driver height. But Im a pretty short guy and Ive experienced all these issues to a such degree that after about 30 mins of renting the car, I was complaining non-stop and had to tell my wife that I could not bear to drive it any longer. Even after I switched to the passenger front seat, the 1st issue was still bothering me there as well. I was ready to ditch the car and the only thing that stopped me was that I couldnt reach the rental agency and we were already far away from the pickup location. My wife however was not bothered as much. This leads me to believe that this is not as much of the height issue as the female vs male issue. Females naturally dont mind seating with their legs close together whereas we males prefer to open our legs as wide as possible. Only after putting some bath towels, we luckily had, in the center of seat and thus leveling the surface I was able to somehow mitigate issue 1. Child seat OK, so you would think that given how large the Explorer is and its target audience it would do really well in child car seat accomodation department. I was really hoping that I could install my convertible seat in the most safe position possible - center seat facing rear. But I could not. I couldnt use the center position even for the front facing installation. 4) There is not that much space in the 2nd row seats as you would think, even with the short drivers and passengers 5) The mechanism for folding the seats in the center seat is so large and obstrusive that it conflicts with seat installation, both front and rear. 6) The same mechanism makes it hard to use latch installation even on the side seats especially in the rear installation. Minor things Now these things by themselves maybe minor but when coupled with the things above just add to the less the desirable portrait of the vehicle. 7) Car very loudly honks when you exit with the key and engine turned on and there is no way to turn the feature off. This proved extremely annoying and aggravating as you are trying to warm up the vehicle and its interior and need to exit in and out of the car. 8) Multimedia and instrument screen controls are needlessly complicated. It took me awhile to literally figure out how to do even the simplest things such as browing the folder structure on the MP3 CD or to reset the trip odometer. There were absolutely no hints or labels on the controls to suggest that they would accomplish this or that feature. 9) Locking the car. Till the last day I could not figure out exactly how to easily lock the car by using touch feature. Sometimes I would have to touch it twice, sometimes I would have to hold my hand there for a couple seconds, sometimes it would refuse to lock altogether no matter what I did and I would have to use the remote. 10) Only one charge port upfront ???!!

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  Not worth the money - 4 Cyclinder / AWD / XLT - 2016 Ford Explorer
  By Disappointed in Michigan - July 24 - 12:43 am

  Edmunds didnt allow me to select a "4 cylinder" version as the only "drop downs" were for the V6. This vehicle is not worth the money. The advertised fuel economy on the sticker says 18 city and 26 highway for the 4 cylinder and AWD. Im lucky to get 15.5 combined. The acceleration is tepid and the transmission keeps looking for the right gear to be in. Its not confidence inspiring. Fords advertising with the "unstoppable" and "fight song" are even more of a joke when you consider how poorly designed this vehicle is. The interior leaves a lot to be desired. With a $43,000 MSRP, this is getting dangerously close to other vehicles that are way more luxurious and not based on an old Volvo platform. The plastic trim used in the interior feels cheap. There doesnt appear to be any foam or soft touch paint on any of the plastics. It feels like this vehicle was designed as cheaply as possible. Getting in and out of the third row is an exercise in acrobatics and dont put Grandma in the back if you want to see her come out alive again. You have to climb over the second row seats to get back there. Visibility on this vehicle is terrible too and the seats are really uncomfortable. The test drive I took was not extensive enough obviously. Save yourself some money and dont get this vehicle. Aside from the exterior styling, this is a complete disappointment. My first and last Ford SUV. Ill go back to the other brands I used to drive before this. Im glad this is only a 2 year lease.

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  Throttle body issue - 2016 Ford Explorer
  By Jth - November 8 - 10:18 am

  Do not buy this car unless they agree to change the Throttle body before you leave the lot. My 2016 shut down on me while I was making a turn into a busy highway. Thus could have been bad. Shame on you Ford for not issuing a recall. Now my rear AC is acting up. Strike 2. I have only made 3 car payments! I am disappointed.

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  throttle body - 2016 Ford Explorer
  By john - July 18 - 5:26 pm

  After buying this car only six months with 6500 miles on vacation 600 miles away from home we lost power on a busy road pulling out in traffic. After shutting the car off and restarting it after a few minutes it ran fine for a while and then same problems. Called the closet dealer to where I was vacationing, what a joke, service manager said he wouldnt be able to look at it for about four of days and did not have a car for me to use while my car was in the shop, went to another Ford dealer 10 miles further and they were very helpful. Andy Shaw Ford Thumbs up, Mountain Ford Thumbs down