Ford Explorer test drive since 2010 SUV

Your defense

The appearance of these vehicles quite allows them to record them in the VIP-person-proof protection group: aggressive, powerful, full-sized SUVs seemed to be created for these purposes. In appearance, all three Honda Pilot, Chevrolet Tahoe and Ford Explorer, real warriors. And who they essentially judge the test on the roads. And outside of those.
 
The appearance of these vehicles quite allows them to record them in the VIP-person-proof protection group: aggressive, powerful, full-sized SUVs seemed to be created for these purposes. In appearance, all three Honda Pilot, Chevrolet Tahoe and Ford Explorer, real warriors. And who they essentially judge the test on the roads. And outside of those.
It can be thrown against the wall, drown in water, stomping with your feet, bury it in the snow and dig the earth to them. And he knows how to go online and fully cope with the layout of this article. Meet the Panasonic Tounbook laptop, extremely, ready to work in the most difficult conditions.
 
Why write about him in this article? Then, that the angular forms of the computer-terminator were so inspired by Honda designers that they decided to reproduce the car, which is called, based on. So Honda Pilot appeared.
This is the third generation of the model the first pilots left the assembly line back in 2003, having survived restyling a couple of years later. But in Russia with these cars they are familiar with exactly as active as the gray dealers and private distillery from America, for which the model was created. That is not enough.
The new Honda Pilot has already officially came to Russia: the potential, as the company believes, is huge in our market for the SUV.
In the view of many Russians, a car that claims to the title of a rogue is angular, a little heavy and large should look like this. In addition, outwardly, Honda is also angry: numerous faces of the body, optics and finishing elements like the radiator grille are tilt down. It seems that Pilot is always dissatisfied with something.
 
Ford Explorer makes a completely different impression. The classic design of a frame SUV under a spicy sauce of chrome parts of the body decoration is outside. External updates of the 2008 Restyling machine of the 2008 model year became a slightly different radiator grille, a bumper was slightly widened, and the Optics are wished.
 
Unlike Honda Pilot, it is almost impossible to find sharp corners or harsh lines in the Explorer body. A kind of hefty soap dish on the discs of 17 inches in the flow of cars Explorer seems to be a titanium among the boats.
But only for the time being. If a Chevrolet Tahoe swim in our imaginary sea, but this assessment system collapses like a house of cards. Huge! At first, other associations are not selected.
 
The new Tahoe, which appeared on the market this year, is even stronger than the previous one, crushed the principles of American automotive industry into the heads of customers. Yankee-premium is the size. Anyone who decides to look into the monumental face of Tahoe will see its reflection in the chrome grate of the radiator in full growth. But if the previous generation resembled a refrigerator with a minimum of rounding, then the new chevrolet is more flowing. Like a brick, trimmed with a file in the corners: aesthetics in the guise of an SUV was added.
So, all three cars let dust into the eyes. Now is the time to let the dust from under the wheels!
Big and fast
Honda Pilot is a big lover of roads. Good roads: suburban tracks and city streets. On a straight car stands like a glove, without swinging and confidently grinding the road with wide rollers. The course stability of the SUV at the CR-V level is very pleasing. But do not forget that the equipped mass of the pilot is almost half a ton higher! Hence the tangible (but quite acceptable) rolls of the body in corners, and belated reactions to the action of the steering wheel. But Honda does not also provoke an active ride, and above all, because of this steering wheel.
It is clear, of course, that the effect of a spoon in sour cream for passing the protracted turns of some high-95-95, stretching from Florida to Canada, will be quite optimal. But with urban restructures from a row to a row, such a setting of the steering wheel amplifier strains. It is inconvenient to intercept a hefty bagel and so, and then there are games in the guessing on what angle to twist?
The engine demonstrates completely different settings. It is equipped with a VSM fuel saving system (Variable Cylinder Management), which is responsible for how many six cylinders are required to be introduced. You go for all the money, a combustible mixture enters all six working volumes of 3.5 liters. You stand in a traffic jam (or release an accelerator) and half of the cylinders turn off. The most interesting thing is that the system can leave four cylinders in the ranks, turning off only a couple.
Naturally, with such a motor work, it was necessary to balance it additionally, otherwise parasitic vibrations could not be avoided. In Honda, they decided to use an active engine suspension on hydraulic supports and the ANC (Active Noise Control) system, which extinguishes the nozzles of the ICE, sending sound waves in a certain phase to the interior.
In acoustic terms, everything is great: it is impossible to understand in what mode the power unit works. In motion, too, everything is fine, since the work of VSM does not affect the smoothness of the course. The Honda Pilot accelerates evenly, and on all laid 257 liters. with., But there is no sound excitement, caressing hearing, in acceleration, alas, there is no.
Somewhere in the bowels of the engineering space, the engine buzzes, changing, depending on the position of the gas pedal, in the timbre of its voice only a few notes. Such a quiet monotony by the end of the trip was a little tired. But we ourselves, chatting in a car in a parking lot, praised him for a good sound insulation! So why is it more? ..
 
The Ford Explorer engine is more than half a liter, but 44 liters weaker. With. Everything is simple in it: two valves per cylinder, one upper camshaft. The motor is distinguished by a good rod on the bottom and quite briskly sends the car to accelerate, the acceptable dynamics accompanies all three participants in our test. But Ford, despite the fact that it is heavier than the pilot for two centners, the first hundred exchange almost also quickly 10.2 versus 9.8 s.
Explorer’s steering wheel is heavy in a good way and allows you to more confidently dose the angle of attack. Moreover, the disadvantages of an elderly chassis more than compensate for the stabilization system. What is the behavior of the car controls the whole complex called Advancetrac and uniting ABS, ESP and Traction Control.
The system redistributes the moment for each wheel so as to maintain the controllability of the machine in a complex environment. On the asphalt, this is expressed in the ease of entering the turns, where the skid is driven up in the rudiment. But in the sand, the electronic detachment of the beginning seriously press on the nerves: as soon as the wheels were a little cramation, the ESP light began to sound the alarm, and the car almost got up with a stake. No drive, but security! Remembering that Ford classifies Explorer more to family cars, you begin to relate to the moderately retreating electronics.
 
When we drove the participants in the test on the landfill, Tahoe was the last in our column and held on to the rest. There are no questions on direct. The car rides like a locomotive along the rails: calmly and confidently. It seems that no one and nothing can bring down from the course of such a thug, he keeps the way so stably. The engine 5.3 (!)-a liter unit issuing 325 liters reinforces this confidence. With. And tormenting about half a thousand NM! By the way, he, like the pilot engine, knows how to turn off the cylinders, but only half of the six. This, however, did not save him from frightening numbers on a 57 -liter flow meter per hundred! But, as real measurements provided, in calm mode it is quite possible to meet the 20-25 liters of 92nd gasoline.
Such a motor for a heavy car is enough for the eyes. He picks it up like a balloon: up to 100 km/h for 9 s. And the sound bursting from a double exhaust pipe is pleasantly ticking the pride by a thoroughbred roar. Class!
But at the entrance to a protracted turn, it became clear: miracles are not planned for today. No vaunted stability system Stabilitrak is able to give the Chevrolet Tahoe chassis, the controllability of competitors walking ahead at the same pace. The turn on the harmless 70 km/h turned into the rear axle that began. The creak of tires and on time the thrown lasso system of stabilization system, smoothly cooing the ardor of the motor. Repeat? We slightly discard the speed, the turns of the turn is a little rushed, but in the characteristic squeal I feel: the tires again have a hard time. A very strong tendency to drift!
The struggle for comfort
The most softer on the road is Honda Pilot at the car suspensions clearly comfortable settings. On the line and in the city, the very thing: she doesn’t care and passengers shakes the potholes on every bump. The reverse side of the coin will appear on an uneven coating: here the car goes like a boat along the waves, swaying from side to side. A real American!
Pilot is lost on off -road. There are no rigid locks, and their likeness on an electromagnetic coupling is not realized in the best way: it does not save from diagonal hanging. In addition, the body lacks stiffness, and on the rifts it grunts great: the pilot is the only car on our test, devoid of a frame. But on the road is the most. Electronics decides for you how you are going: on the front or all -wheel drive, gently throwing the rear wheels from time to time. Here, Pilot manifests itself as a classic crossover, in which patency is determined by the size of the overhangs and road clearance.
The first minutes may seem that Explorer behaves more collected on the road. Its powerful suspension reads each pothole, literally transmitting information to the steering wheel. And at the same time not too large rolls and practically absent buildup.
Another thing is that on a more worn -out coating, the car begins to drive Dubovo. Passengers are shaking, and the body shakes off the blows. You can’t call such a suspension uncomfortable, but still there is a little softness.
On the off -road Explorer rides more confident Honda. Transmission modes are selected manually, the body is attached on a powerful classic frame!
The only thing you should keep in mind is so very sensitive Advancetrac. Both on the road and in the rut, she is nervous, now and then besieging the car. But it is difficult to sink in the sand under her control, and she controls the traction well. You count on your strength to turn off, I'm not sure getting used to electronic control.
Where Pilot and Explorer went, I want to go faster at Tahoe. Despite the clearly freight roots, the suspension of the SUV works excellently. What is happening on an uneven road with a body, I was able to see only in the reflection of a chrome tank of a passing fuel truck. Huge wheels are dancing the tank up and down, and the monolithic body seems to be frozen in the air. If it were not for the problems described above, Tahoe could not be afraid of any coatings. Comfort will remain indisputable, and this machine can withstand almost everything.
The off -road stabilization system works much more restrained than on Explorer. Differential locks are available, the frame is powerful, but Tahoe is painfully heavy for good off -road. Of course, it will not be tied in a mud porridge, but if you put forward behind a dump truck. To drag a carcass with a permitted mass far beyond three tons, not everyone can do it! But the road clearance is the largest: 231 mm to the crankcase.
Fortresses
Once in the PILOT salon, you understand it, the era of plastic. Quite high -quality, different shades, it serves as a material for the manufacture of everything and everything. At first you are at first lost from the abundance of all kinds of drawers and entire warehouses hidden in niches and shelves. The armrest can be used as a pot for seedlings, it is convenient to put sandwiches in the grotto under the central console
But seriously, the space in Honda is organized very competently. The variator selector is located right at hand, and the climate buttons and music control are nipped in one place in the middle of the front panel. All this is not only convenient, but also looks solid and positive. Truth! The pilot inside is not at all as serious as outside.
Honda has a tree decoration option, but it brings some disharmony to a frank technology interior closer to us ordinary plastic.
 
Explorer stubbornly adheres to classical rules for nothing that the interior is thoroughly processed. A flat and rectangular average console, simple devices, correct keys are convenient and solid, but after the pilot it is boring and uninteresting here. Ergonomic, in appearance, puzzled the steering wheel in the area of \u200b\u200bthe usual grip, and the pseudo -driven showing over the blowing deflectors seems to be glued to PVA glue and is ready to accumulate dust under it over hefty gaps. Otherwise, there are no complaints about the decoration: somewhere a little rustic, somewhere rude. But spacious, thoroughly and clearly, without controversial design inventions.
  
Comfort Chevrolet Tahoe is the size of the internal space. Very spacious! Interior solutions are global: where a free space has formed on the consoles, a tree sparkles with a wide strip. Plastic plastic species are full of layers and small inserts everywhere, since the front panel is monumental, and the keys on it are located compactly.
At the first approximation, it looks gorgeous, but with a thorough study, the quality of manufacture raises questions. The buttons of the closing boxes in the grooves are crookedly, the glove compartment cover is made of thin, flexible plastic, somewhere the head of the spinning of the foggy tumor sticks out directly outward, it seems that they were completely cut on the knee. The interior is not thought out as carefully as we would like that with more than compensated by the size of the internal space.
The third row of seats have all three cars. The most spacious it is natural, in Tahoe: even an adult can accept it there. Pilot and Explorer are not so comfortable. Places, of course, is close: there the third row is more suitable for children than for adults.
But the last two cars have a good view back in Explorer a little better, due to the not so wide rear rack. Orientation on Tahoe is akin to a quest with secrets. For example, I wondered for a long time where from time to time the Nexia was walking behind me. It turns out that she simply hid from the gaze outside the door of the Chevrolet trunk, so highly located! An unimportant review direct fee for external solidity and impressive dimensions.
Who will protect you?
Honda Pilot, perhaps, does not claim to participate in the class of these SUVs. This is rather a logical continuation of the CR-V topic, simply not in such a compact form. Brutal outside, inside the car pleases with modern solutions and an extremely convenient interior. It is very good on the go, but it is better to limit the off-road for him by laundry: the element of the pilot is still stone jungle.
 
Ford Explorer typical representative of the old American school. He takes in power: the conversation about the engines begins with an impressive four liters, and yet the car is well suited for the role of a family assistant. On the go, not as aggressive as outwardly, they and the pilot are in solidarity, but the impressive age of the chassis makes itself felt. The American is boring against the background of Honda.
 
Chevrolet Tahoe stands apart. I am ready to defeat with brutal appearance and crazy power, and thereby falling in love then, perhaps he will be forgiven for both the flaws of the interior and the frankly cargo controllability. In films, FBI agents ride such machines, and superheroes are not concerned to pay attention to the little things.

Text: Alexander Mikhailov
Photo: Roman Ostanin

 
   
 
 
 
 

Source: Wheel magazine [September 2008]