ANTAUS Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 Autoblog Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sullynd Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 Would have been a good model to offer as a PIH. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rperez817 Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 Photos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyle Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 Geez what a half baked effort and they could of at least had some unique exterior trim elements. I’m in Birmingham Alabama for a few days and next door is a Ford dealer They had two Explorers unlocked so i checked out the interiors and still see glaring quality issues which would drive me fucking insane if i to look at it everyday. Big panel gap around the center stack where the trim from both sides was misaligned and sticks out some. Glove box latch and rear seat fold down latches took an exceeding amount of effort. I messed with them several times and was just perplexed by this type of oversight. The small bin in the center console is not only cheap but the carpeted trim doesn’t even closely fit into the bin. And one of these vehicles had a noise coming from back of the dash like a switch was opening /closing. Maybe that is corrected at PDI but not sure. In many ways I think the Explorer is a pretty good vehicle but was hoping some of these oversights would of been corrected by now. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 9 minutes ago, kyle said: Geez what a half baked effort and they could of at least had some unique exterior trim elements. It does have a unique grille and wheels which is all the KR F150s have ever gotten on the exterior. KR is all about the interior. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyle Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 4 minutes ago, akirby said: It does have a unique grille and wheels which is all the KR F150s have ever gotten on the exterior. KR is all about the interior. I can't see much different (on my 13" laptop) with either and you are correct that the KR"s big effort is inside....but I guess I was hoping for something more on the exterior given this is the first trim they've added since launch? The inside looks great (besides that friggin massive tablet staring back at you) though. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HotRunrGuy Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 12 minutes ago, akirby said: It does have a unique grille and wheels which is all the KR F150s have ever gotten on the exterior. KR is all about the interior. except that KR F-150's offer an optional secondary color down low. HRG 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 53 minutes ago, HotRunrGuy said: except that KR F-150's offer an optional secondary color down low Forgot about the trim paint. That's still not much differentiation on the exterior. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmc523 Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 1 hour ago, akirby said: It does have a unique grille and wheels which is all the KR F150s have ever gotten on the exterior. KR is all about the interior. These aren't unique wheels, just the KR logo center cap. Interior looks nice though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FordBuyer Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 1 hour ago, kyle said: Geez what a half baked effort and they could of at least had some unique exterior trim elements. I’m in Birmingham Alabama for a few days and next door is a Ford dealer They had two Explorers unlocked so i checked out the interiors and still see glaring quality issues which would drive me fucking insane if i to look at it everyday. Big panel gap around the center stack where the trim from both sides was misaligned and sticks out some. Glove box latch and rear seat fold down latches took an exceeding amount of effort. I messed with them several times and was just perplexed by this type of oversight. The small bin in the center console is not only cheap but the carpeted trim doesn’t even closely fit into the bin. And one of these vehicles had a noise coming from back of the dash like a switch was opening /closing. Maybe that is corrected at PDI but not sure. In many ways I think the Explorer is a pretty good vehicle but was hoping some of these oversights would of been corrected by now. I watched a You Tube video that showed some of the ways Ford decontented the 2021 Explorer as they dropped the base price $2,000. Two areas were cheapening the console and glove box. I'm sure there were other areas. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FordBuyer Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 2 minutes ago, rmc523 said: These aren't unique wheels, just the KR logo center cap. Interior looks nice though! The two tone seats are nice. One area Ford could improve interior wise is contrasting stitching that is eye popping that includes the dash board and door cards. My Crosstrek had orange stitching that popped on very affordable vehicle. The stitching on my Escape is barely noticeable and only on seats and steering wheel. Come on Ford! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ice-capades Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 52 minutes ago, akirby said: Forgot about the trim paint. That's still not much differentiation on the exterior. A lower two-tone paint treatment would have been a nice touch though and helped differentiate the King Ranch model... similar to the old Eddie Bauer model. 6 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rperez817 Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 34 minutes ago, FordBuyer said: I watched a You Tube video that showed some of the ways Ford decontented the 2021 Explorer as they dropped the base price $2,000. Two areas were cheapening the console and glove box. I'm sure there were other areas. Ford Explorers have always had cheap interiors. The trick is to disguise at least some of the cheapness so that it doesn't look horrid and turn away prospective customers. Even with the decontenting, I think some of the refreshed elements for lower trim 2021 Explorer accomplish this goal, and the new 2021 Explorer King Ranch interior does a good job of that too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Going_Going_Gone Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 We considered waiting on the King Ranch Explorer for the interior color (not black, not sandstone), but were disappointed to see that they maintained the same exterior look as the other Explorers. It is too bad that Ford doesn't try to give the pricier Explorer models a cleaner/more upscale look like the Lincoln Aviator. With the King Ranch Explorer off the list, we ended up buying a 2021 Aviator Reserve II with the Roast interior before it even hit the dealer's lot. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bzcat Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 (edited) 4 hours ago, HotRunrGuy said: except that KR F-150's offer an optional secondary color down low. HRG On F-150, KR is basically the "country" version of Platinum hence the two-tone option vs. Platinum's monochrome look. On Explorer, even the ST and Platinum has basic black plastic molding so I guess KR has the same look as well. Only the interior theme is different. MSRP for the various trim levels: Base 2.3EB RWD $32,225 XLT 2.3EB RWD $34,000 Limited 2.3EB RWD $45,005 ST 3.0EB AWD $52,605 KR 3.0 EB RWD $52,350 / 3.0 EB AWD $54,350 Platinum 3.0 EB AWD $54,480 So there is only $130 price difference between similarly equipped KR and Platinum. The only thing new here appears to be the availability of 3.0EB with RWD, which lowers the KR MSRP by roughly $2,000 compare to Platinum. Would be interesting to see how the upcoming FX4/Timberline is positioned - if it will be sold as a new trim level or a package on the existing trim levels. Edited February 24, 2021 by bzcat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T-dubz Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 The grille is the same as the xlt grille but just a different color. The wheels are the same as the limited’s wheels. If I saw this driving down the road, I’d guess it was a limited. I would have liked to see a bit more differentiation from the other models, but I guess you are paying for the interior and the bigger engine. The ST is a better value and looks different from the other trims. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pffan1990 Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 6 hours ago, kyle said: Geez what a half baked effort and they could of at least had some unique exterior trim elements. The one really unique feature of the King Ranch, regarding the powertrain at least, is that rear wheel drive is offered with the 3.0L EB V6 engine. The engine was previously only offered with all wheel drive for the ST and Platinum. 3 hours ago, ice-capades said: A lower two-tone paint treatment would have been a nice touch though and helped differentiate the King Ranch model... similar to the old Eddie Bauer model. Yes, I also think the brown/tan lower two-tone paint would have been nice for it. But I do like the new Explorer King Ranch with how Ford has done with it. I'm not usually a fan of brown/tan interior but always liked how the King Ranch looked on the other Fords. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 Don't forget Explorer has a ST model that F150 doesn't and the new Timberline model yet to be released. It's also a slightly different market than F150. Just pointing out why they may not have done the same differentiation as F150. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willwll313wll Posted February 25, 2021 Share Posted February 25, 2021 King Ranch Phoned In 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FR739 Posted February 25, 2021 Share Posted February 25, 2021 Seems 13 hours ago, kyle said: Geez what a half baked effort and they could of at least had some unique exterior trim elements. I’m in Birmingham Alabama for a few days and next door is a Ford dealer They had two Explorers unlocked so i checked out the interiors and still see glaring quality issues which would drive me fucking insane if i to look at it everyday. Big panel gap around the center stack where the trim from both sides was misaligned and sticks out some. Glove box latch and rear seat fold down latches took an exceeding amount of effort. I messed with them several times and was just perplexed by this type of oversight. The small bin in the center console is not only cheap but the carpeted trim doesn’t even closely fit into the bin. And one of these vehicles had a noise coming from back of the dash like a switch was opening /closing. Maybe that is corrected at PDI but not sure. In many ways I think the Explorer is a pretty good vehicle but was hoping some of these oversights would of been corrected by now. Looks like a lot of hoopla for some dark, two tone leather and some squiggly lines. Shame about the quality issues you ran into. It seems Ford isn’t interested in making the Explorer a quality vehicle. I would have expected by now to see improvement but instead they cheapened the interior even more. It’s also a shame the tablet still looks like a complete after thought. That should have been changed for 2021. Hopefully the next refresh is pushed up and we can finally put this one behind us. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FR739 Posted February 25, 2021 Share Posted February 25, 2021 11 hours ago, FordBuyer said: I watched a You Tube video that showed some of the ways Ford decontented the 2021 Explorer as they dropped the base price $2,000. Two areas were cheapening the console and glove box. I'm sure there were other areas. Do you have a link to that? I’ve searched but can’t find one that matches your description. I’m curious what else they found. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmc523 Posted February 25, 2021 Share Posted February 25, 2021 (edited) 28 minutes ago, FR739 said: Do you have a link to that? I’ve searched but can’t find one that matches your description. I’m curious what else they found. Yeah, his comment is the first I've heard of that. I do recall some "decontenting" on some of the upper trims, but it was in fact making something like the sunroof an option rather than standard, and lowering the price accordingly. Edited February 25, 2021 by rmc523 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slemke Posted February 25, 2021 Share Posted February 25, 2021 11 hours ago, Going_Going_Gone said: We considered waiting on the King Ranch Explorer for the interior color (not black, not sandstone), but were disappointed to see that they maintained the same exterior look as the other Explorers. It is too bad that Ford doesn't try to give the pricier Explorer models a cleaner/more upscale look like the Lincoln Aviator. With the King Ranch Explorer off the list, we ended up buying a 2021 Aviator Reserve II with the Roast interior before it even hit the dealer's lot. Same interior color on our Aviator. Anyone looking at a high end Explorer should do themselves a favor and check out the Aviator. At least Ford is differentiating the two. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbone Posted February 25, 2021 Share Posted February 25, 2021 3 hours ago, Willwll313wll said: King Ranch Phoned In That’s exactly what I was thinking. Interior is fine, the exterior is a disappointment. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bzcat Posted February 25, 2021 Share Posted February 25, 2021 (edited) 8 hours ago, akirby said: Don't forget Explorer has a ST model that F150 doesn't and the new Timberline model yet to be released. It's also a slightly different market than F150. Just pointing out why they may not have done the same differentiation as F150. I think people were expecting too much for what amounts to a new interior color on the Explorer. Ford is not going to give Explorer King Ranch two-tone paint when ST and Platinum also have unpainted black plastic trim and lower bumper on the Explorer. This is actually something that Ford needs to rethink... like on the Escape, there is too much black unpainted plastic on upper level trim Explorer. It makes the vehicle look cheap. If Ford gave Explorer King Ranch painted (contrasting color or otherwise) trim and lower bumpers, it probably need to do that for Platinum and ST too. Guessing that didn't pass the cost review committee. May have to wait for mid cycle update to get them painted trim and lower bumpers... Edited February 25, 2021 by bzcat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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