Up, Up and Away!

Ford Expedition Has The Perfect Name

By Bill Moore   Photos by the Author

Last time around we looked at the Marine Corp's Sikorski CH53E, the free world's biggest heavy-lift helicopter. Since circumstance demands different machines for different jobs, it would not be the choice for a fast, surgical strike.

Likewise, the Ford Expedition would not be your first choice if you had to move only yourself and one other over any distance between Point A and Point B. If, on the other hand, you needed to carry your wife and a platoon of Boy Scouts to camp in the outback, then it would be ideal.

The journey would be accomplished in luxury, and if you needed to bring anything from a speed boat to a collapsed sailplane with you, the 5.4-liter, 300-horsepower, V-8 engine can haul over 9,000 pounds behind it and another 1,825 inside where there's 108.3 cubic feet of space.

Yes, plenty of room . . . and with 4x4 and a 6-speed automatic you can take this rig on an expedition or, like Cinderella's pumpkin, to the ball. It has rugged good looks, and its $39,925 basic price doesn't lock it out of the ballpark.

We were driving the $48,795 version that has roll stability control, third row folding seats, power sunroof, heavy duty trailer tow package and rear seat entertainment DVD center . . . to name but a few.

In our driving it hither and yon we got somewhere in between the 16 city and 20 highway mileage -- which ain't bad, mind you! During its stay with us we took it into the old Alameda (Calif.) Naval Air Station where, at the front gate, we found a U.S. Navy A7 Corsair II, a ground attack jet that saw action during the Vietnam War and was last used in Gulf War I. This thing goes faster than the Expedition . . . with a top speed of about 700 mph and a price of $2.86 million each.

We'll stick with the Expedition, even if it doesn't have the 20 mm M61 Vulcan Gatling gun!