Explorers
>>Surely, right after the military aps shall come - the toys.
Next: trade in those mere 7300# Explorers for Hum-Vees in every driveway. I can See it...
And why not? If the energy's there without burning up that Ole Debbil Oil...
Speaking of debbils, 'specially in details, some terminology might be handy.
Explorer is a relatively small version of the Diabolic Utility Vehicle. Later, Ford noted that much attention was given to the Chevrolet/GM Suburban (which is notably larger), and bethought themselves. The result was Expedition and its fellow demon Navigator, which are both much larger than Explorer but still smaller than Suburban.
That last proved problematic. GM produced a series of ads, featuring Dallas Cowboys and other sizeable critters trying to contort themselves into the back seat of Expeditions, making no bones of the fact that the Ford product was *gasp* not big enough. Those ran on the teevee around here for quite some time, causing Ford mavens to gnash teeth. What to do, what to do, especially since in areas where those ads ran, Suburban stayed comfortably ahead in the sales figures.
And of course, being sufficiently Vile for all normal Diabolic Purposes, after spells and incantations [featuring, no doubt, sacrifice of a Green to the God Petroleum, though I've no inside knowledge] Ford brought forth Excursion. Even I, who believe that all promoters of little bitty cars should be required to drive from Ft. Stockton to San Antonio and back, with the seat belt buckles welded closed, in August, refer to the new vehicle as the Ford Excessive. It's big.
But the Suburban ads featuring Great Big Guys sitting in comfort in the back seat... disappeared. And people do buy Excursions; I've seen several on the roads around here. Mostly, though, they seem to regard it, as I do, as a sort of reductio ad absurdum of the whole concept; intimidated by the sheer bulk, they back off to something *slightly* more sensible.
So if you're going to complain about DUVs and 7300 lb. cars, use the right name: Excursion. By comparison, Explorer is almost a VW --
Regards,
Ric