Ford Introduces an All-New Expedition: It’s On for Big SUVs

The Ford Expedition—a full-size SUV if there ever was one—has been on the scene since model year 1997. What is sort of unusual to think about is that its arrival marked the departure of the Ford Bronco, which certainly was a dimensionally smaller vehicle than the Expedition.

Since ’97, there have been four generations, with the second gen having had a run of just three years, although it brought with it many of the characteristics that are now closely identified with the Expedition, like independent rear suspension and a third row that folded (it didn’t have to be taken out of the vehicle to increase cargo volume as previously had been the case).

Another interesting aspect of that vehicle is that the chief program engineer was John Krafcik, the man who now runs Waymo.

The third-generation vehicle had a 10-year run, model years 2007 to 2017.

But now Ford has developed the new Expedition, and this is an all new execution, and one that has is an indication that Ford knew what it was doing when it decided to learn how to go big with aluminum bodies when it created the 2015 F-150 because the new Expedition also has an aluminum skin.

In 2016, according to Autodata, Chevy sold 163,388 of its full-size SUVs, 60,082 Suburbans and 103,306 Tahoes. Ford sold 59,835 Expeditions.

It seems as though with the 2018 model, the folks in Dearborn are much, much more serious about getting a bigger piece of that space.

(It is interesting to note that like light-duty pickups, the mainstream full-size SUV is something of a Detroit phenomenon, as in 2016 Nissan delivered 14,035 Armadas and Toyota just 12,771 Sequoias.)

To learn more about the 2018 Expedition, on this edition of “Autoline After Hours” my co-host John McElroy and I sit down with both Craig Patterson, Ford Utility Marketing Manager and Todd Hoevener, Ford Expedition Chief Engineer, to get insights on how the Expedition came to be and how Ford is going to make the market aware of the vehicle, one that is highly impressive in both amenities and execution.

Then John and I are joined by industry analyst Stephanie Brinley of IHS Markit and Henry Payne, auto critic at The Detroit News, to discuss the Expedition as well as a variety of recent developments in the auto industry.

And you can see it all right here.