My experience with our Ford Explorer has been a pretty good one. To be honest, I'm not much of a Ford fan, but it was my wife's truck when we got married and it became our daily driver. We could do with a little better gas mileage out of it. Around town we usually get between 14-15 miles per gallon. On the highway, we usually get closer to 17-18. We have one of the 6 cylinder models and for the most part it has plenty of pep. The electronic shifting controls lag a little bit when you have to shift down more than 1 gear though. When getting on the freeway in a short distance, it can feel like the truck isn't moving when it's shifting, then it knocks you back into your seat once it hits the gear it's looking for. The 4wd works great. We regularly go up to Lake Tahoe to visit my wife's parents and we use the 4wd a lot in the snow. Never needed chains, but we always carry them just in case. Overall, it's a great little truck.

One of the things I like about this car is that it's not too big or not too small. I feel it has a good amount of trunk space. Being a massage therapist, I can safely say that a standard-sized massage table fits inside quite nicely. I've never had a car with a rear windshield wiper, so having one in this car is pretty nice. I've had this car for 10 years, and it hasn't needed any major maintenance.