The first thing I noticed about my 2004 Ford Expedition was the color scheme. The different shade of green really caught my attention. There aren't 500 other cars with the same color. The leather interior is both comfortable and functional, and has held up well over time--especially considering I have 4 kids to haul around. The six disc CD changer is a nice feature, as I can load up enough music to keep everyone happy. Behind the front seats, there are 2 rows of seats that will comfortably fit four adults. Six children fit well, but I don't recommend trying to cram a bunch of car seats/booster seats in there. I would prefer the second row be captain's chair style seats, as this would make getting into the third row easier. The rear has separate climate controls, and also features radio controls on the back of the front console. All the rear seats do fold down, so it's entirely possible to haul ten foot long lumber (loaded at an angle), and nearly anything else I've tried to shove in the back. The mechanics of the car have help up well, with only minor problems over the last 175,000 miles. Staying on top of routine maintenance has certainly extended the life of the car and prevented any major catastrophe. The 4.6 Liter engine has enough zip to get me where I need to be, but is economical enough (16.8Mpg) that I don't feel guilty for not driving a minivan. The rest of the drivetrain has been reliable as well. It still shifts as smooth as butter, doesn't bounce to badly, and feels as solid as it did 100,000 miles ago. The one weak spot seems to be the tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS). It has a reputation for failing long before the car does. Each of the wheel sensors are around $100, plus about $25 to have it installed. If you can live with a TPMS warning light on in your dash cluster, then save the money and live with it.

Overall I've been extremely happy in my Ford Expedition. It's quite large, so that took some getting used to, but the square footage on the inside and extra cargo room makes it worth it. This vehicle is huge. It has three rows. The back one folds down completely to allow for extra cargo space. With the back row of this vehicle you can seat 9 people, so it's great for larger families. However the middle seat is a bench seat rather than bucket seats so that makes it very hard to utilize the backseat and for children to get in and out without climbing all over the middle seat. This is particularly inconvenient on rainy days, when muddy outside. The alternative is to lay down the middle section of the middle seat, creating bucket seats out of that bench. However, that reduces the start pace as well as allows for walking on the back of that seat which causes damage. So I feel this vehicle would've been better if there were a gap between the second row seats and the door, allowing a person to slip into he last row easily. The worst features are the terrible blind spots that are created by the large bars across the dashboard window. You can easily hide an entire person walking on the street, a crosswalk, on a sidewalk or even a car inside of that blind spot. Additionally there are blind spots behind you that the side mirrors don't offer a clear view of. I corrected this problem by getting spot mirrors to place on top of the ones that came on the vehicle and have had much better luck with this problem. The absolute best feature of this vehicle is the ability for the seats to be removed completely for each access underneath. Anyone with children knows how terribly dirty a car vehicle can get, and the bigger the car... the messier it gets. With other cars/trucks it can be a challenge to get all the way under the seat to clean out and vacuum it. But this vehicle offers the ability to simply remove the seats and vacuum the entire back. That keeps the car clean and the resell value up through the years.