A prototype of the mother of all sport-utility vehicles, the new Ford Excursion, paid Utah a preview visit this month, and given the high interest in really big off-roaders locally, it should be a smash hit when it debuts this fall as a 2000 model.
Ford Motor Co. released its suggested retail prices for the nine-passenger vehicle this week, and much to the delight of eager wannabe owners, the sticker shock is thousands lower than what many industry analysts were predicting.The base model will start at $34,135 for an XLT version with standard two-wheel-drive and a 5.4 liter V8 engine. It will range up to $41,915 for a loaded Limited model with four-wheel-drive and a lusty 6.8 liter V10 engine. A 7.3 liter diesel V8 will be an optional powerplant.
Several Utah Ford dealers said customer interest has been high in the new vehicle although they are not yet taking orders.
Bob Olson, sales manager for Crandall Ford in Park City, said the Excursion will be a big hit in his upscale market area. Although the SUV isn't slated to debut until fall, he said he expects to have his first shipment in August, well before the scheduled introduction date.
Dave Scott, a sales consultant for the Ford Authorized Dealers group based in Bountiful, said the smaller (but not small) Expedition remains very popular, but people have been asking questions about the Excursion. He said orders will not be taken until the dealers have received firm pricing information.
Excursion's vital statistics make it 19 feet long, 6 1/2 feet wide, nearly 7 feet tall and weighing in at more than four tons. The V10's fuel economy -- if that's the right phrase -- is a thirsty 10 mpg and even lower if the vehicle is asked to tow a boat or trailer. It will NEED its capacious 44-gallon fuel tank.
Although the Excursion will be the biggest SUV on the market when it begins hitting showrooms in September, it is not a quantum leap larger than Ford's Expedition or Chevrolet's venerable Suburban, which is about a foot shorter. "Normal" garages probably won't accommodate its bus-like proportions.
And for those reasons, the 3 1/2-ton vehicle has quickly become a symbol of Detroit excess for environmentalists, even before the first one is sold. The Sierra Club ran a contest to give the 19-foot, fuel-gulping sport-ute a name. The winning entry was "Ford Valdez;. Have you driven a tanker lately?" -- a sly takeoff of the oil-spilling Exxon Valdez and one of Ford's best-known ad slogans.
Other entries included: "Fordasaurus" and "Ford Saddam, the truck that will put America between Iraq and a hard place."
The dustup is said to be making FoMoCo chairman William Clay Ford Jr. uncomfortable but apparently not enough to kill the project. When he took the helm last September of the company founded by his great-grandfather, he professed to be a "green" himself and vowed to make his company the world's most "environmentally friendly" automaker.
General Motors is not wasting time gloating over Ford's discomfiture. It is currently redesigning the Suburban and its sibling, the GMC Yukon XL, to meet the new competition in a market niche that for years it had to itself. GM prices have not yet been announced.