2008 Ford Explorer Sport Trac (continued)
Walkaround
The 2008 Explorer Sport Trac looks very much like the 2008 Explorer. From just behind the front doors forward, it shares its design with the current Explorer. This is part of Ford's plan to push brand identity, and why the fronts of Ford's light-duty trucks, be they pickups or SUVs, wear many of the same design features. Common features with the Explorer include the chrome-framed grille, bumper centerpiece, lower air intake, wraparound body-color lower fascia above the blacked-out front air dam, and the signature geometric housings for the compound headlights/running lights.
The 2008 Sport Trac is considerably longer than the Explorer. Wheelbase (distance between the tires front to rear) and overall length (bumper to bumper) are both almost 17 inches longer. Thus, while the Explorer is the more people-oriented of the two, the Sport Trac's longer wheelbase promises a less choppy, more controlled ride. Curious. The Dodge Dakota Quad Cab is the only other midsize pickup to exceed the Sport Trac in wheelbase and overall length, and by less than an inch in wheelbase. Of the remaining four-door, short-bed, midsize pickups, the Chevrolet Colorado, the Honda Ridgeline, the Nissan Frontier and the Toyota Tacoma measure between three and four inches shorter overall. The Sport Trac's bed is 4.5 feet long, the rest around 5 feet.
From the rear, the Sport Trac looks like a Ford pickup. One distinctive aspect is that the sides of the bed and the tailgate rise as much as three inches higher than is the norm in the segment. While this increases the space enclosed by the bed, it definitely makes hefting boxes and bags up and over into the bed more of a strain, a painful trait it shares with the Honda Ridgeline. By making the Sport Trac look taller, it also raises the Sport Trac's visual center of gravity, although the wider body and wider track help to reduce this impression.
Interior Features
Inside, the 2008 Ford Explorer Sport Trac looks a lot like the Explorer cabin. Not that it lacks anything by way of necessities or has been saddled with an abbreviated option list, but there's more borrowed than new. The Sport Trac shares virtually all of its interior, from trim to seat frames, with the Explorer.
The instruments are simple and easy to scan. The fuel and coolant gauges are tucked away in the lower, outer quadrants of the tachometer and speedometer; they could be larger and located closer to the driver's line of sight. The center stack is packed with functions but it's intuitively organized, with readily deciphered controls and displays. However, we'd prefer a tuning knob for the radio instead of the Sport Trac's slow scanning rocker switch.
The optional navigation system pushes the audio controls to the side and either gangs some functions or transfers them to the LCD screen, and it's a clean look. The only real concern here is with the number of components making up the dash assembly. The fewer the components the better, generally speaking, to reduce the number of squeaks as the miles pile up, and the Sport Trac's dash has one of the highest counts we've seen.
The seats are comfortable, though the bottom cushions front and rear could provide more thigh support. Foot clearance in the rear doorways when climbing in and out is cramped, but once inside, there's decent area beneath the front seats. All five seating positions get three-point seatbelts, but only the front seats and the outboard rear seats get the adjustable full-size head restraints. Comparatively speaking, the Sport Trac's interior lands squarely in the middle of the segment. The Nissan Frontier and Toyota Tacoma have a few tenths of an inch more front-seat headroom, the Honda Ridgeline almost an inch. The Frontier and the Ridgeline are tops in rear-seat headroom, but by only tenths of an inch. The Chevy Colorado has an inch and a half more front-seat legroom but almost two inches less rear-seat legroom. The Ridgeline wins in hiproom, by about two inches front and rear, the Frontier offers fully two and a half inches more rear-seat hiproom, and the Dakota squeaks in with a half-inch more hiproom all around. Bottom line, Sport Trac interior roominess is comparable to that of midsize crew cab pickups.
The Sport Trac's door panels, borrowed from the Explorer, aren't so good. While certain elements are reasonably ergonomic, the placement of the door handles is a prime example of logic gone wrong. Intended to improve occupant protection in side impact crashes by adding crush space, the placement of the door pull below and forward of the armrest puts it where it's awkward to grab hold of and operate. Some passengers don't have an issue with it, however, and we grew accustomed to it with a little familiarity, but the interior door handles are our main gripe with the interior.
Storage is about what's to be expected. The glove box is adequate. The front center console hosts two cupholders adjacent to the shift gate. Two more cupholders for the rear seat fit behind the front center console's hinged, padded top. The center console is big and deep. The front door map pockets have a space for a water bottle molded into their hard plastic enclosures.
Back in the bed, a shallow, covered bin running the width of the floor is placed inconveniently all the way forward and thus out of reach from the tailgate. A small, covered bin is also recessed into the floor at each side behind the wheelhouses. Both types of bins are good ideas, but they hold very little and aren't on a par with the Ridgeline's lockable, 8.5 cubic-foot trunk in the bed floor aft of the wheel housings. On the other hand, with the Sport Trac's optional two-piece, lockable, hard tonneau cover in place, the enclosed volume of the cargo bed measures 37.5 cubic feet. Depending on how the truck was going to be us
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