SUVs: Thinking about a "new" Ford Excursion (2002-2005)

Brigala

CPST Instructor
So, I'm looking for opinions.

We have decided we want a Diesel rig for towing. We've been mostly looking at Crew Cab Silverados & Sierras, but I hate giving up the passenger flexibility of our Suburban (Suburbans haven't been produced in a diesel for 15 years or so).

Our core family includes:

Me, Husband, 4 year old daughter, new baby coming up, and one of my adult kids who will probably be living at home for a few more years (he's decided to take us up on our offer to feed and house him through college to cut down on the cost of higher education). We can fit all of us in a Sierra or Silverado crew cab just fine.

But... we also have lots of "extended" family it would be nice to be able to transport together. We have another college-age son who does not live at home, my husband has two grand-kids (ages 2 and 8), and a myriad of other teen and young adult family members we do stuff with.

So, we started looking at Excursions, and I was disappointed to see that the entire 3rd row has NO head restraints at all. :(

In the short term, the youngest kids who can be in car seats can go in the 3rd row when we need to transport additional family members, but eventually even little kids grow up and need to move into backless boosters and seat belts.

Reality is that we really don't need to tow AND haul lots of people at the same time, so one option is to get a mini-van or a lighter-weight (i.e. better on gas) Suburban to be our family passenger vehicle, but I'd rather have one vehicle that can double as both our people-hauler AND our vacation boat-and-RV-hauler. That way I can get something smaller and more economical for day-to-day use. Maybe a Tahoe Hybrid would be a good compromise for the daily-driver. We are going to be moving onto a gravel road and may need to become an all-truck family because that road tends to eat up sedans like candy. Boy I'm going to miss my Civic. (sigh)

Thoughts? Help me work this out in my head.
 
ADS

SafeDad

CPSDarren - Admin
Staff member
Ram 1500 with the 3.0L EcoDiesel? 9200 lb towing and 28mpg highway.

The 2500 has the 6.7L Cummins turbo diesel available. You might need your own gas station though!

How 'bout an XV Crosstrek to replace the Civic:)
 

Brigala

CPST Instructor
Ram 1500 with the 3.0L EcoDiesel? 9200 lb towing and 28mpg highway.

The 2500 has the 6.7L Cummins turbo diesel available. You might need your own gas station though!

How 'bout an XV Crosstrek to replace the Civic:)

My husband refuses to own a Dodge. The Ford is distasteful enough. He's a Chevy man. LOL.

I've never heard of the XV Crosstrek. I'll have to look it up. Why do you suggest it?
 

SafeDad

CPSDarren - Admin
Staff member
The Crosstrek is the SUV version of the Subaru Impreza sedan. High ground clearance and AWD on a compact car.

I guess that rules out the current gen Dodge Durango too! It's a pretty nice midsize SUV with some good towing capability.

I missed that you were looking at something 10 years old though so none of these would probably work.

Is 5,000 towing too little? If not, maybe a 2007ish GMC Acadia or Saturn Outlook?
 

Brigala

CPST Instructor
The Crosstrek is the SUV version of the Subaru Impreza sedan. High ground clearance and AWD on a compact car.

I guess that rules out the current gen Dodge Durango too! It's a pretty nice midsize SUV with some good towing capability.

I missed that you were looking at something 10 years old though so none of these would probably work.

Is 5,000 towing too little? If not, maybe an early Chevrolet Traverse?

For reference, our 2000 gas-powered Suburban 2500 doesn't have quite enough towing power or we wouldn't be thinking of "upgrading." So the Traverse is definitely not in the cards.

He needs to be able to tow a hefty sailboat (I think the keel alone weighs more than a ton), our Toy Hauler, a couple tons of hay, or a full-sized tractor.

Does the Durango come in a diesel?
 

Brigala

CPST Instructor
No, the Hybrid would be MY car. :D I would like to be able to tow our little sheep trailer with it but nothing serious. I don't think that trailer weighs more than 1,000 fully loaded with livestock (we raise miniature sheep; the trailer is actually a modified greyhound-hauling trailer and is little).

That option would probably include a Silverado or Sierra 2500 or 3500 Duramax, and the Tahoe would replace the Civic and give us the passenger capacity that we'd be missing out on with a pickup truck.
 

bubbaray

New member
Dodge definitely makes THE best diesels. He should research that because hands down for diesels, dodge is the way to go. For gas, it's just personal taste.
 

Brigala

CPST Instructor
No particular thoughts on the 3rd row in the Expedition?

I'm just trying to decide how critical that is for our family since we wouldn't be using the 3rd row often, and for probably at least the next 3-4 years shouldn't have any trouble shifting kids around to make sure all the adults in the vehicle have head support.

How hard is it to fit a rear-facing seat in the 3rd row? Is it nearly impossible like it is in the Suburban?
 

DawgDad

New member
What's the budget? A Tahoe Hybrid is not cheap and the gas on these big SUVs will eat you up. I could see you getting a good Subaru for the everyday offroad needs and a Truck for your once in a while hauling. It's nice to have the option to haul the extra people around, but for me personally, I rather concentrate my purchases on my immediate needs first. If you have a full cab truck (preferably Ford since they make the best trucks :D ), and the smaller SUV for everyday, you could still haul extended family in the two vehicles and get better fuel economy average between the two vehicles than you would ANY day owning an Excursion for your everyday & towing needs.
 

TXAggieTech

Active member
Unless you have a lot of littles in seats I would avoid the excursion. We had one and loved it but it only seats 4 people safely not in car seats. 2nd row center seat is lap belt only.
 

Jackie010307

New member
I would consider how old your older kids will be and how often they will be going with you when your little ones are out of seats and can't use the 3rd row of the excursion. With the requirements of diesel, towing capacity, seating capacity, and not a dodge your options are somewhat limited. I would also keep in mind that if you get 2 vehicles you then have 2 payments unless you buy both outright, and maintenance on both. Depending on the age and reliability of the vehicles this could quickly do away with any gas savings of a smaller everyday car.
 

Brigala

CPST Instructor
What's the budget? A Tahoe Hybrid is not cheap and the gas on these big SUVs will eat you up. I could see you getting a good Subaru for the everyday offroad needs and a Truck for your once in a while hauling. It's nice to have the option to haul the extra people around, but for me personally, I rather concentrate my purchases on my immediate needs first. If you have a full cab truck (preferably Ford since they make the best trucks :D ), and the smaller SUV for everyday, you could still haul extended family in the two vehicles and get better fuel economy average between the two vehicles than you would ANY day owning an Excursion for your everyday & towing needs.

The budget is kinda-sorta flexible but we don't want to spend a ton. We were looking at trucks in the $25k range, understanding we're going to have to replace the Civic with something a little more off-road friendly as well.

Basically we really need something for every-day driving that in the short run will hold 3 adults and 2 children in car seats. Later, by the time my daughter is too big for a HBB, that will likely just be 2 adults and 2 kids; I expect my son will have graduated from college by then and even if he hasn't at least he'll be driving his own car (he does not yet drive). For *occasional* use we need something with serious towing capacity and we also need something that will haul a bunch of people. Neither of those needs are frequent, so it would make sense to us for that to be the same vehicle; otherwise I'm going to have to go for a less-economical 3-row something-or-other for my daily driver and that isn't an ideal situation but we can make it work.

I hate giving up the option of a people-mover because we are just moving back into "those years" again. I would rather be the one driving my kids and their friends around than trust someone else to do that. We used our Suburban a LOT when the boys were in Scouts, and we're only a couple of years away from starting that up again with some kind of Girl Scouts / Campfire / Something. And actually, our old, lighter-weight Suburban wasn't as bad on gas as you might think; we got around 17-19 mpg with it, which is horrible compared to the 33-35mpg I get in my Civic but is comparable with everything else I've seen that I think will be able to handle the rough road we will be living on.

Unless you have a lot of littles in seats I would avoid the excursion. We had one and loved it but it only seats 4 people safely not in car seats. 2nd row center seat is lap belt only.

I don't have a *lot* of littles in seats, but for the next ~4 years I should have one in either a HWH or HBB and one RF; after that I'll still have one in a seat. If I can put the two littles in the 3rd row that gives me room for two adults in the 2nd row, with a little space left over for other small children. I'm just not positive whether that 3rd row is useful enough to choose the Excursion over a pickup, is all. Obviously with a pickup we have even less passenger flexibility.

I would consider how old your older kids will be and how often they will be going with you when your little ones are out of seats and can't use the 3rd row of the excursion. With the requirements of diesel, towing capacity, seating capacity, and not a dodge your options are somewhat limited. I would also keep in mind that if you get 2 vehicles you then have 2 payments unless you buy both outright, and maintenance on both. Depending on the age and reliability of the vehicles this could quickly do away with any gas savings of a smaller everyday car.

If there were a diesel Dodge SUV that would meet our needs I might be able to talk my husband into at least looking at it. But I don't think there is one, is there? So if we went that route we're still looking at a pickup, and we're pretty happy with the Silverado/Sierra lineup if we go that route.

I've also considered a Diesel Chevy Express, but I can't find one that's set up as a passenger van instead of a cargo van. I understand they have been made but I've scoured Craigslist all up and down the west coast and haven't seen a single one at any price.

I love my Civic but I just don't think it's going to survive driving up and down the road we'll be on. It's extremely bumpy.

What is the most fuel-efficient vehicle you can get that will at least hold 2 adults and 2 kids and is good for off-road use? I'm totally open to suggestions on that one.

Right now we have no car payments so the idea of taking on 2 payments isn't very attractive, but when we move our mortgage will be cut in about half so that should make up for it.
 

T4K

Well-known member
What about a used Expedition XL for towing and occasional people moving and then a Jeep Wrangler Unlimited? Ok ok, it's not fuel efficient. :p But it can hold 5 people easily and my combined gas mileage in the sport model was 16-17. So not terrible.
 

Brigala

CPST Instructor
I think if I'm going to go down to 16-17 mpg for my regular driver, I will probably pick up a Tahoe or a lighter-duty Suburban 1500. That's a little worse than what our old Suburban got. Our current one gets about 12-13 (less when towing, of course) because it has a different gear ratio and is set up for towing heavy stuff.

And if I do that, I'll have the people space I need and can get a pickup for towing.

Anybody know how durable a Suzuki Grand Vitara is for living on a rough road? It's about half a mile of gravel which ranges from "rough" to "very rough" depending on how long it's been since its last maintenance. Up a hill, if that matters.
 

sirrahn

Active member
What is the most fuel-efficient vehicle you can get that will at least hold 2 adults and 2 kids and is good for off-road use? I'm totally open to suggestions on that one....

Not sure if it meets all your requirements, but first thing that popped into my head for that question was a Subaru Forester. DD1's best friend's family drives one and seems to be very happy with it.
 

Brigala

CPST Instructor
Not sure if it meets all your requirements, but first thing that popped into my head for that question was a Subaru Forester. DD1's best friend's family drives one and seems to be very happy with it.
My mom drives a Forester and other than the fact that I simply hate it, her road has chewed it up and spit it out. It still runs but I think everything inside has jostled loose from the bumpiness. It is my parents' house we will be buying. My dad's Suburban, by contrast, has held up really well. Other than the fact that my dad keeps bumping into things, anyway. The only problem his truck has is stuff he's done to mistreat or neglect it. My mom's car is just coming apart at the seams. The Forester has held up worse than the Sentra she used to drive.
 

sirrahn

Active member
My mom drives a Forester and other than the fact that I simply hate it, her road has chewed it up and spit it out. It still runs but I think everything inside has jostled loose from the bumpiness. It is my parents' house we will be buying. My dad's Suburban, by contrast, has held up really well. Other than the fact that my dad keeps bumping into things, anyway. The only problem his truck has is stuff he's done to mistreat or neglect it. My mom's car is just coming apart at the seams. The Forester has held up worse than the Sentra she used to drive.

Interesting. My only "personal" experience with Subarus is with my brother's WRX. It's like 13 yrs old now. He hasn't babied it at all, and it just won't die :p
 

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