Ford Explorer: Australia's Explorer

"JonnyCab®" wrote:
 

I don't think "giving" is exactly the right word. In Australia, a basic Explorer XLT
costs $52,980 AUD, which is approximately $38,500 USD. A lot of the things you like
probably are unimportant to US buyers. I personally don't care for the repeater
lights (Australian legal requirement, but not a US requirement), or the taillights
(also an Australian requirement?), or the floor shift (for an Automatic, a floor
shift seems stupid to me). I do like the nicer mud flaps. I wonder if you could
order those for a US model as an after market part?

Ed

I am aware of the Australian requirement for repeater lights (although
Mercury is starting to use them on all of their cars). They also do NOT
require side reflectors, front or back (???), but the amber turn signals
just look too cool---and they're made by Visteon (in Ohio), right next to
the ones made for the US market. It would seem to me that maintaining ONE
set of lights and wiring harnesses would be cheaper than several, but then
I'm not a $400,000/year "cost analyst" (firing the cost analyst would be
more cost-effective ...

The Australian headlight also has an extra bulb above the high-beam, just as
a marker (probably their version of a burned-out-headlight marker). Of
course, we don't get that, either.

Personally, I don't understand why Ford chose to go back to the simple
one-bulb taillight. I don't buy the "trailer connector" argument. The
wiring for the standard trailer is already there, as it was in the older
Explorers that had amber signals.

And, although I can't tolerate even LOOKING at the last of the Oldsmobile
Bravadas (which will now live on as the butt-ugly Buick Rainier), they did
have one thing that really stood out---their taillights.

PS...in looking through the wiring manual for the 2002-up 4-door Explorer, I
found that ALL of the wiring for tri-color signals is already there, right
up to the connector (a few inches in front of the grommet behind each
taillight) for the small harness that connects to each taillight. The US
Explorers simply don't use the separate signal-only lead, or the stop-only
lead (except for the CHMSL).

So all that wiring is there for no reason? Dumb.

Oh, and since the splash guards are made by the same company that makes the
Ford factory molded splash guards, which you can buy at most Ford dealers, I
would imagine you can find the Australian ones if you looked hard enough...

>Personally, I don't understand why Ford chose to go back to the simple 

It saves two light sockets and two light bulbs per explorer. Probly $10 in
parts per vehicle. But after you make 100,000 of them it adds up. Same as how
they did away with the dual sun visors in the 2002 and up models.