The First Mass-Market SUV

Back in the late 1980s, Ford had a fine idea. This idea took the form of the first mass-market SUV, which it called Explorer. Previously, there were what people called 4x4s – usually said out loud as four-by-fours – which were basically trucks with a camper-style shell over the bed. The Ford Bronco – the one OJ drove, also in the ’90s – was an example of a 4×4. Also the Bronco II, which was a smaller iteration of the same thing that preceded the Explorer.

It was probably the success of the Bronco II – which Ford began selling in 1984 – that gave Ford the idea to create the larger but similar Explorer, which debuted in 1991. The Bronco II’s last year was the year prior, so the Explorer can be seen as the Bronco’s replacement. Both were built off the same underlying platform that was used to make the Ranger pickup – which eventually led to a huge debacle for the Explorer (and Ford) in the late ’90s that wasn’t arguably so much the Explorer’s fault as the fault of it being the first mass-produced 4×4.

Prior to the Explorer, 4x4s were niche market vehicles – as muscle cars were – in that relatively few people bought them and most of those who did understood them. More finely, they were aware of their particular capabilities and their particular weaknesses, which were the trade-off you accepted as the price of having the particular capabilities. In the case of muscle cars, you accepted that they were not the hot ticket for snow days; that they got terrible gas mileage and that they were louder than other cars and less forgiving of mistakes or of drivers who lacked the experience, skill and judgment to keep them under control. If, for example, you were someone who did not know how to deal with a vehicle that had an engine so powerful it could be steered with the rear wheels, you were someone who was likely to get in over his head in one of the things.

The early SUVs – which were 4x4s, despite the change in marketing nomenclature – were exactly similar in this respect. They were boxed-over trucks and had truck-like suspensions and truck-like higher centers of gravity. This made them more rugged and able to be driven on roads that would impale or otherwise cripple a car that tried to go there. 4×4/SUVs were also much better on snow-covered roads than cars, both because of the additional ground clearance and the four-wheel-drive. Back in the late 1980s and early ’90s, most cars were two-wheel-drive, meaning they were either front-wheel-drive or rear-wheel-drive. The current near-ubiquity of all-wheel-drive was highly unusual back in the late 1980s and early ’90s.

When it came out back in 1991, the Explorer also had room – for both people and for cargo. Remember: This was a decade before the crossover – which is shaped to look like an SUV and has the interior space and configurability of an SUV – began to appear as a mass-market vehicle. Back in the early ’90s, most cars were smallish  – a consequence of the downsizing trend that began in the mid-late ’70s as a result of federal regulatory pressure to make cars more fuel-efficient, whether people wanted that being immaterial. The SUV was the answer – for many people who wanted a spacious car that could also pull a trailer if the need arose. The snow-day capability was a huge part of the sell, too. Not so much the off-roading capability except in so far as the image – and of course, that sells also.

You can perhaps see where this is headed. More finely, where it went.

There were a lot of people who bought first-generation Explorers who had no idea what a 4×4 – or an SUV – was, except in terms of the marketing. They did not know that 4x4s (and early SUVs) were much easier to lose control of in the curves or at high speed, when subjected to sudden and aggressive steering/braking inputs. This being a consequence of their higher center of mass – which made them inherently more tipsy. Most also had truck-like, suspension system -including leaf springs in the rear and a solid (or non-independent) rear axle. People who knew 4x4s knew better than to drive them as if they were spoirts cars, at high speeds – especially in the curves. They knew that their handling was more of a handful. Like any tool made to do a specific thing, 4x4s were not very good at tasks they ghad not been designed to be good at.

Well, what happened was some people drove those early Explorers just they drove their cars – at high speeds and in the Explorer’s case, on marginal Firestone tires that were often low on air, because the owner forgot to check and make sure they weren’t low. And they were also just low, even if they were full – in that the specified a tire pressure number was designed to help soften the Explorer’s ride – because most of the people who bought one expected it to ride like a car rather than a 4×4.

Combine the high speed and the low/underinflated-some-more inflation pressure and you get friction, which builds heat and – as happened  number of times – a sudden, catastrophic tire failure. When that happened, the Explorer became instantly unstable and – sometimes – uncontrollable. There were barrel-rolls and deaths at the end of them. Firestone got most of the blame but Ford got its share and we all got mandatory tire pressure monitoring systems (that seem to never work).

The Explorer was converted into a crossover for the 2011 model year. It still looked like an SUV but it was now based on underthings more like those of front-wheel-drive cars. This was a better set-up for people who didn’t really understand what a 4×4 SUV is but want something that looks like one.

Then – in 2020 – it became an SUV again, completing the circle. Only this time, it was an SUV that could be safely mass-marketed because it wasn’t dangerous in the hands of people who didn’t know about SUVs. Well, it could be dangerous. Anything can be – in the hands of a fool or a maniac. But the new Explorer could be driven as if it were a car – or a crossover – because it didn’t require any special skill, knowledge or judgment to drive it safely.

The same is true of most other modern SUVs, too.

On the downside, it seems as though – looks as though – everyone is driving one now. Or one that looks like one (i.e., a crossover). Which makes it almost strange to drive a car – assuming you can find one to buy.

There aren’t many of them around anymore.

This is a measure of thew original Explorer’s success – but it is also measure of the consequences of federal regulations. If it weren’t for the latter, in particular, Corporate Average Fuel Economy regulations, it is probable most people would still be buying and driving cars – because there would still be mass-market cars with plenty of room for people and stuff in the trunk that could also pull a trailer because they’d still have V8s and would still be affordable in that configuration. Instead, we’ve got all these SUVs, 4x4s and crossovers made to look like the latter.

You can thank the federal government for that.

. . .

If you like what you’ve found here please consider supporting EPautos.