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Seeing that Mux nor Skeet own an Expedition I thought I should give you some first hand experience. I bought my (new) 1999 Expedition 4x4, 5.4L, in Oct. 1998, trading my 1996 Explorer V8, 2WD because it was too light to tow my Lund ProV, and it wasn’t a 4 x4. The Exp is just the right size for towing heavier boats, especially my current Triton TR21 with a 225. Skeet hinted at front end problems and he is correct, I’ve replaced the ball joints at 100K and just now replaced all 4 tie rod ends at 148K. The new parts are after market and of better quality so I should be good for the life of the vehicle. Total cost was $150 for the ball joints and $400 for the tie rod ends. I don’t know what Skeet means by “big time front end problems” other than this is an issue affecting all Expeditions, F150, F250 and Navigators from 1997 to 2002, but after replacing the defective parts all is OK. Perhaps he means that this is a safety issue and he is correct, Marketplace recently did a program on this and the Ford Co. came out looking like jerks. The APA are launching a class action suit against Ford claiming that there should have been a recall. As far as being hard on fuel, I would ask: “as compared to what?”. My mileage is approx. 18 to 20 mpg highway, 14 to 16 mpg towing. If he’s comparing this to a 6 cylinder Astrovan then I would say he is comparing apples to oranges. The Exp is a big, heavy vehicle so one has to expect more fuel usage, comparable to a Suburban and the Z71. The F150 gets better mileage and I would guess it would be like the Sierra, same class trucks.
Another point that I would like to make is that Ford replaced the engine in my Exp at 55K, under warranty. It developed a knock in cold starts and it was diagnosed as ‘piston slap’. No problems with the engine since. A friend of mine owns a 2002 Sierra with the same knocking symptoms and GM says: “tough, live with it”! Another friend who owns a machine shop and engine rebuilding company says ‘piston slap’ will cause the engine to fail prematurely.
Soooooo, should you buy the used Exp? Hey, it’s a crap shoot and the same goes for any north american made vehicle .... there are all junk. Toyota and Nissan are, IMHO, much better vehicles. If only they could learn how to improve the styling, their trucks look like ordinary steel boxes
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