2002 Ford Excursion - Consumer Guide Automotive

Category	XLT 2WD, V10 Rating (See All Ratings)	Large Sport-utility Vehicle Average Rating

Acceleration	3	3.9

Fuel Economy	1	2.1

Ride Quality	3	4.8

Steering/Handling/Braking	2	2.7

Quietness	3	5.2

Controls	6	6.5

Room/Comfort/Driver Seating (front)	9	8.5

Room/Comfort (rear)	9	8.3

Cargo Room	9	8.8

Value within Class	3	6

Total Score:	48	56.8

Ratings: Maximum 10 points per category

2002 FORD EXCURSION BUYING RESOURCES

Trade-In Calculator

Sell Your Car

2002 Ford Excursion Review

Power-adjustable brake and throttle pedals highlight changes to the 2002 version of the largest SUV sold in America. Excursion is 7.4 inches longer than Chevrolet Suburban, 6 inches taller, and 2000 lb heavier. It seats up to nine and offers rear-wheel drive or 4WD that must be disengaged on dry pavement but includes low-range gearing. A V8 is the base engine. A V10 and a turbodiesel V8 are also available. Antilock 4-wheel disc brakes are standard. Side airbags aren't offered. An available rear-obstacle-warning system sounds an alert of objects when backing up. The optional rear video-entertainment system has wireless headphones and a DVD player, which replaced a VCR at midyear. A 6-disc in-dash CD player is also optional. The power adjustable pedals move fore and aft a few inches via a dashboard control. They're optional on XLT and XLT Premium models, standard on Limited and Limited Ultimate models; on Ultimate, they come with a seat-and-pedal memory feature. Excursion can tow up to 11,000 lb.

Competition

Though this segment has cooled somewhat with the rise in fuel prices, it's still one of the hottest. Our Best Buys are the Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban.

Recommended are the Ford Expedition and GMC Yukon. For a few more bucks you can get the Toyota Land Cruiser. Its high price is the only thing holding back this refined and drivable SUV. We love the size, comfort, and power of these big SUVs but wish they got a few more miles per gallon.

News

Launched as an early 2000 entry, the Godzilla of SUVs managed over 69,000 sales in its extra-long first season, but has been sliding since, with deliveries dropping nearly 34 percent in the first nine months of 2001. Likely factors include stronger competition from GM's recently redesigned full-size SUVs, sharp gasoline price jumps in some areas last summer, and perhaps the growing perception that Excursion is simply more SUV than most people need.

A redesigned Excursion was expected for 2005 or '06, but that's no longer certain. Motown moles say Ford is considering a stretched-wheelbase version of the revamped Expedition that's due sometime next year as an early 2003 model. If that goes through, Excursion won't make good business sense anymore, which implies that it would eventually be dropped.

2002 Ford Excursion Road Test >

Car Buying Resources