Ford aims to reinvent Explorer, recapture sales

Ford Motor Co is counting on a leaner and greener makeover of its Explorer to find new buyers for a once hot-selling sport utility vehicle that powered the automaker's profits a decade ago.

At the peak of the SUV boom in 2000, Ford sold 445,000 Explorers in the United States, powering an earnings juggernaut that helped to finance an expansion into luxury brands such as Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo.

Explorer sales averaged 412,000 per year from 1995 through 2003, but tumbled as consumers turned away from heavier truck-based SUVs in favor of better-handling and lighter "crossover" utility vehicles built on car frames.

U.S. sales of the Explorer dropped by more than a third in 2009 to just over 52,000.

Once a cash cow for Ford, the Explorer is now outsold by new entrants like the Chevrolet Traverse, a 3-year-old crossover from General Motors Co that offers segment-leading fuel economy.

Ford managers say they recognized that they had a problem when they set out to redesign the Explorer.

"Right now six out of 10 who own an Explorer defect to another brand," said Amy Marentic, Ford's car, crossover and SUV marketing manager. "We want to switch that around and keep all of those customers like we used to in the early to mid-1990s."

Customers are migrating from the Explorer because "the product isn't fresh," she said. "They are looking for a modern up-to-date vehicle with better fuel economy."

The new Explorer, set for production in the fourth quarter, is underpinned by a modified version of the car platform used for the Ford Taurus and Lincoln MKS. The vehicle will be built at the same assembly plant in Chicago as those sedans.