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Exploring Power and Luxury: Ford Explorer and the Land Rover Defender 110! · In Wheel Time Podcast

• 0:15
  Don Armstrong: Time now for this hour's car review.
• 0:16
  Don Armstrong: Had the 2025 Ford Explorer.
• 0:20
  Don Armstrong: It's available in the Active, the ST line, the Platinum and the ST.
• 0:26
  Don Armstrong: I had the ST four-wheel drive.
• 0:28
  Don Armstrong: This is a midsize SUV.
• 0:30
  Don Armstrong: It is no longer body on frame.
• 0:32
  Don Armstrong: When I was doing the research I thought what?
• 0:34
  Don Armstrong: When did that happen?
• 0:35
  Don Armstrong: It's now a unibody three rows of seating with six seats inside.
• 0:40
  Don Armstrong: It was all new in 2020.
• 0:43
  Don Armstrong: It does get a facelift this year all new for 2025.
• 0:49
  Don Armstrong: Exterior features sharp looking restyled grille and lighting up front.
• 0:53
  Don Armstrong: St is the sportiest of the four trim levels Black plastic wheel.
• 0:59
  Don Armstrong: Well, opening moldings in that Forward-raked C-pillar gives the SUV a sportier appearance than most others in this class.
• 1:11
  Don Armstrong: New rear lighting and quad exhaust enhances the overall look.
• 1:15
  Don Armstrong: What I liked about it?
• 1:16
  Don Armstrong: The modern yet conservative styling.
• 1:18
  Don Armstrong: This is a Ford and you can tell it's a Ford.
• 1:21
  Don Armstrong: I think you'll like it.
• 1:22
  Don Armstrong: What could use improvement?
• 1:23
  Don Armstrong: In my mind, nothing.
• 1:24
  Don Armstrong: Interior highlights All.
• 1:27
  Don Armstrong: New interior has enhanced the usability in my mind.
• 1:30
  Don Armstrong: Dash has two screens now one for instruments, one for the infotainment system with the new Google-based system running it.
• 1:40
  Don Armstrong: Comfortable, supportive seating with awesome new coverings, dual phone holders above the center console on the dash.
• 1:49
  Don Armstrong: That was unique and I really did like that.
• 1:52
  Don Armstrong: One of them was the charger and the other one is the holder.
• 1:56
  Don Armstrong: Mama's got.
• 1:56
  Don Armstrong: Just I want to hold my own phone, Okay.
• 1:59
  Don Armstrong: Well, if you want to put it down, there's a place for you.
• 2:00
  Don Armstrong: What I liked about it the optional 13.2-inch infotainment screen.
• 2:06
  Don Armstrong: Get it, I'll tell you that it's huge.
• 2:10
  Don Armstrong: It's Tesla-like inside Wow Secret compartment in the in-floor cargo area so you can hide stuff.
• 2:17
  Don Armstrong: And I know, Jeff, you've got lots of stuff you need to hide.
• 2:20
  Michael Marrs: I've got a lot of skilletons I need to hide.
• 2:22
  Don Armstrong: Three-liter EcoBoost V6.
• 2:24
  Don Armstrong: The base is 300 horsepower, ecoboost 4.
• 2:27
  Don Armstrong: This one has 400 horsepower, 415 pound-feet of torque, 10-speed automatic transmission.
• 2:32
  Don Armstrong: It'll tow up to 5,600 pounds.
• 2:34
  Don Armstrong: 18 miles per gallon, city, 24 on the highway, for a combined of 20.
• 2:38
  Don Armstrong: I got 21.1 miles per gallon over 382.3 miles.
• 2:43
  Don Armstrong: Plenty of power for towing and people riding.
• 2:47
  Don Armstrong: Handling well.
• 2:48
  Don Armstrong: I liked its ruggedness.
• 2:50
  Don Armstrong: I like the rugged feel of this.
• 2:52
  Don Armstrong: It isn't a wallowy suv.
• 2:55
  Don Armstrong: Base trim price 57.1.
• 2:57
  Don Armstrong: I had a pre-production model, so the approximate test price is about sixty thousand dollars.
• 3:05
  Don Armstrong: Base model price 39 755 is what you can get into one for.
• 3:11
  Don Armstrong: Competitors include the acura rdx 44 7, the mazda cx 90 for 37 845 and the kia telluride for 38 000.
• 3:21
  Don Armstrong: That's because they don't have one this year.
• 3:25
  Don Armstrong: It's priced that I could find Interesting and that is my review of the 2025 Ford Explorer.
• 3:36
  Don Armstrong: Thank you very much, you're welcome.
• 3:37
  Don Armstrong: We'll be right back Time.
• 4:16
  Don Armstrong: Now for this hour's car review.
• 4:17
  Don Armstrong: Mr Mars has the Land Rover Defender.
• 4:20
  Don Armstrong: How was it, mike?
• 4:21
  Michael Marrs: I have to tell you I was pleasantly surprised after a little while.
• 4:28
  Don Armstrong: It's got a lot of.
• 4:29
  Michael Marrs: English touches to it and I'll try and point them out as we kind of go through this.
• 4:32
  Michael Marrs: This is definitely catered to the English market, but they're sending them into the US.
• 4:38
  Michael Marrs: So it's a 2024 Land Rover Defender 110.
• 4:42
  Michael Marrs: Now, actual 17 models of this vehicle.
• 4:46
  Michael Marrs: There's five different trims it's an SSE, x-dynamic, sex and a V8 engine.
• 4:51
  Michael Marrs: Now we had the Defender 110.
• 4:54
  Michael Marrs: And so this is actually a off-road luxury SUV, if you want to go that away with it.
• 5:01
  Michael Marrs: And the difference between the difference on the 110, the Defender 90 is a two-door, the 110 is the four-door that we're driving and then the 130 is an extended four-door, an extended 110.
• 5:12
  Michael Marrs: You're going to find it comes with the LED lighting, which has got the automatic high beams on it, rain-sensing front and rear wipers on it, got heated power-folding side mirrors with approach lights on them, had the black roof rails with a matching black trim on this particular vehicle Panoramic roof.
• 5:27
  Michael Marrs: You want to get outside, you're going to get off road, you want to see everything and we're rolling on some optional 20 inch dark gray wheels.
• 5:34
  Michael Marrs: Now you get inside, you're going to find some grain leather seating, because this is a luxury off-road suv, particularly in the x dynamic, specific interior with details that are specific to that vehicle.
• 5:45
  Michael Marrs: We had the heated and vented front seats.
• 5:48
  Michael Marrs: We had the side view uh cameras that were set off into the mirrors, so it makes it a lot easier whenever you're getting ready to change lanes.
• 5:54
  Michael Marrs: You can see a whole lot better that's cool the rear seat is a 40, 20, 40 that will fold down and, uh, it's got some dual purpose controls in it that were kind of awkward to figure out.
• 6:06
  Michael Marrs: For example, there's not a cruise control, there is a speed limiter and you know, speed limiter button one time and it automatically limits to what the GPS says the speed limit is.
• 6:16
  Michael Marrs: If it's 60 you do, 60 is the max, it'll let you go.
• 6:19
  Michael Marrs: It's 75, do center or you can hit it again and do a manual override and you can limit the speed to whatever you want.
• 6:26
  Michael Marrs: But it's not.
• 6:27
  Michael Marrs: They don't call it a cruise control and there's several different functions within the car that are like that, that are kind of specific, and you can figure them out pretty easy.
• 6:35
  Michael Marrs: We also had a Meridian 400-watt premium audio system that was really really nice on the inside of that vehicle.
• 6:40
  Don Armstrong: A lot of Jimmy Buffett going on.
• 6:42
  Michael Marrs: Now there's different engines for each different trim level.
• 6:45
  Michael Marrs: We had the 3.0-liter inline, six-line, six cylinder with 395 horsepower, 408 pound-feet of torque.
• 6:52
  Michael Marrs: It's backed by an eight-speed automatic transmission.
• 6:54
  Michael Marrs: Now properly equipped, this vehicle will tow 8200 pounds.
• 6:59
  Michael Marrs: It does weigh 5 000 pounds on its own, so it's it's a pretty good size heavy vehicle so it can carry that load.
• 7:05
  Michael Marrs: Now the epa says you should be looking for 17 miles to the gallon in the city out on the highway, 20 combined for the 18.
• 7:13
  Michael Marrs: Now, for the week I had it, I drove it 257.7 miles and I got 16.5 across that spectrum of highway and in-town driving.
• 7:21
  Michael Marrs: Okay, now I will say it does ride and drive like a body on frame suv.
• 7:27
  Michael Marrs: It's that feeling that it's a little more solid than a unibody.
• 7:31
  Don Armstrong: It's stiffer.
• 7:32
  Michael Marrs: We also had the air suspension so we could adjust the height on it, and it's got an off-road-specific speed limiter that if you're in the off-road you get into the four-wheel drive, you can actually set it to basically what I would call a crawl.
• 7:46
  Michael Marrs: I think on most American vehicles they call it a crawl, like a low gear.
• 7:49
  Michael Marrs: Like a low gear, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 7:51
  Michael Marrs: So a base model of a Defender that is the 90.
• 7:54
  Michael Marrs: And it starts at $57,875.
• 7:58
  Michael Marrs: Now the base trim price for the Defender X-Dynamic SE that we were driving is $72,000.
• 8:05
  Michael Marrs: We had a few other things on.
• 8:06
  Michael Marrs: It had an MSRP of $81,923.
• 8:10
  Michael Marrs: Now if you're looking for something to compare it to, you might look at the LX600 from Lexus.
• 8:15
  Michael Marrs: It's a little pricier $92,565.
• 8:20
  Michael Marrs: A Ford Bronco, depending on which one you want to get into, will run you $50,000 to $60,000 to start, and a Jeep Grand Cherokee, which is kind of a luxury vehicle as well, off-road, for $60,000.
• 8:31
  Michael Marrs: Wow.
• 8:31
  Michael Marrs: So overall, if you're looking for something a little different that's got a reputation for being heavy-duty in the off-road world, the Land Rover Defender might be the ticket you're looking for.
• 8:40
  Michael Marrs: Could be hey, today's In World Time Club.
• 8:42
  Michael Marrs: We'll be right back, take care.