Time now for this hour's car review . Had the 2025 Ford Explorer . It's available in the Active , the ST line , the Platinum and the ST . I had the ST four-wheel drive . This is a midsize SUV . It is no longer body on frame . When I was doing the research I thought what ? When did that happen ? It's now a unibody three rows of seating with six seats inside .
It was all new in 2020 . It does get a facelift this year all new for 2025 . Exterior features sharp looking restyled grille and lighting up front . St is the sportiest of the four trim levels Black plastic wheel . Well , opening moldings in that Forward-raked C-pillar gives the SUV a sportier appearance than most others in this class .
New rear lighting and quad exhaust enhances the overall look . What I liked about it ? The modern yet conservative styling . This is a Ford and you can tell it's a Ford . I think you'll like it . What could use improvement ? In my mind , nothing . Interior highlights All . New interior has enhanced the usability in my mind .
Dash has two screens now one for instruments , one for the infotainment system with the new Google-based system running it . Comfortable , supportive seating with awesome new coverings , dual phone holders above the center console on the dash . That was unique and I really did like that . One of them was the charger and the other one is the holder . Mama's got .
Just I want to hold my own phone , Okay . Well , if you want to put it down , there's a place for you . What I liked about it the optional 13.2-inch infotainment screen . Get it , I'll tell you that it's huge . It's Tesla-like inside Wow Secret compartment in the in-floor cargo area so you can hide stuff .
And I know , Jeff , you've got lots of stuff you need to hide .
I've got a lot of skilletons I need to hide .
Three-liter EcoBoost V6 . The base is 300 horsepower , ecoboost 4 . This one has 400 horsepower , 415 pound-feet of torque , 10-speed automatic transmission . It'll tow up to 5,600 pounds . 18 miles per gallon , city , 24 on the highway , for a combined of 20 . I got 21.1 miles per gallon over 382.3 miles . Plenty of power for towing and people riding . Handling well .
I liked its ruggedness . I like the rugged feel of this . It isn't a wallowy suv . Base trim price 57.1 . I had a pre-production model , so the approximate test price is about sixty thousand dollars . Base model price 39 755 is what you can get into one for . Competitors include the acura rdx 44 7 , the mazda cx 90 for 37 845 and the kia telluride for 38 000 .
That's because they don't have one this year . It's priced that I could find Interesting and that is my review of the 2025 Ford Explorer . Thank you very much , you're welcome . We'll be right back Time . Now for this hour's car review . Mr Mars has the Land Rover Defender . How was it , mike ?
I have to tell you I was pleasantly surprised after a little while .
It's got a lot of .
English touches to it and I'll try and point them out as we kind of go through this . This is definitely catered to the English market , but they're sending them into the US . So it's a 2024 Land Rover Defender 110 . Now , actual 17 models of this vehicle . There's five different trims it's an SSE , x-dynamic , sex and a V8 engine . Now we had the Defender 110 .
And so this is actually a off-road luxury SUV , if you want to go that away with it . 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 .
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 .
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 . 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 .
We had the heated and vented front seats . 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 .
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 .
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 . If it's 60 you do , 60 is the max , it'll let you go .
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 . But it's not . 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 .
We also had a Meridian 400-watt premium audio system that was really really nice on the inside of that vehicle .
A lot of Jimmy Buffett going on .
Now there's different engines for each different trim level . We had the 3.0-liter inline , six-line , six cylinder with 395 horsepower , 408 pound-feet of torque . It's backed by an eight-speed automatic transmission . Now properly equipped , this vehicle will tow 8200 pounds .
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 . 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 .
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 . Okay , now I will say it does ride and drive like a body on frame suv . It's that feeling that it's a little more solid than a unibody .
It's stiffer .
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 . I think on most American vehicles they call it a crawl , like a low gear . Like a low gear , yeah , yeah , yeah .
So a base model of a Defender that is the 90 . And it starts at $57,875 . Now the base trim price for the Defender X-Dynamic SE that we were driving is $72,000 . We had a few other things on . It had an MSRP of $81,923 . Now if you're looking for something to compare it to , you might look at the LX600 from Lexus . It's a little pricier $92,565 .
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 . Wow .
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 . Could be hey , today's In World Time Club . We'll be right back , take care .