2020 Ford Explorer Platinum Review and Test Drive

What's up YouTube? Let's check out the 2020 Explorer Platinum. So the Ford Explorer has been a staple of the Ford lineup. It's almost as iconic as the Ford F-150 and synonymous with the Ford name. Guys, before we get into this vehicle, don't forget to subscribe to my channel Cars Unlocked if you want to see more videos. Special thanks to the boys at Mike Knapp Ford for providing this vehicle. They're your Ford experts in the Niagara region. Don't forget to go see them if you have any Ford questions. And as always, follow me on Instagram at cvanweekend. That would be great. But let's take a look here. This one is in the nice black color and it really looks great with the dark accents throughout the vehicle here. Blacked out A-pillars, blacked out tinted windows as well. Everything looks phenomenal. And then the silver roof rails that you get on this platinum package gives it a nice premium touch. The rims are huge 21-inch premium aluminum alloy rims. And then it's going to be sitting on these all-season Ferrari tires. Lots of performance out of this. It's a three liter EcoBoost. We're going to pop the hood in a second and check out the engine. Checking out the front. The big blue Ford logo sits on this premium satin aluminum front grill. That's exclusive to this platinum package. We do have a Ford camera as well, which we're going to show you in a second. And then you do get your LED headlights as well as your LED fog lights. Let's check out the under the hood and see the power plant. Under the hood, it's going to come with a three liter V6 EcoBoost engine. It's going to have the four wheel drive, 3.3 rear axle ratio. And that's going to give you about 365 horsepower and 380 pounds feet of torque. A ton of power. I can't wait to get behind the wheel and show you how this thing drives. When we check out the back here, we do have some nice Explorer badging and our platinum badging as well. Right above our license plate is our rear view monitor. Look at this nice quad exhaust here. And then our tow hitch is in between. The Explorer can tow up to 5,600 pounds. So perfect for your family vehicle. And then it does have the Ford foot activated lift gate, where as long as you have the key, it's going to automatically open up, which is waving your foot under the tow hitch there. One thing I like is that you can also set the height of the tailgate. So if you want to only open up a little bit, you can lower it so it's easier for you to put your cargo in and out. So let's start this thing up and take a look at the outside. You can see I locked the door and it does have the power folding mirrors. When I unlock the doors, they're going to automatically unfold as well. You can also use the remote starter if you want to start it up in the wintertime and that's going to warm the vehicle up or cool the vehicle down in the summer. You just need to make sure the car is locked and you press the button twice there and it's going to automatically start up. So we've jumped inside of the Pathfinder and I sit into these nice leather tri-diamond perforated seats. It is a luxury leather and seat. It's a very high end seat. You can tell right when you sit in it, especially with this platinum stitching throughout. It is heated and air conditioned seats. So perfect for the wintertime, perfect for the summer. There's a ton of features for the driver to have a phenomenal drive. Right away when we jump in, you instantly know that this is a high end vehicle here. All the fit and finishes are well done here from the nice silver chrome accents to the wood paneling on the trim. The wheel is a nice leather wrapped wheel. One of my favorite features is this 12.3 vehicle information screen, which is right behind our steering wheel. And it's customizable, similar to maybe like the screen on your Android phone where you can customize it any way you like and really make it selective for you and make everything easy to navigate through. You do have the Ford 360 technology suite that's going to give you things like adaptive cruise control, lane centering assist, blind spot monitoring system, and then also the Ford parking assistant is going to make it easier if you have trouble parking a big vehicle like this. So this might be why you'll spend the $67,549 MSRP to go up to this Platinum model because you do get this 10 inch tablet like full touch screen display. It's the Ford Sync navigation system, phenomenal. Maybe let me know in the comments if you're a fan of this or not, but this is a huge vivid display here. From our audio, we have all our sources. You can do your streaming, your Sirius XM, your Bluetooth stereo. Everything is nice and easy controlled here. You can use the navigation that comes with it. I've always been a fan of the Ford navigation system and the Ford infotainment system. Very easy to find points of interest, very, very quick setups for navigation and things like that. You can also do like your connective apps. So your Ford apps, your Sirius XM travel link, obviously it's going to have your Android auto and your Apple CarPlay, but this screen is one of the best screens that I've seen. Could be a little distracting at some times, but I love it. And let's take a look at the camera. The camera is so clear and vivid. I do wish the camera would show up on the full screen, but look at that camera here. It's very, very clear. There's our 360 view. When I put it in reverse, it's going to show the rear and then we have the trailer backup assist. So very easy to use. Parking assistant is going to be very easy to use if you want to help park. See there it will help us leave a parking spot. It will also help you park in a parking spot. So very, very nice backup camera. The infotainment system, I can't say many bad things about this screen and this infotainment system here. Down below there is still some hard buttons here, which is expected. I do like a nice big volume power button. When you go up to this platinum package, you get the B&O sound system, 14 speakers here. It sounds phenomenal as you can see. And then we have another dial for our tuning as well. Our digital temperature controls we can do with the manual buttons, but we can also do them from our home screen if we want. You can see it's on display up there. So in the back, this is where your family is going to sit. And it does come with tinted windows, but if you have young children and you want to keep them away from the UV rays, look at this. Nice little sunshade on each window as well. And then you have the two front captain chairs. These are heated captain chairs. We have a little storage in the center console and then these passengers can control their heating and air conditioning back here. Entering the back is very easy, just with the touch of a button. Look at this. Oh, and it slides forward nice and easy. There's a lot of hard plastic when you're getting in to keep the vehicle clean. And then you can jump in back there. In the back, there is quite a bit of space back here. It's not like the Ford Expedition, but it is very handy with the cup holders, the storage. There's storage in the center stack. One thing that I think is crucial to every seven passenger vehicle is how the passengers from the rear get out. So a lot of times when you're sitting back here and it's time to get out, you don't know which lever to pull or how to pull the seats up and you're stuck back here. With Ford, it's very easy. You just push this button like I showed you and it pushes forward and you can get in and out. Huge twin panel moonroof. You can see it's open now. And then there's the shade. It is a tinted moonroof, which I like, so it does help with the UV and the sun coming in the car. There's a very big moonroof that goes all the way to the back and that's what you get with this Platinum model. In the cargo area, there's a little bit more room than last year's model. They went away with that star butterfly style folding rear seat and there is a bit of hidden storage underneath here as well. The seats are power folding. You just need to drop the headrest down and you can fold them down. If you're not using the third row, you can get a bit more cargo space. So very easy with the touch of a button. Oh my God, this thing is a beast to drive. I've always loved the Explorers. I'm getting a little giddy here when I put my foot down on this thing because it is a real pleasure to drive. The power behind it, the EcoBoost 3 liter, very phenomenal. The only way to get more power is to go up to the SD Performance Edition, which I reviewed with the Ford Edge. Turning and handling is great, but there's a lot of little just high-end subtleties that I like. For example, you have multiple different drive modes. So there's different things. There's like a snow and sand mode. There's a tow-haul mode. There's a sport mode, a trail mode. There's all different drive modes. It's very easy to flip through them all, but I would just keep it in normal mode for everyday driving. It does have that Ford auto start-stop technology, so it will help you save on fuel. And then they went away and they now have the dial shifter, similar to what was in the Ford Fusions as well. So you have the dial shifter to put it in park or reverse, right? But overall, I'm very, very satisfied with the drive. Digital speedometer is right in the middle of our vehicle information screen. Like I mentioned, that 12.3 screen, it isn't too distracting, but it does give you a lot of information that's provided. You can also shift with the paddle shifters that are right behind the wheel as well. If you want to shift your gears manually, you can put it into sport mode and you can take off. But it does pick up quite a bit. I'm going to punch it a little bit here. And you can see it does drive like holy moly. You have to be careful if you're taking off in this car because if you put your foot down, it will accelerate very, very quickly, especially if you have it in sport mode. And you can get up from zero to 60 very, very quickly. So there you have it, guys. Special thanks to Mike Knapp Ford for letting me borrow this 2020 Ford Explorer today. They're your Ford experts. Go see the guys in Welland if you have any Ford questions. As always, subscribe to Cars Unlocked. If you have any questions about the Explorers, ask me in the comments section below and I will be more than happy to answer them.