This 2020 Ford Explorer Platinum is INSANE for a Non-Luxury Brand!

Today we're inside the 2020 Ford Explorer Platinum. We're going to take a full look at the exterior, the interior. I'm going to climb into the second and third rows as well. Check out that cargo area and go for a test drive. And this might just take the reins from Mazda as being the driver's choice for this three row SUV class. And this thing is fully loaded. I can't wait to show it to you. Let's get started real quick. Before we get started, I want to give a big thank you and shout out to Rockwell Ford and Rockwell, Texas for getting this ready for me to show you guys today. They were super generous. I'll put their information in the description below. Now starting on the exterior, because it's been wet and raining, I'm going to do this a little differently, but let's take a look at everything we've got to offer. So this Ford Explorer gives us adaptive LED high and low beams, LED daytime running lights, right above that and LED fog lights. If I get one of these for a longer review, I will do a lighting review and show you exactly how these headlights work. There's the exclusive to this trim level, satin aluminum grill, which is big, bold, luxurious looking. The whole front end of this Ford Explorer is similar to the last one, but definitely more sleek, more modern got a beefy hood on it. Everything looks pretty nice up front and paired with this is the rapid red metallic paint, which is an optional paint. It looks really nice. It's hard to tell on this cloudy wet day, but this paint really looks nice. Optional here are the 21 inch premium wheels that are 275 45 series tires. So the rubber is fairly thin on there with those big wheels, but they are some big flashy wheels. Adding to the luxury here, we have power folding mirrors that you can push on the inside. They're heated of course, LED turn signals, blind spot monitoring, and the driver's side will automatically dim as well to keep those harsh lights out of your face. And then some more luxury pieces on the side. We've got a satin aluminum, lower accent trim piece on the bottom, satin aluminum on the door handle for accent pieces. And it's just a sleek design. It's kind of a, an athletic design as well, but still retains that SUV shape that you've come to love with the Ford Explorer. The rear end of the Explorer is certainly more sleek than the previous model. We have led taillights with an Amber turn signal. There's even a rear camera washer for the back of this. And then we have quad exhaust tips to tie it off. And that really kind of completes the appearance package for this Ford Explorer. It is a sporty looking SUV for this class. Now when we take a look at the cargo area, we have the foot activated lift gate. Stick your foot up under there and there you go. It's always nice to have very convenient and right up above you can lock it and close it right up there. And then there's some stuff back here to kind of show you what it's like behind the third row. And I'll put all of the specs technical measurements back here on the screen. We've got these platinum floor mats as well. And then these boxes fit here. Even something kind of tall can go up and down because the raking of this back roof isn't that bad. It's, you know, it's not terrible like some vehicles, but let's go ahead and get this stuff out of here and fold these seats down. There's a better look at what you've got behind the third row. And the nice thing is those headrests are integrated into the seats. So you can just slide them up. We've got a couple of hooks on each side or some tie downs, which are really nice. You've got a little storage cubby right back there and another one on the other side. And then there's a nice large storage bin under here. You can kind of keep some stuff separate or at least hide it a little bit as well. And there's a spare tire under there, which is great. 12 volt power outlet if you need to plug anything in, which is always good to have power in the cargo area. And these third row seats are power folding as well. So you can do both of them or you can do just one. And all you gotta do is push it. You don't have to hold it, which is nice, at a decent speed. And then we'll fold the other. And the nice thing is they fold really flat. So you've got a nice flat load floor that looks really good if you ask me. So even when you've got the second row up, you've still got really good space back here. And then to fold the second row down, all you gotta do is snap your fingers. I'm just kidding. It's not that easy, but all you've got to do is pull that lever and then it goes nice and flat. So it's, you know, there's no power for the second row, but it's still really easy. And the third row is power. And the third row is also power on the way back up. So just tap it. There you go. Very convenient. And then you can even see that cargo light right there. So that is always nice. This is definitely my favorite spot in this Ford Explorer. These seats are extremely comfortable. So we've got 10 way power adjustable seats with a tri-diamond perforated leather material on them and some accent stitching. They're heated and also ventilated. And because of our premium technology package, we have the multi-contour seats, which means that they're massaging seats. So all you gotta do is push a little button. You can control that on the screen, the main screen as well, and you can have various different massaging functions for you and your passenger. And it just, it's awesome. It feels great. These seats are super comfortable, just a little bit of bolstering on the sides, nothing intrusive, but enough to keep you in place. And the leather itself is also really soft. And even though they're technically 10 way, you can adjust things a little bit differently. You have lumbar support that you can still move in and out of course, but you can kind of determine what part of the lumbar you're going to be adjusting. So lots of different ways to get comfortable in here. And then to add to the luxury, we have a power tilt and telescoping steering wheel. The steering wheel is leather wrapped. It's also heated. It has some kind of some plasticky paddle shifters. They're actually really plasticky. I would expect a little bit different on this class, but you still have those. You've got a nice steering wheel, heated steering wheel, comfortable up front. The rest of the interior on this 2020 Ford Explorer is completely redone from previous Explorers. You still have some similar design cues like you would expect in a Ford, but you've got nice materials everywhere over on the door. You've got a two-tone pattern. You've got a nice looking speaker grill, even ambient lighting behind the door handle and pretty good space below that as well. Soft materials up on the dash, even the plastic materials in here look nice too. They just have a clean look to them, a clean finish. Ford did a nice job with this vehicle on the interior and right up front in front of our steering wheel, we have a 12.3 inch digital cluster, and there is a ton of information you can see on there. It's really large, really wide, takes up the entire area. You can have your tachometer, speedometer, all your safety settings systems in there. You can determine where each of those things are. Of course, your trip computers, audio, navigation, phone. You can customize what you see on here as well. And one thing that's really cool is when you change your drive modes. So for example, you've got trail, eco, sport, tow haul mode. You've got a lot of different things on here. Slippery as well. Even like deep snow and sand, it changes what you see in front of you. And it completely changes the way that you see the instrument cluster, which is really pretty cool. You even have rain sensing windshield wipers in here, which hopefully we can test out in our test drive. Now, right in the middle, you've got the optional 10.1 inch capacitive touch portrait style screen. It's literally like you've got an iPad sitting right in front of you. There's a lot of information you can see on here. Tons of different things you can customize as well. You can mess around with your ambient light settings. Of course, all your nav, your audio phone, several apps that you can use as well. Hopefully we can do more of a deep dive in a longer full review, but you've got Sirius XM, you've got HD radio, you've got a 14 speaker BNO system, which is upgraded from the 12 speaker BNO system on the trim without this. And then we have a 360 camera. So you can see around your vehicle. You can have it next to your backup camera. You can do just the 360 camera. I think it's kind of silly that the backup camera and the 360 camera are pretty small on there at times. They don't take up the whole screen. It'd be nice to see that, but it's kind of difficult with a portrait style, but still at least you have that option on here. You still get physical volume and tuning knobs and a seeking button as well. And AC controls. You've got dual zone here, technically tri zone, because you've got some in the back seat, heated steering wheel, heated seat buttons, all that good stuff. Everything seems to be pretty high quality here as well. Easy to use, easy layout right below those. You have a pretty nice large storage area, which it's got a USB and a USB-C port and a 12 volt port. I don't have anything that's USB-C at least that plugs into a USB-C like that. So to me, I would like to see just regular USB, but you can always adapt that with a 12 volt power outlet as well. Small complaint. You still have a rotary shift knob here like we're seeing in the other Fords, a spot for your phone, good size cup holders, and then your kind of command center with your brake hold, parking brake, drive mode, all that stuff. Even your parking assist button here as well. And then right behind that, we've got a nice comfortable armrest with wireless charging, a special slot for your phone. The arm or the center console is not as big as I was expecting, but it is lined with felt. It's really nice material. It's even illuminated and it's got a removable tread. I just would expect it to be a little bit bigger, but you have a nice center console in front of it that kind of makes up for the smaller storage space here. The rest of the interior has things that you would expect. You've got an automatic dimming rear view mirror. You've got garage controls up here. You've got ambient lighting in here. We even have LED lights. These map lights are LED. The ambient lighting is really cool. You can control it on your center display. There's some in the cup holders or some in the back seat in your door handles and you can change the lighting and the brightness, which is awesome. And then we've got the twin panel moonroof up above, which is just massive. It goes all the way back past the backseat, the second row passengers. One small thing I want to complain about is on each side of the center console there, you've got this panel gap, this little trim gap, which is, you know, I wish they would have just shored that up. But it's not going to affect anything functional wise, but it's just something that's aesthetic. Now, before we get into the backseat, we still have this nice two-tone material right here. You even still have soft materials on the door and the second row gets these sunblinds. So that's always nice. If you've got kids, when you've got kind of a small cup holder right there, you've got a bigger cup holder and storage bin below. So good storage in the back seat, same nice trim pieces up here as well. And we've got the captain's chairs in here, which are pretty comfortable. Let's go ahead and hop in. So first of all, there's a grab handle on each side to make it easier for you to get in. You've got some nice bright lighting here as well. Your AC vents are up here, which I actually really like. So first of all, if you have a car seat, it can blow directly into your car seat and it just cools you off a little better. I think when it kind of blows on your face, if you want, and then you've got a good hook right there and sitting beside sitting behind myself, I've got good foot space. I've got really good knee space. And if I scoot this up all the way, my knees touch, but really someone shorter than me at five foot nine could probably sit there and give the third row a lot more room. You've got climate control settings back here, which is nice. You've got heated seats back here as well for these outboard seats. We've got a USB, USB-C, a three prong outlet and a storage bin right down there. So that's really nice. You've got a lot of good stuff here. And then in the middle, you've got a nice large storage tray where you can kind of organize things, set stuff, cup holders. And another thing is these armrests. So first of all, I wish that they would ratchet. They just, they just fall. Not a big deal. Cause I usually keep it in this position anyways, but you've got a wider armrest right here, which is pretty nice. It's actually pretty comfortable in these seats themselves are comfortable. They're soft. They still feel nice. And the fact that you've got heating in here is really nice as well. These seats can also recline and sitting up tall. I've got enough headroom. I was expecting to have a little bit more, but you're not really going to have anybody over six foot back here very often. And if you don't have the twin panel moonroof, you'll probably have a little bit more headroom. Now hopping into the third row. One nice feature is, well, one thing is you could climb in the middle and then go back. I'm sure some small children could easily do that, but we also have this button right there. Push that and it's going to fold that seat and makes it super easy to push it out of the way. And then you've got a pretty good gap right there. All right, now I've made it. And this seat is all the way back now. So if I had it as far back as it can go, my knees rub up against it. But when that one is up forward, you can see that I've actually got a lot of knee space now and I could sit here or smaller people can sit here and have this forward. So you'd still have good space. Of course, you've got some open space if you really want. And these back seats can split fold. You've got a little bit of storage cubbies, a hook for your cargo area as well, a cup holder. There are also the AC vents right up above on each side. We've even got some lights right here as well. My only complaint though is that there aren't any charging ports in this area. There's a 12 volt in the cargo area, but I'd expect a little more in this third row, but there's plenty to go around right in the middle. And then I've actually got good headroom. My head's not touching, my hair's not touching and I'm sitting up straight. So that's awesome. Then when it's time to get out, there's a little strap down there you can pull or you can push this button again and then there you go. Easy peasy. Now under the hood, the powertrain for this 2020 Ford Explorer is completely different. So first of all, from the base model up, you've got a rear wheel drive based system instead of front wheel drive, like all of the rest of these midsize three row SUVs. And under this one, we've got the upgraded twin turbo direct injected three liter EcoBoost engine, the same as the ST, but it has less power than the ST with 365 horsepower, 380 pound feet of torque at 3,500 RPMs paired with a 10 speed automatic. This trim comes standard with its intelligent four wheel drive and miles per gallon is going to be 18 city and 24 highway. The Ford Explorer is the option that you want if you're going to tow with a vehicle in this class. So first of all, standard on this trim, we've got 5,600 pounds of towing as tow packages, standard trailer connections, engine oil cooler, trailer sway control, tow haul mode, and Ford even brought in from their transit line, the side wind stabilization. So if you've ever been driving on the highway and you've got some really strong crosswinds, I know I have, and it just kind of blows you all over the place. You feel really unstable. This helps prevent that from happening by keeping you stable with various different methods. Ford gives us their intelligent key access. So you've got remote start. You can open your tailgate, very same key fob as you see on other vehicles. You can pull a physical key out. You've got push button start. Let's go ahead and take it for a drive. All right, everyone. We are off on a test drive in 2020 Ford Explorer Platinum. Thank you so much for sticking around. We're going to cycle through the drive modes, get it up to speed a little bit and just see how it goes. And right off the bat, I'm very impressed. This thing feels so smooth and solid. It just feels like a substantial vehicle and I wouldn't, I wouldn't be, I wouldn't shy away from saying that this probably drives better than anything in the class. It's been a while since I've been in that CX nine, but this just feels so nice. And I'm not talking about like the squishiest softest. I'm talking about overall like driving dynamics. Um, kind of some, um, for some of the enthusiasts too. And just even with partial throttle, there's definitely some boost in that turbo down low. The steering feel or the steering wheel has a nice little weight to it. It's not super light and easy. Some of you might want something really light and easy for parking and whatnot, but it's got a good weight, decent feedback already. And the intelligent four wheel drive, all wheel drive is standard on this platinum trim. So in this wet conditions, you're not going to get any slip. Don't have to worry about that. And otherwise this is a rear wheel drive based vehicle. So if you do live somewhere where you need traction, like all wheel drive, definitely get the all wheel drive because with rear wheel drive, you are going to suffer more in snow and mud and stuff like that. Get the all wheel drive if you need it. And now this road looks smooth, but it actually has some broken pieces of pavement and you might be able to hear some of the bumps, but it really smooths things out really well. And one, one thing is that this, you're probably going to feel the bumps a little bit more and you can feel them because of these big 21 inch wheels. So something to keep in mind. And that's just barely getting on the throttle. It's just, it's got a lot of power. It's insane. The boost comes out so low. I can't imagine that ST so ride comfort. Like I was saying is good. You can feel some of the bumps, probably because of those big wheels, but it really doesn't make its way up to me in this seat. I feel good. In fact, I'm going to turn my massaging seats on because it's just so nice to have those. One thing I've definitely noticed with this is I haven't gotten it up to a high speed yet, but we have laminated glass on the windshield and up front and everything seems to be really isolated from this cab. I wouldn't be surprised if this has some of the quietest decibel ratings in the class. I've been in some quiet vehicles and this is definitely one of them too. Now I'm still in normal mode, but I'm going to put it in sport mode in a second. All right, we are now in sport mode and it changed the gauges up here. Holy cow, guys, this thing does not mess around when you compare this to everything else in the class. This power plant is something else and that ST has even more power than this, but this platinum comes standard with this high powered three liter turbo charged engine. I like a V6, but this thing is V8 power. I mean, this is, this is, this is great. And if you don't want this big turbo, of course you can opt for the lower trims as well. And with that kind of testing out the 10 speed just with partial throttle again, it was definitely quick to go. And when I have this for a longer week, I'll definitely talk more about how that behaves in stop and go traffic and all of that. I haven't experienced that yet, but so far it takes a second to pick its gear and then it goes. The one downside to the more powerful engine of course is the lower fuel economy 18 and 24, but the other Explorers do pretty well actually. Now we're still in sport mode. I'm going to get on it one more time for you. It goes, we've got the paddle shifters here still holding the RPMs. So this sport mode is no joke. I'm going to put it back into a normal mode and you even have eco mode if you want to keep it in that. I'm sure you'd still have plenty of power. It would just delay the throttle. And now that we're up to a little bit of a higher speed, I can hear a little more of the road noise on that road back there, but the smooth blacktop, there's like nothing getting in here. And again, this is definitely a smooth riding vehicle. The steering is responsive to it. It's, I would love to drive this back to back with the CX nine to see how that competes. Another competitor that I was recently in was the Kia Telluride, which has a lot of features for the value, but this definitely drives better than the Telluride performance wise without a doubt. The brakes on the Explorer, I don't know the actual numbers, but it's got a good pedal feel. It's, it's a responsive pedal, which is good as well. And I apologize that this video has been a little different than most of my other videos, primarily because of the rain. It's just been wet this entire time. So that's a bummer. I apologize for that, but hopefully we can get one for a week and give you a lighting review, show you the ambient lighting in here, show you a little more of what you can put with the cargo area, extended test drive, all that good stuff. Another thing to note is that this has the full suite of safety features Ford co-pilot 360 is standard. So you've got your lane keeping, you've got radar cruise. We even got a parking sensors front and back. You've got that 360 camera. Um, there's just a lot of stuff on here. I mean, there's more than I can even remember. And I'll go through all of that and hopefully show you a demonstration in the full review as well. One more thing about this test drive is looking around. I've actually got good visibility in here out the front and out the back. So for a three rise CV, that is, this is pretty good. Well, overall, I'm really impressed with this 2020 Ford Explorer. And I've you've got to be impressed because this thing is $60,000. So that's the most expensive Ford Explorer I've ever been in, but it's got a lot of features, a lot of stuff that you would not have expected to be in a Ford Explorer. And it's super capable. There's a lot of things you can do with it. Hopefully I can get one for a full week long review and show you more of the safety features, the lighting, all that. If you want to see more reviews like this and others that I have, check out some more in the channel below, subscribe and hit the bell for weekly videos, give it a thumbs up. If you liked it, I really appreciate your support. Have a great rest of your day.