Ford Excursion info needed?
by admin on Thursday, July 21st, 2011 | 2 Comments
We thinking about buying a used Ford Excursion, but would like to know what others think of the SUV. What kind of gas mileage does it get? What size tires does it use? Have any recalls been issued for the Excursions? Do all of them have electric-folding rear seats? Has anyone towed a travel trailer with an Excursion? How did it handle?
Fuel mileage: 8-14 MPG for the gas engines, with the gas V8 being a bit more fuel efficient than the V10. The diesels do a bit better, especially the earlier 7.3L, figure around 13-18 MPG overall for the diesel.
Stock tires are similar to that of the Super Duty trucks, stock wheels are usually 16′s or 17′s. Stock sized tires usually run about $120-$160 a piece.
They never came with electric folding rear seats, The Excursion generally wasn’t quite as luxurious as the Eddie Bauer Expeditions, you won’t find quite the same level as luxury equipment. You won’t get navigation, you won’t get electric folding seats,and you won’t get power running boards. You can get heated front seats and a rear DVD player. But you won’t find the really high end stuff on an Excursion.
The running costs of an Excursion will be high compared to most vehicles, they aren’t for everyone. If you are concerned with fuel prices, then you probably won’t like the ownership experience, if you live in a city, parking will be a hassle, if you need to tow something under 8000 pounds or so, then the Expedition would probably be the better choice. But if you regularly tow something that’s 10k pounds or more and you don’t live in the city, and you have a whole mess of kids, then it’s an ideal vehicle.
Everything that Fodaddy mentioned is correct and real world. While I’ve never owned the Excursion, I owned the Super-Duty pick-ups that the SUV is based on in 3/4 ton. Go with the diesel if you can find one. You’ll be much happier. I’ve towed loads up to 12,000 pounds with my F-250 diesel and it’s almost like nothing is back there. Avoid any models equipped with a 6.0 liter diesel as these engines were very problematic and had many recalls on them, especially the ’03 & ’04 models of engines. I don’t believe they put the 6.0 engine in the Excursion, but just in-case they did and you happen across it, avoid it. If you get the model equipped with 16″ rims, you can up the tire size to 305/70 R 16 on 16″x 10″ rims. This will increase your MPG to 19 on a 7.3L diesel with a 3.73 rear end diff. I did that to my ’99 Super-Duty and when I tow 12k, I only lose 2 mpg and still get 17 mpg on the road. You won’t get that kind of mpg with a gasoline engine version.
Down side to a diesel is higher maintenance costs. The engine takes a special oil and it requires 4 GALLONS and not 5-6 quarts of oil. But the upside is that this truck will last you a lot longer than the gas version. I own a fleet of Super-Duty trucks for my company so I know the line very well.