If a genie could grant an automobile company three wishes for its car, the order of priority for Mr. CEO would be: rule the market segment, be the first in the segment, or, best yet, be the segment. For the Philippine market, one vehicle is fortunate enough to have a market all to itself: the Ford Explorer Sport Trac. Substantially bigger than its Japanese/Japanese-American pickup rivals yet smaller than the F150-Chevy Silverado duo, the Explorer Sport Trac is the only midsize pickup around these parts.
The original Sport Trac 4×4 was something of a sensation when it debuted in 2000. A full-size passenger cabin and expansive pickup bed gave it a dimension of usefulness above its competitors. For the non-farmers, looks are the most important and the Sport Trac delivered there, too. A Tonka truck blown up 50x, it had just the right proportions, looking big but balanced from every angle. It was also the first to feature the angular Ford truck front, now on the Expedition and soon to be seen on next year’s F150.
It was not too expensive compared to the compact SUVs then available, but prices have since gone up by more than PHP200,000. A 4×2 variant was then introduced to keep a toehold on the market. The 4×2 was visually different, lacking the step bar and fog lamps. This created a problem, as many people bought these trucks to be seen in, and being seen in a lower variant is probably a step removed from driving up in a vehicle that’s silver…stainless.
To minimize prices while maximizing pose value, the NBX comes with all the styling accessories of the 4×4: front fog lamps, redesigned integrated stepboards and cargo bed lining side. The stepboard looks much sleeker than the one on the 4×4 variant. Of dubious value are the large diamond-shaped body stickers proclaiming the variant name. Nice logo, though.
The interior is also brought up to near-luxury level with all-leather seating. One neat accessory in the NBX is the Active Gear removable center floor console. What this means is that the center console is actually a small bag. It velcroes into place below the armrest. Stuff your CDs, camera and PDA into it, and when you need to move, just pull it out and sling it over your shoulder.
Tan plastics with silver trim make up much of the interior parts. The gauges are white-faced, and this is something the Sport Trac had even before the current trend. The only giveaways to the age of its design are the mechanical trip meters and gear indicator. There’s power everything, including the tailgate window, and a single-disc player with 6 speakers. The lowest point, literally, has to be the foglight switch. It’s located below the dashboard, near the engine release. Any kind of actuation requires good eye-foot coordination.
So, enough of the various baubles and upgrades. What’s it like to drive? The car-like interior layout may have you believe that it behaves much like a car. On city roads, the experience is still very much in the realm of the truck.
You’d expect quite a lot of acceleration from a 4.0-liter V6 with 205 bhp and a whopping 327 Nm of torque. This proves to be just adequate for the NBX. The engine prefers to shift early. Plunging to throttle to the floor results in a raucous performance that quickly drains the fuel tank. The truck managed 5.4 km/liter after our city driving. The 5-speed automatic gearbox didn’t have much of a performance advantage over Ford’s 4-speed units, but it probably helped the fuel economy somehow.
The ride of the Sport Trac speaks land yacht, with long, undulating body motions. The cornering feels vague and hesitant. Strangely, road irregularities and obstructions like humps are transmitted into the cabin, unlike its similarly floaty big brother, the F150 SuperCrew.
One of the ironies of the pickup truck is that you have a huge cargo bed in the back, yet no place to secure your grocery bags. The Ford offers 60/40 split folding seats to allow some in-cabin storage, and there are small compartments behind the seats. Still, the optional cargo bed cover is a must for your weekly trip to the supermarket. If carrying hardware is your concern, an optional flip-over cargo cage extends the length of the bed.
The NBX will take you anywhere you’d care to go in the city. It has enough ground clearance to straddle flooded streets and its 16-inch wheels and tires will make sure you don’t get swallowed by our regular potholes. The lack of 4×4 will come into play only if you plan to wriggle in the mud. The doesn’t have any sort of limited-slip differential so plant one wheel into the soft brown stuff and you will probably have to wallow in the muck more than Christina Aguilera.
By Jason Ang | Photos By Ulysses Ang
Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of Cebudailynews. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.
