2022 Ford Expedition: Choose Your Adventure

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

The off-road trend is getting either tiresome or exciting, depending on your perspective.

The latest pre-existing truck or SUV to get more rugged? The 2022 Ford Expedition.

Yes — the big SUV best known for hauling lots of people and cargo, as well as towing, is now going to be able to venture further off-pavement, should Ford’s claims hold true.

It starts with the Timberline trim, which increases ground clearance, adds the Bronco’s trail-turn assist feature (brakes one rear wheel to make off-road turns tighter), and borrows the Raptor’s skid plate.

But wait — it’s not all about off-roading when it comes to Expedition news. Should you want to have more fun on-road in an Expedition, you can do so with the Stealth Performance Package, which adds a sport-tuned suspension with continuous damping.

Motivating the Expedition is a 3.5-liter twin-turbo EcoBoost V6 making 440 horsepower and 510 lb-ft of torque.

Expedition also adds available features such as BlueCruise hands-free driving assistant (works on designated roadways) and a 22-speaker Bang & Olufsen Unleashed audio system.

LED headlamps are standard, the taillamp design is freshened, and there are new wheel choices.

Some styling features will be trim-dependent. Platinum models get a twin-mesh grille and fog lamps with chrome accents, while the Timberline gets its own unique grille, along with orange exterior accents.

In addition to the increased ground clearance (and ride height), the Timberline’s track is wider and the approach and departure angles are improved. Timberline gets 33-inch all-terrain tires, and a two-speed transfer case.

The Stealth Performance package is available on Limited and Limited Max trims and also adds gloss-back running boards, grille, mirror caps, roof rails, tailgate appliqué, rear-bumper skid plate, fog-lamp bezels, and headlamp and taillamp housings. Wheels are 22-inch black aluminum and the brake calipers are painted red. The badging is also black.

The instrument panel is redone, and a 12.4-inch digital gauge cluster is available. The screen can display off-road data and turn-by-turn directions from the nav system. Ford’s Sync 4 infotainment system is standard, with Sync 4a being optional, along with a 15.5-inch customizable infotainment screen. A customizable 12-inch screen is standard.

Rear-seat passengers can get Amazon Fire TV entertainment via touchscreens that have 16 GB of storage per display. Over-the-air update capability for the vehicle and its software is standard.

Standard or available driver-assist features include road-edge detection (sounds a warning and uses steering intervention to keep the vehicle on the road), intersection assist (applies the brakes if it thinks the vehicle will be hit in an intersection), reverse-brake assist (applies the brakes to avoid a collision when backing out of a parking space), evasive-steering assist (helps the driver safely swerve around an obstacle), a camera view that shows obstacles when parking, and an air dam that activates at over 40 mph to increase aerodynamics by 4 percent.

A trailer-assist system uses the rearview camera and parking sensors to help drivers line up their trailer. It’s more automated than the previous version. Expedition can tow up to 9,300 pounds.

The Expedition will be assembled in Louisville, Kentucky, and go on sale in the first quarter of 2022.

[Images: Ford, © 2021 Tim Healey/TTAC]

Correction: The original post stated that “rear-seat passengers can get Amazon Fire TV entertainment via touchscreens that have 16 GB of storage.” They actually have 16 GB per display. This post has been updated to correct that fact.

Tim Healey
Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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  • FreedMike FreedMike on Sep 21, 2021

    Ford Expedition: when you absolutely, positively can't live with anyone seeing around you in traffic.

    • Ryoku75 Ryoku75 on Sep 21, 2021

      12 yards long, 2 lanes wide, 65 tons of American pride! Canyonero! Canyonero! Top of the line in utility sports, Unexplained fires are a matter for the courts! Canyonero! Canyonero! She blinds everybody with her super high beams, She's a squirrel-squashin', deer smackin' drivin' machine, Canyonero!

  • EBFlex EBFlex on Sep 21, 2021

    This glorified minivan really illustrates how directionless Ford is. It's amazing how mismanaged this company really is. People did not like the touch capacitive that Ford was bent on putting in every vehicle 8 years ago or so. They (shockingly) listened to the consumers and made a big production over the return of actual buttons and knobs. Then they come out with this mildly refreshed turd (which is light years behind the GM SUVS and the new Grand Cherokee L) and they took the buttons away and instead duct taped a terribly integrated android tablet to the dash thats running awful infotainment software.

    • Canam23 Canam23 on Sep 22, 2021

      And yet Ford sales are doing very well. Light years behind GM? Now you're just being silly.

  • CoastieLenn I would do dirrrrrrty things for a pristine 95-96 Thunderbird SC.
  • Whynotaztec Like any other lease offer it makes sense to compare it to a purchase and see where you end up. The math isn’t all that hard and sometimes a lease can make sense, sometimes it can’t. the tough part with EVs now is where is the residual or trade in value going to be in 3 years?
  • Rick T. "If your driving conditions include near-freezing temps for a few months of the year, seek out a set of all-seasons. But if sunshine is frequent and the spectre of 60F weather strikes fear into the hearts of your neighbourhood, all-seasons could be a great choice." So all-seasons it is, apparently!
  • 1995 SC Should anyone here get a wild hair and buy this I have the 500 dollar tool you need to bleed the rear brakes if you have to crack open the ABS. Given the state you will. I love these cars (obviously) but trust me, as an owner you will be miles ahead to shell out for one that was maintained. But properly sorted these things will devour highway miles and that 4.6 will run forever and should be way less of a diva than my blown 3.8 equipped one. (and forget the NA 3.8...140HP was no match for this car).As an aside, if you drive this you will instantly realize how ergonomically bad modern cars are.These wheels look like the 17's you could get on a Fox Body Cobra R. I've always had it in the back of my mind to get a set in the right bolt pattern so I could upgrade the brakes but I just don't want to mess up the ride. If that was too much to read, from someone intamately familiar with MN-12's, skip this one. The ground effects alone make it worth a pass. They are not esecially easy to work on either.
  • Macca This one definitely brings back memories - my dad was a Ford-guy through the '80s and into the '90s, and my family had two MN12 vehicles, a '93 Thunderbird LX (maroon over gray) purchased for my mom around 1995 and an '89 Cougar LS (white over red velour, digital dash) for my brother's second car acquired a year or so later. The Essex V6's 140 hp was wholly inadequate for the ~3,600 lb car, but the look of the T-Bird seemed fairly exotic at the time in a small Midwest town. This was of course pre-modern internet days and we had no idea of the Essex head gasket woes held in store for both cars.The first to grenade was my bro's Cougar, circa 1997. My dad found a crate 3.8L and a local mechanic replaced it - though the new engine never felt quite right (rough idle). I remember expecting something miraculous from the new engine and then realizing that it was substandard even when new. Shortly thereafter my dad replaced the Thunderbird for my mom and took the Cougar for a new highway commute, giving my brother the Thunderbird. Not long after, the T-Bird's 3.8L V6 also suffered from head gasket failure which spelled its demise again under my brother's ownership. The stately Cougar was sold to a family member and it suffered the same head gasket fate with about 60,000 miles on the new engine.Combine this with multiple first-gen Taurus transmission issues and a lemon '86 Aerostar and my dad's brand loyalty came to an end in the late '90s with his purchase of a fourth-gen Maxima. I saw a mid-90s Thunderbird the other day for the first time in ages and it's still a fairly handsome design. Shame the mechanicals were such a letdown.
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