Rare Rides: This 2008 Ford Expedition Answers the Question Nobody Asked, 'What Would Funkmaster Flex Do?'
You’d definitely remember if you’ve seen one of these before, as today’s Rare Ride vehicle is anything but subdued. We’ve already featured a different special edition F-150-based vehicle here before, when the Neiman Marcus Edition Lincoln Blackwood strolled across these pages. Many of you found the black color scheme, trunk carpeting, and wood trim a bit plain though, even if you didn’t admit it.
So today we turn up the volume bass to an uncomfortable level, with the Ford Expedition Funkmaster Flex Edition.
Back in 2008, Ford felt it was missing out on the lucrative custom automobiles market, and that there was a consumer niche not being served by the eight different trim levels of the Expedition that were already available. So what’s cool in the late 2000s era? What could Ford do (cheaply) to get some feet into showrooms and bums into some special, embroidered leather seats?
A tie-in with a rap star was obviously necessary. The Expedition Funkmaster Flex Edition was born.
For just 650 examples, Ford sent a Limited trim 4×2 Expedition to a customization warehouse (or maybe behind an abandoned Pizza Hut, or something) where Funkmaster Flex had left a list of changes to be made.
There was only one color scheme for the exterior: the body was painted bright red, the roof painted black, and an orange pinstripe applied.
There are various Funkmaster Flex “FMF” badges on the exterior and interior, smoothed bumpers, a body kit, and chromed six-spoke wheels.
The exterior theme carried over to the interior (yay!) with red and black seats …
… home to an awful red center console that appears to be made of Frisbee plastic.
Every example got a number and a signature by the car’s namesake for that special feeling of individuality, for which Ford asked buyers to pay more than a regular Limited 4×4, and less than a King Ranch 4×4 — $40,910.
This one’s currently for sale on eBay, and the seller is asking $20,900. If you have a 40-percent off coupon handy, it might be a buy. You could pop that center console out and switch it for a regular one without too much trouble, change the badges, and tell people it’s a secret Harley-Davidson Edition.
[Images via eBay]
Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.
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The exterior I like. The interior reminds me of some of the cars friends drove in highschool. The had mix and (not) match hoods or quarter panels that had clearly come from a junkyard donor vehicle.
I have one. It's number 000 of 650. So I wonder, is it a pre-production car?