Monday Mileage Champion: 2001 Ford Expedition XLT
True Miles Unknown. For some folks these three words conjure up the fear of a car with more miles on it than the Grateful Dead. Others simply head on off to Carfax and try to approximate the mileage figure.
This one had 1 owner and 280,923 miles on it as of January 2012.
17 service records at the dealership. A pretty healthy record of attendance given that it’s an 01 model.
This Expedition had a surprisingly decent interior on it. You see those frayed edges on the driver seat? They’re as common as kudzu on these Fords. Trying to find an old Expedition with good leather seats is like trying to find an old Volvo 850 with a good left side bolster on the driver’s seat. Weight, age and lack of leather conditioning always wear them out.
This Expedition also happens to be the ‘Quiver’ 8 seater. I always thought that these vehicles would end up in the holler or perhaps with 24 speakers, 6 TV’s and a young man with a deep appreciation for polka.
Actually this one was driven 30k+ for a while, then sat. It went through the sit/drive cycle a second time before finding the long and winding road to automotive wholesale heaven.
I wonder if that rear tailgate is sagging in sympathy of the frayed front seat. It sold ‘True Miles Unknown’ for $1100 + a $115 auction fee. The new owner is a buy-here pay-here dealer who has a solid Latino clientele at multiple locations. I’m sure he’ll have no trouble selling it.
The question for today is the same as last time. Which engine? Some of the features that I just highlighted should give you a good clue as to what’s lurking under the hood. Gotta love those Expeditions!
More by Steven Lang
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Forget the engine. How many $2000 automatic transmission rebuilds has it had? Even without towing, that seems to be what I have seen go wrong in Ford trucks. The 8.8 rear axle also had problems until the factory fill lubricant was upgraded to 75W-140. As with the ball joints, there is a heck of a lot more than just the engine needed to keep a vehicle on the road. It is way too typical to obsess about engine oil changes and neglect everything else.
Can't vouch for these as I never owned one, and besides they were hideously huge by my estimation, but I CAN vouch that Ford CAN build a long lasting motor, no problem. I had a 1992 Ford Ranger with the venerable 4.0 V6, yes, that one, in the pushrod variation, and I got it up to almost 237K, before cooling system leaks, front in issues, shifter issues, a bad idle air controller valve and a bad, or loose U-joint, along with a prodigious oil leak, a Qt every 2 weeks or so finally did it in. Up until the very end, it was a reliable as the day is long, which was, it started up without issue, and rad just fine. I could not detect any valve clattering as yet and it didn't seem to push the blue smoke anywhere and it still had plenty of oomph for it's 120hp. If anything, I wished it weren't so damned thirsty with the gas though.