2025 Ford Expedition First Drive: Yes, We Can All Get Along
The new version of Ford’s full-size 3-row SUV does traditional stuff well even as it forges new ground.
Will conservatives and progressives ever agree? We think they might well find common ground in the new iteration of Ford’s full-size Expedition SUV. The updated Expedition maintains all of the characteristics that make full-size SUV so useful, yet it forges forward with an attractive, approachable digital interface and a new off-road-themed model. In a regrettably polarized world, we think buyers of many different outlooks will find common ground in the new Expedition.
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Few Changes Outside, Big Changes Inside
At first glance, you might not even realize you’re looking at the new Expedition. Both the regular-length and long-wheelbase Max models retain roughly the same dimensions as the outgoing version, and the new styling is a variation on a familiar theme. The biggest exterior change is the Range Rover–style split tailgate, which has its pluses and minuses. More on that later.
Inside, we find serious progress. The outgoing Expedition’s dash was basically a clone of the F-150’s, complete with bigger-than-life tablet-style screen, but the new Expedition dumps that motif for something more like that of its upscale cousin, the Lincoln Navigator (and the MT SUV of the Year–winning Nautilus).
The instrument panel is now a wide screen set just under the windshield, and while it doesn’t stretch pillar-to-pillar like in the Navigator, it has room for plenty of info, including a map display from the Expedition’s Google-enabled infotainment system. The steering wheel is a rounded-off square— “squircle” is the preferred term among MT staff—so as not to block the driver’s view of the panel.
The center screen is modestly sized and landscape-oriented, and the rest of the dashboard is refreshingly uncluttered, with the transmission’s dial shifter and a few control buttons under the screen.
Between the front seats is a nifty new center console that motors back to reveal a hidden storage compartment big enough for a small purse. Interior materials, trim, and quality are excellent, even in the entry-level Active model, but there are some ergonomic oddities. The drive-mode and four-wheel-drive controls are by the driver’s left knee, where you’d expect the headlight switch to be, while the headlights are controlled through the center screen. The cupholders are on the right side of the console, a long reach from the driver. To their left is a covered cubby that contains the USB-C plugs, wireless charging pad, and—you’ll never guess—the control dial for Ford’s nifty trailer backing system. What’s it doing in there?
Traditional Big-SUV Space
The Expedition can be had with seven or eight seats, depending on whether you get the two- or three-place second row. The latter is a 40-20-40 split-folding bench; the former is the same with the center section swapped for inner armrests.
In place of a rear-seat entertainment system, the Expedition has phone and tablet holders in the back of the front headrests. The third row is a three-abreast space that is surprisingly comfortable. There’s enough room to carry kids from toddler years right through college, provided you don’t grow ’em too close to six feet.
Cargo space is up from the previous Expedition, with 21.6 cubic feet behind the rear seat in the standard-length version and 36.1 in the Expedition Max (up from 19.3 and 34.3). All rear seats fold down flat, either manually or electrically depending on options.
The split tailgate mentioned earlier is power-operated, but is it an improvement over the standard hatch? Yes and no. Advantage: If a grocery bag goes topsy-turvy, the closed lower section will keep your groceries from ending up in the driveway when you open the liftgate. Disadvantage: Shorter folks will have a harder time reaching deep into the cargo bay, and when they do, they risk soiling their clothes on the lower tailgate section whether it’s open or closed.
Great Power and a Smooth Ride
Enough about the accommodations; you want to know how this big momma drives. The new Expedition is powered by the same twin-turbo 3.5-liter V-6 as the outgoing model, but the 380-hp base version is gone. The $63,995 Active model, $76,425 Platinum, and $85,650 King Ranch trims (add $3,000 for the Max versions) bulge with 400 hp and 480 lb-ft of muscle, while the 440-hp, 510-lb-ft High Output version is standard in the $83,025 off-road-themed Tremor model and optional on the Platinum. (Why it’s not offered on the King Ranch is a mystery.)
We’ll be performance testing both versions, and we’d be surprised if even the heavier Max models take more than six seconds to reach 60. Expedition 4x4s can tow between 9,000 and 9,600 pounds, but 4x2s are limited to 6,000 pounds (6,300 on the Max).
The Expedition retains its body-on-frame construction and is still based on the ST3 pickup truck platform, but the frame and independent front and rear suspension have been reworked to improve ride quality and accommodate the Tremor’s off-road hardware.
We liked the ride quality of the old Expedition just fine, and this new one is great as well, with only a bit of float over large bumps belying what is otherwise impeccable body control, although we could feel some shaking of the body-on-frame structure on serious bumps.
The Expeditions we sampled on-road—a standard-length Platinum with the Stealth Performance package and an Expedition Max in Active trim—both had 22-inch wheels, so we don’t yet know how much (if at all) the optional 24s and their lower-profile tires degrade ride quality.
Best to Let the Expedition Steer Itself
While we liked the Expedition’s ride, we weren’t crazy about the steering. The ratio is slow at 3.5 turns lock-to-lock, which makes for a lot of squircle-shuffling when parking. Straight-line tracking is not great; the Expedition likes to wander out of its lane, and the steering setup doesn’t make correction easy.
It’s reasonably relaxed right off center, then responds abruptly. The Expedition doesn’t dart to-and-fro like a sports car with hyper-responsive steering, but it does paint a gently weaving path as it cruises down the road.
Our other major complaint is the brake system, which seems to have been calibrated by the same folks who did the steering. After a slight bit of pedal movement, the brakes grab suddenly and come on strong, and decelerating smoothly requires the foot-muscle control of a ballet dancer. We’d prefer it if both braking and steering felt a little more natural and progressive.
Of course, the Expedition is really at its best when it’s driving itself. All trims can be had with version 1.4 of Ford’s subscription-based BlueCruise technology, a speed- and lane-keeping system that allows drivers to take their hands off the wheel on selected roads.
Customers (and MotorTrend) complained that previous BlueCruise iterations weren’t very communicative, and the new version does a better job. When you’re on a mapped road, the instrument panel displays a message that BlueCruise is available. Press one button on the steering wheel and the system is engaged. On non-mapped roads, that same button turns on the adaptive cruise and lane-centering systems, which require a guiding hand on the squircle. BlueCruise does a great job of letting you know when it can steer and when it requires you to do the steering.
Hey Google, Earn Your Annual Salary
With BlueCruise keeping us on course, we had a chance to explore the new multimedia interface. As the dearth of buttons and dials would lead you to expect, many of the Expedition’s functions are accessed through the center screen.
However, but Ford has done a good job of not burying things too deeply in the menu structure. Climate controls are always accessible, but this is where the Google-driven Ford Connectivity Package comes in: You can say things like “Hey Google, change the driver’s temperature to 72 degrees,” or “Hey Google, turn on the defroster.”
The whole idea behind the Ford Connectivity Package is that Expedition owners won’t need to use Android Auto or Apple CarPlay (which are included), because the system packs Google Maps and access to the Google store. That means you can download apps you often use in the car—Spotify, Waze, etc.—and run them through the Expedition’s infotainment system, with the same voice-control integration you get with Android Auto. (Android users will have to change the wake word, otherwise both phone and car will respond to “Hey, Google”.)
You can download games and use your phone as a controller, watch YouTube videos when the car is parked on either the center screen or the driver’s display, and, with your phone connected as a regular Bluetooth device, hear and respond to text messages.
Ah, but there’s a catch: Ford Connectivity is a subscription-based package. It’s free for the first year but costs $149.95 per annum thereafter, or you can make a one-time purchase of $745 which signs you up for seven years or the life of the system, whichever ends first. That seems like a lot of money for voice control of the A/C and YouTube on the car’s screens, seeing that Android Auto and Apple CarPlay give us the functionality we use the most—maps and music—for free.
Boldly Going Where the Expedition Timberline Has Gone Before
The new $83,025 Tremor model is the off-road-ready version of the Expedition, and it replaces the old Timberline model. Like the Tremor versions of the F-series pickups, this is a significant hardware upgrade, with 10.6 inches of ground clearance (1.9 more than the standard Expedition), the 440-hp engine, 33-inch off-road tires, a modified suspension, electronic locking rear differential, and off-road lights, functional tow hooks, and skid plates to protect the front suspension, transfer case, and skid plate. (Oddly enough, a plate to protect the transmission costs extra.)
Tremors also get some useful electronic upgrades, including a rock-crawl mode, Trail Turn Assist, which locks the inside rear axle to get this behemoth around close obstacles, and off-road one-pedal driving, which applies the brakes when you lift off the throttle. It also gets you unique orange trim inside and out.
Ford had us drive the Expedition down a particularly gnarly trail, made significantly gnarlier by a pouring rain that turned dirt to soup. Nothing required low range—then again, with 510 lb-ft of torque, is low range even necessary?—but the locking rear diff gave us all the traction we needed, and the cameras and Trail Turn Assist helped us bend the big Expedition between the trees. (Tremor models are only available in the short body length, but this is still a big SUV to take off-roading.)
Obviously the Expedition is no Bronco, but for a giant-size SUV, it does a pretty damn good imitation. Ford tells us it engineered the new Expedition with the Tremor model in mind, and it shows. Kudos, Ford engineers, for giving us a proper off-road Expedition and not just an on-road SUV playing dress-up.
We Can All Agree That Expedition Speeds Forward
All in all, we like what Ford has done with the 2025 Expedition. The new version stays true to its roots, preserving all the space and capability we expect from this class of SUVs, while forging ahead on interior design and infotainment integration and adding a great new off-road version.
We’d like to see improvements in steering and braking, but mostly we think the new Expedition charts the right course. Big-SUV conservatives will appreciate its fundamentalism with regards to hauling passengers, cargo and trailers with authority, while progressives will appreciate the leaps it takes into the future. If the two camps can agree on anything, it’s that this is a useful new version of the Ford Expedition.
After a two-decade career as a freelance writer, Aaron Gold joined MotorTrend’s sister publication Automobile in 2018 before moving to the MT staff in 2021. Aaron is a native New Yorker who now lives in Los Angeles with his spouse, too many pets, and a cantankerous 1983 GMC Suburban.
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