The seller has this one-owner, 40,000-mile first-generation Explorer listed as an Eddie Bauer edition, but is it an XLT rather than an Eddie Bauer edition? You can see some faded paint on the tops of the front fender flares, but this is one nice-looking early SUV. And by “early,” I know that the Suburban, Willys, and others were available decades earlier. The seller has this 1991 Ford Explorer posted here on craigslist in Bellevue, Washington, and they’re asking $16,000. Here is the original listing.
We could spend a week talking about the infamous Firestone/Ford rollover nightmare in the early 1990s here. There were many contributing factors that caused a few hundred deaths, including low recommended tire pressure and heat, as hot climates seemed to be particularly prone to trouble. The tire design itself came under fire, which caused Firestone to close the Illinois plant where the tires were made, and there were others. I owned a commercial cleaning service in this era, and we cleaned a bunch of Firestone stores. That was a very interesting time, to say the least.
That being said, this beautiful one-owner survivor appears to have led a very pampered life. I’m surprised to see some faded paint due to the sun; we typically don’t see that in vehicles from the Pacific Northwest. Otherwise, this looks like a jewel, and the Eddie Bauer trim was the top one in this era – although there are no Eddie Bauer markings or badges, and there’s an XLT badge on the rear liftgate. Thanks to Bob_in_TN for bringing that to my attention before this hit the airwaves. Ford made the first-generation Explorer from 1990 for the 1991 model year until the end of 1994. Here is a 1991 Ford Explorer brochure to check out.
The Explorer was somewhat rushed to market, and it had a big role in creating the SUV phase that’s still hot today. In case you haven’t noticed, most of the vehicles on the road today seem to be SUVs, although market share is still less than 50%. Even Ford itself, creator of the Explorer, only offers one “car” today: the Mustang. Everything else is a truck, SUV, van, etc. You can see that the interior here looks almost like new, if not exactly like a new Explorer in 1991 would have looked. The cool, gradiant/graduated (not like Jethro Bodine graduating from the sixth grade, but as in a varied tone from dark to light) seats truly appear in excellent condition both front and rear, as does the rear cargo area.
The engine is the only one offered this year, Ford’s 4.0-liter OHV V6, which was rated at 155 horsepower and 220 lb-ft of torque when new. Backed by an A4LD four-speed automatic transmission sending power to all four wheels as needed, the seller says everything works perfectly, and it runs and drives “excellent.” Have any of you owned a first-generation Explorer? Is it an Eddie Bauer or an XLT model?
It seems like yesterday when these came out. And man were they popular. I had a few rides in the first generation ones like this one here, I remember how roomy the back seat was for 3 of us riding. This kind of ties in with the Mazda pickup Scotty wrote up. Anyone remember the Mazda Navajo which was a 2 door Explorer? I also remember the Firestone situation as well. I believe Harvey Firestone was friends with Henry Ford, along with Thomas Edison too. Henry used Firestone tires for his early vehicles, but this situation which I think may have had to do with ride quality if memory serves me right. I’m more of inflate it as much as I can kind of guys and wonder if just some more air pressure would’ve eliminated that issue. This one looks very nice. Very well preserved.
Driveinstile: The first thing I thought about when I saw the 2 door Sport model in the brochure was the Mazda Navajo. I always thought these and the Blazers looked great as 2 doors. It’s probably one of the reasons why I drive a 2 door Bronco. And, I’ll bet the percentage of 2 door Bronco sales probably hasn’t changed much if compared to the 2 door Bronco Sport / Navajo percentage.
100% of Mazda Navajos were 2-doors. Ford wasn’t about to share the cash cow 4-door.
nlpnt: No one is disputing that point.
Also, correct me if I’m wrong but, I think you could get an early Explorer with a stick too. That would be an incredibly rare find.
Friend had a 2 door stick, with a small snowplow ❄️ Manual hubs. Lever T-Case. Really cool 4wd.
I’ve said it for a while now – I think that these,& full sized
American vans in really nice shape will only go up in value,as
most of them got used hard,& put away wet.
My ’60 Chevey Apache 30 (in my signature picture) was
the same way.It had 5100 miles on it when I bought it,& was kept
in covered storage almost all of it’s life.
I’ve always wondered if that ’60 is yours. Very very nice!!!
It was.Coolest rig I’ve ever owned.I sold it because I didn’t
want it sitting outside in rain in the Winter.It was 20 feet long,
too long & high (air vent on the roof) to fit in our garage.
I consider these first-generation Explorers to be very important and influential vehicles. They nailed the emerging market of the midsize four-door SUV, with their clean styling, attractive interior, nice trim, available options, decent performance, and reasonable price. The public noticed; production was over 400,000 for several years.
And as SG notes, consider the huge variety of SUV’s in today’s new car market.
Decades later, the Explorer has changed and evolved, but is still a core offering in Ford’s lineup.
I too think that clean, low-mileage examples will become more collectible.
Thanks SG.
And Ford owned the midsize SUV market in the 90s with this vehicle, making loads of money for the corporation and dealers. Everyone had one or wanted one. Then the Asians and Europeans came in for their share. Today, the Exploder seems like a police cruiser above all else.
Buddy of mine was a Ford family. He had a 90 Ranger STX with the extended cab, and his folks had this Explorer in a different color. We drove their Explorer from central WI to Steamboat Springs, CO. They were roomy and comfortable. But that engine was not for going fast (hard to deal with as a 19-20 yo back in 91). Getting your doors blown off by a Corsica sorta sucks.
Pricey, even if perfect. The seller may want $16,000, but it’s hard to believe someone would dig into their wallet to pay that amount.
Steve R
Pricey? More like insanity. As an old school Ford Master Tech, I worked on these for years and owned a few variations too. Even in perfect shape maybe $4k, and thats if the rubber is recent. They had all kinds of issues with hubs, transfer cases, transmissions and electrical nightmares and gremlins. Not to mention suspension and steering, waterpumps too. The seller needs to come back to reality, its not a classic or special, it’s just an old suv. And I like and own Fords.
Initially I had the same thoughts as you. But after thinking about it more I decided that to me the price was no longer very far out of line. I consider condition. Prices of a new one. Simplicity of this as opposed to a new or newer one and this started getting much better to me.
Wow, to see one which survived Cash for Clunkers is amazing! Great shape and whether you love these or not, historically significant.
I remember seeing a whole row of them along the backs of all of the local car dealerships.
They did NOT look this nice. Their rear suspensions were sagging so bad it was like a proto-Carolina squat, they were rusted out and anyone who thinks most of them had more than another year or two, let alone almost 20 left in them has probably forgotten how long ago 2009 was.
It’s an XLT, not an Eddie Bauer. This has the same paint scheme as my ’85 Bronco, although my Bronco had dark red seats and carpet. These Explorers really did start the swing toward SUVs; well, maybe I should qualify the Bronco II which became the Explorer.
First off, that is a very nice first gen Explorer. I bought a 1990 2 door Sport about 1998 or so; it was in great shape. Had 89k miles. Perfect for the wife to tote our 2 young daughters. It served us well and was surprisingly reliable. The only things I can remember having trouble with were the auto locking 4×4 hubs and the a/c. I paid 3900.00 for it and Cash for Clunkered it 10 years and 100k miles later for 4500.00! Also, Eddie Bauer editions had “Eddie Bauer” in script on the front seats as well as the lower doors, and tailgate,
Thanks for all of the great comments, folks! Especially for the Eddie Bauer/XLT info. I still remember cleaning the floors at those Firestone stores and talking with the managers about the tire fiasco. It’s hard to believe it’s been three decades already.
It does seem like yesterday with that whole tire fiasco. But Firestone survived. In fact I have gotten many sets of Firestone Transforce HT Load Range E tires for my worktruck.
That tire fiasco was exactly a fiasco. I really don’t understand how Ford could be blamed for that, Or, Firestone either. I saw pics of the initial case and the tires were worn down to the belts, plus the information I got said that the tire blew at an extremely high rate of speed. But I saw a lot of SUVs and midsized pickups getting those tires swapped. The funny part: it wasn’t all Ford Explorers; I saw mostly imports with Widlerness tires.
I remember, during that fiasco, when a crash involved a Ford Explorer, the media went out of its way to say that it was a Ford Explorer and all but gave the VIN, the assembly plant it went through, and the names of the assembly line workers. Now for an interesting story that was well buried under the alleged Ford/Firestone conspiracy:
This was told to me by a police officer in the region, so I take it as reliable.
There was a pileup on a freeway in the southwest. A guy driving an import SUV made a lane change and his steering locked up, causing him to rip through six lanes of traffic at 80+ mph. In the carnage that followed (that killed four and sent at least twenty more to the ER) it was discovered that one of the vehicles involved was a Ford Explorer, which, the media conveniently blamed. However the manufacturer of the SUV that actually caused it knew that there could be some problems so it sent out a team of lawyers armed with suitcases full of money to make the victims and families of the victims multimillionaires overnight. But–the widow of the deceased driver of the Explorer refused, demanding that first, the REAL culprit issue a full retraction that it was NOT the Ford, and instead, admitting what really happened. AND the CAUSE.
Well, the retraction read something like: “The investigation on yesterday’s freeway crash has indicated that the Ford Explorer might NOT be the cause. Investigators are now looking into the possibilities that the driver of an IMPORT SUV allegedly lost control of his vehicle while making a lane change.”
When I first heard of this disaster my first thought was Steering Failure. It just popped into my mind because I had a co-worker who drove the exact same make and year of SUV, and his steering locked up while backing out of his parking stall. He phoned the dealership and they immediately sent a ramp truck and dropped off a brand new import SUV for him to drive while they replaced his steering column.
I remember that the Explorer/Firestone headlines stopped right there.
All those body-on-frame SUVs from the ’90s handled like crap compared to the cars of the time which is why unibody crossovers came to dominate the compact and midsize segments.
It was popular enough with parents of older kids who ended up learning to drive on them that I’ve sometimes called the firstgen Explorer the car that made Millennials think a Honda Civic is a sports car.
Firestone had issues before the Explorer / ATX problem that probably made them an easy target.
In ’83 or so, I had bought some white letter 721 (“7 belts around 2 wrapped by 1”) tires for my ’81 Camaro and more than one person told me that I needed to get rid of them ASAP because of a tread separation issue that was carried over from the 500 model. I ignored these fearmongers and never had an issue.
I had lots of friends, customers, and a couple of brothers who ran Firestone Wilderness tires with ZERO problems. I often wonder where these issues come from? Is it that because of Ralph Nader’s book that everyone suddenly has the right to sue? Or did they just start wrapping product’s names on darts and throw them at the board; the first one to get the bullseye is the one they’ll sue next?
On the other hand, no one ever designed a product to fail; they designed it to serve a function…
@geomechs In this case I think Ford was genuinely at-fault. They recommended borderline dangerously low tire pressures in the Explorer but spec’d much safer tire pressures for the identical tires on the identically-suspended Ranger pickup – that’s what the ’90s Explorer was, a Ranger wagon – because people expected a truck to ride like a truck but they didn’t want to either put money into a more sophisticated rear suspension or have customers trading up from even an ’80s Escort wagon walk away thinking the Explorer rides like an oxcart.
I happen to live 2 miles from a gigantic Firestone tire plant. It was a big, huge deal and our town was covered in “we believe Firestone” signs. The Firestone line was that the Explorer was the cause, and of course Ford blamed the tires. When I traded/C4C’d my Explorer, the salesman made a big deal about what an unsafe vehicle it was. When I told him that the 1990 “twin traction beam” front end was totally different than the then current Explorer, he actually “harumphed”. Lol I still ended up with a brand new Mazda3 for the wife for $10,900.00.
91′ the 1st year Explorer, I traded in my 86′ Couger for a 4- door 2 wheel drive with a bench seat,50 dollar option as soon as they came out and drove from S.Jersey to Phoenix.
In the 80s people were looking for more efficient off-road and utility vehicles. Everyone seemed to have one but only the Cherokee offered 4-doors. Surprisingly it wasn’t until the early 90s that 4-door compact utilities appeared from companies other than Jeep. The Explorer was a huge player. IIRC, the tire issue was largely due to recommended low inflation specs causing sidewall problems in evasive maneuvers.
I had one exactly like that one! XLT for sure! Great truck, trans gave up around 70k!
Part 2 : I found the window sticker for my 91′ Explorer, base price $ 17,848.Air and radio $ 1,100,Automatic trans
$ 870.00,luggage rack $ 126.00,the bench seat was $ 35.00,destination $ 485.00,with a $ 600.00 discount it was $ 19,706.00
City 16 mpg,high,21 mpg.
I have owned just about every SUV Ford has manufactured over the years, including a first gen Bronco Ranger. In 1991 I special ordered an Explorer XLT, I loaded up the options including the Recaro bucket seats ($1,100 option) I
I have to say of all the Ford ( or Lincoln) SUV’s I have owned the Explorer was my least favorite. It felt underpowered, and unrefined. I sold it and special ordered a loaded Escape, drove it 150k, sold it and special ordered another Escape. The one went another 150k and was replaced by a Lincoln Aviator. I now drive a Navigator.
The plot around the Explorer was actually even juicier, for the media.
The Firestone and Ford dynasties were united through a high-society marriage when Henry Ford’s grandson (William Clay) married the granddaughter of Harvey Firestone in 1947.
Also, Ford had become a favorite bête-noir for the press in the wake of the “Flaming-Pintos” disaster…which had only fairly recently been (finally) settled in court.
I had the very first 1991 Eddie Bauer 2 door Explorer to hit the streets in Bellevue WA. It was a great SUV and I sold it long before I should have. This vehicle as mentioned above is not an Eddie Bauer edition but it’s a fine example of a 4 door Explorer XLT although a bit over priced. The Explorer came out in March of 90 as a 91 model. I don’t think these will ever be worth much and certainly not at this price because they lack power and the transmissions were not that strong. At about $10k it would be a good car for someone that wants a nice vehicle without all the modern amenities. I don’t think at this price they will get much traffic. If they don’t get it they should keep it and drive it until it won’t drive any more.
The price insane on this vehicle! And the 40K mileage cannot be verified as the odometer is only five digits.
This one looks to be in great shape but $16K is far too much an ask for it.
Price update: the seller lowered the asking price to $14,000.