The problem was, it also had the Achilles' heel of a big, tall truck: it rolled over more easily than a car would. You could use it as your family car, and it had the rugged, adventurous image of a truck. The Explorer was a marketing dream - the perfect vehicle for a baby-boom generation that wanted it all. And it was a gold mine: while Ford made less than $1,000 on the average sedan, the profit on an Explorer was nearly $8,000. 1 sport utility vehicle today, 3.2 million are on the road. Months after it went on sale, in April 1990, it was America's No. ''In hindsight, we probably could have afforded it, but hindsight is always 20-20.''įord called it the Explorer, and it succeeded beyond anyone's wildest dreams. ''It's a lot riskier to do a complete new vehicle, particularly back then,'' Mr. The plan's crowning beauty was that the new vehicle could be built on the Ranger assembly line, using many of the same robots and auto parts. Instead of a whole new design, which would be far too costly, they would simply bolt a roomy passenger cabin, stocked with leather seats and other family-friendly amenities, to the underbody of the existing Ranger pickup truck. If his new sport utility vehicle - the one he thought the Ford Motor Company needed right away to stay competitive - was to beat out a luxury sports car being promoted by more senior rival executives, he and his small team would have to come up with an inexpensive design. His bosses at Ford would approve only one risky new project that year, 1986. Stephen Ross knew how dangerous it would be to wait.
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