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The 2018 Ford Expedition was unveiled today equally the ultimate rolling infotainment eye. The full-size SUV offers on-board telematics, Wi-Fi hotspots for x, streaming video redirected from your home cable system, and dual middle-row screens each with their DVD role player.

Based on the architecture of the Ford F-150 pickup truck, the new Expedition uses a body-on-frame construction (heavy simply rugged) and an aluminum body that saves up to 300 pounds, Ford says. There will be regular and extended-length (Expedition Max) versions measuring nearly 17 and 19 feet in length, so measure out your garage earlier shopping.

Infotainment for every row

Ford says there are more than than xl features and driver-aid technologies new to the Trek. Up forepart, the infotainment organization is an eight-inch touchscreen with Ford Sync 3 supporting both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. There'south a wireless charging The upgrade audio is B&O Play with 12 speakers.

The heart row can be outfitted with dual LCDs in the back of the forepart-seat headrests, each with a DVD player every bit mentioned above. There'due south access to a pair of USB jacks plus a 120-volt Ac socket in the back of the forepart seat console.

The third row gets USB jacks on each side and a 12-volt socket on the correct. They would use wireless or stored programs on tablets plugged into the jacks. All told, on upper trim levels, at that place can be as many as six USB jacks, iv 12-volt outlets, a 120-volt AC outlet, and the Qi wireless charger.

Sync Connect telematics

Ford will offer Sync Connect, its telematics organization (similar to GM's OnStar). The Wi-Fi hotspot will support upwardly to ten devices running simultaneously, and it reaches 50 feet from the vehicle, useful at campgrounds or if you're parked close to Starbucks when its Wi-Fi is downwards. Sync Connect works with the Sling app to redirect TV programming to the motorcar. Simply brand sure you understand how much data you lot're using; few automakers offer unlimited data to the auto.

The FordPass smartphone app lets the user check on the car remotely: lock, unlock, start, and access diagnostic information. Ford is late to the on-board-telematics game. Now that they've arrived, they're going at it total-throttle.

Driver assists

The 2018 Expedition "offers more driver-assist engineering science than whatever other full-size SUV," Ford says. It certainly covers all the bases. It has the big three: adaptive cruise command (at present full-range), bullheaded spot detection (blind spot information organization in Ford terminology), and lane departure alert.

There is also a rear camera and optionally a full-environment photographic camera organisation, useful on such a big vehicle. In that location is automated parking (the car steers, the driver controls throttle and brakes). For people who haven't mastered backing a trailer, Pro Trailer Backup Assist simplifies the task. The commuter turns a knob on the dashboard in the direction he or she wants the trailer to get — no more remembering you need to turn the bike right to brand the trailer get left, but not then far that you jackknife.

Turbo V6, 10-speed automated

The standard powerplant will exist a three.v-liter turbocharged (EcoBoost) V6 engine with a 10-speed automated manual and auto finish-kickoff. Without citing horsepower, Ford says information technology will be the most powerful Expedition e'er. There volition be rear-bulldoze and four-wheel-drive versions. Two circular controllers on the console control the automatic transmission and terrain direction: normal, spot, tow/haul, eco, loose terrain (grass, gravel, snowfall), low traction situations (sand), and uneven surfaces (mud, ruts).

The vehicle is ideal for towing. Ford says it expects the Expedition will have the highest towing capacity of the segment, on the high side of the 9,200 pounds information technology'due south at present rated for.

Ford Expedition sales grew 44% last year but they were iii times higher in the early 2000s. Among total-size non-luxury SUVs, it outsells only Nissan Armada and Toyota Sequoia.

Slightly bigger in 2018

Ford said the base Expedition will exist slightly longer. The outgoing Trek is 204 inches long (17 feet) and the Expedition EL (Trek Max in 2018) is 224 inches, or 18 feet, 8 inches. With the door mirrors non folded, the old Expedition was 4 inches shy of existence 8 feet broad, meaning it's a tight fit getting into a garage with the standard 8-foot door (92 inches broad mirrors open up, lxxx inches mirrors folded).

The Expedition will come up in eight- and vii-passenger versions, the deviation being demote versus bucket seats in the heart. The center buckets tilt besides as slide, and so you can have admission to the third row with a child seat still attached to the middle row bucket seats. Sitting in pre-production prototypes of both the Trek and Expedition Max, middle row seating was excellent and third row seating was quite good. Most people of normal height (5-foot-nine) should be okay in the third row. Well-nigh of the difference in length is the cargo expanse, which in the Expedition is incapable of handling the luggage of seven-eight people. For daily trips with the kids to school, a multi-level storage system provides easy access to shoes, balls, gloves and the like.

The Expedition ships this fall. Trim lines are XL (fleet sales only), XLT, Limited, and Platinum. Prices oasis't been fix, but they'll exist significant. They currently range from  $48,000 (XLT base price) to $65,000 for the Expedition Platinum. There is no longer an Expedition King Ranch that was one step below Platinum. This is one of five SUVs Ford said it volition launch by 2020. That includes resurrecting the Ford Bronco name.

Ford sold more than 200,000 Expeditions from its introduction in 1996 until 2000. Sales were just shy of 60,000 in 2016, a 44% jump on an aging vehicle, only proof of what $2.50 gasoline does to propel sales of three-ton vehicles. Ford is still well behind Chevrolet and GMC in big-SUV sales, beating simply Nissan Armada and Toyota Sequoia. It hopes to regain ground when the 2018 Expedition ships in the autumn.