Detroit Auto Show Preview #3 - The Ford Explorer Sport Trac

The Ford Explorer Sport Trac concept to be unveiled at the 2005 North American Auto Show in Detroit is meant to presage the vehicle that will ultimately replace the aging version of the SUV/pickup hybrid currently gracing the American highway system. The concept’s styling is sleeker than the current model and helps to differentiate it from the base Explorer which possesses a design that, though it may have worked when the SUV was first introduced, is now about as sophisticated-looking as an Appalachian outhouse in a 5th Avenue apartment complex. Though it remains highly doubtful that this product offering will generate the kind of buzz that last year’s Mustang did, it remains a step, albeit a baby step, in the right direction. Unfortunately, I do not think that this baby step will be enough to outrun the Honda Ridgeline, which debuts in North America later this year.