For our 3-month stay in America, we needed a car that could take us places reliably and comfortably, but most importantly it must be big enough for us to sleep in. Our limited budget didn’t give us many options, but somehow we got our hands on a very clean Ford Explorer, one of the most successful American SUVs ever made.

In the early 2000s the Explorer was so popular that if you threw a tennis ball in the air, it had a 50% chance of landing on one. This is the third generation of the Explorer, and like the generations that preceded it, it’s known to roll over. Even though this is the first generation of the SUV with its own chassis, instead of sharing one with the Ford Ranger, that was now wider and longer thus reducing the risk of ending upside down. 
Ford tried blaming Firestone for the rollovers, claiming that Firestone gave them a faulty set of tires that would explode at high temperatures. And that was partially true, Firestone did mess that up, but on the other hand, the Explorers ended up belly up due to the fact that Ford rushed production of these bad boys. Realising only halfway through that they made it too narrow. They then decided to overlook that small issue. Because the suits that worked for Ford, figured out that the cost of designing a newer and safer chassis, would be greater than paying settlements in the off chance they were sent to court.
Ironically, they did go to court and lost considerably more money than planned. 
Thanks to a lot of propaganda, and finger-pointing at Firestone – ending a 100-year relationship with said company, Ford kept a good image and the third-gen Explorer was welcomed by the American people with a cleaner image than it deserved.
 

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Burke is our explorer. Named after Robert O’Hara Burke, who died in 1861 somewhere around Cooper Creek, Australia, during an expedition led by him. His goal was to find a route that would link Brisbane to the northern coast of Australia. The centre of this big country was unknown territory to the British empire, and the Australian government needed a passageway between the ports on the northern side of the country to the growing city of Brisbane. Somehow, the British empire couldn’t find anyone better suited to do the job than an ex-policeman with no experience in exploration. He naturally decided to lead a team of men and Indian imported camels, carrying 270 litres of rum and a Chinese gong, to explore a traitorous territory such as the outback. Hence his early death. Their lack of experience, and the unnecessary cargo, lead them to a very predictable failure. Likewise, the lack of four-wheel drive on our Ford Explorer led me to get stuck in the middle of the desert to suffer a less tragic but equally predictable failure. 
Inspired by this massive offroading disappointment, our Ford Explorer was named after the failed explorer.

Burke, the car, doesn’t answer to the call of the wild, but more to the call of the Walmart parking lot for a quick stop before picking up the kids from school.
It’s a big car, the biggest one we’ve owned. 3 rows, for a total of 7 seats. And it weighs as much as a cruise ship, or at least it feels that way. The inertia created by the weight of the SUV makes braking distances longer than most of the cars we have in Europe. The term “acceleration” does not exist in Burke’s dictionary, rather he slowly but surely gains speed. He crawls bit by bit to the speed limit. He cautiously gets moving like an old, tired elephant. All without going over 3000rpm. He doesn’t like going above 3000, the 4.0L V6 is a slow revving motor that can rev up to 6200rpm but would rather not if there isn’t the immediate need to.
 

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Burke is now in the hands of its third owner, hopefully getting the love and most importantly the maintenance it deserves. Because Burke had 263.800 miles when we sold it. That’s more miles than the real Burke the explorer ever travelled during his expedition. That has to be worth something, right? Hopefully, the new owner will keep up on all the maintenance and watch out for the known issues the Ford Explorer has, like the timing chain guides that are prone to break at any moment. 
But besides that, there is no reason Burke should follow the fate of the explorer it was named after.

Max