Minneapolis Street Sighting: Ford Explorer Sport

Beginning in the 1980s, a new class of vehicle would slowly replace the station wagon (and even the upcoming minivan)as the primary mode of transportation for families with and without children; in 1982 GM came out with "small wagons" based on the S-Series compact pickup; Ford followed suit with the Bronco II, but it wasn't until the arrival of the AMC-Jeep Cherokee that this emerging category quickly became a sales success.

Launched for 1990, the Explorer came in two bodystyles, the two-door and the four-door wagon. Shown here is the Sport model, which after 1991 became the name for all two-doors, and not just a trimline of  the two-door.
This generation lasted from its arrival as a 1990 until the 1995 model year, followed by two successors; unfortunately, the two-door Sport was dropped after 2003, while the "Sport" nomenclature would return for 2013 as a nicer-looking, and (yep, you guessed it) Sporty version of the now-crossover Explorer.

Judging by the wheels and facelift, this example is a 1992-1994 model, though the lack of actual year-specific options make it difficult to pare it down to an exact year. I do know that this truck is fairly well optioned, consisting of cast aluminum wheels versus standard wheels, rooftop luggage rack with crossbars, and a tow package.  From my peek inside, this truck also had a the standard 5 spd Mazda-made manual with lockout hubs, as opposed to the optional 5 spd Ford-built automatic and push-button 4x4.

I've written about these Explorers before; I quite like them, but they're getting thin on the ground here, much less in two-door form.  This particular truck is a resident of my neighborhood, but I've never given it the photoshoot treatment until now. From across the street, the thing looks great. Well, for a first-generation Explorer anyway.

Once its viewed close-up, however, the imperfections began to show themselves; the paint is not at all shiny, even when cleaned, and the rear bumper (like all Ford trucks) has more rust than paint at this point. Fortunately, all the badges are there, which isn't too hard since this thing was pretty much badgeless from the factory.  Unlike most Explorers of this vintage, surprisingly there is nary a hint of rocker-panel rust.

As I mentioned earlier, this truck had the 5 spd, and from what I recall, the interior is pretty clean; no cracked dash, and no rips in the seats, and best of all, it still had the original carpet dash-pad and rearview mirror cover with the Ford logo.

Aside from the rust, this is a well-preserved truck; like most Explorers, I dig this truck, and I am glad I shot this when I did. Since these photos were taken, its acquired some pretty nasty right side damage,, and a missing grille. I *almost* want to shoot again just because of the new damage, but doing so will make me a sad panda.