Long before SUVs drove like cars and appeared in nearly every driveway, the vehicles were built like trucks and used by people who plied the backcountry. Then Ford Motor Co. rolled out its Explorer and forever altered the U.S. auto market.

Although it could still handle rough terrain, the Explorer came with many of the creature comforts of a sedan — including designer themes such as the Eddie Bauer edition — and the interior space of a minivan. Despite a safety scare involving Firestone tires the vehicles came equipped with, it turned into a sales behemoth and spawned the SUV revolution.

But a bevy of new competitors and rising gas prices whittled Explorer sales to just a fraction of their once industry-dominating peak, sending Ford back to the drawing boards to rethink the vehicle from the ground up for the first time since its launch 20 years ago.
Ford is unveiling the results of that redesign Monday — a lighter, more fuel-efficient SUV, which like much of its modern competition is no longer built on the base of a truck.

"It is a pivotal vehicle for Ford right now, especially at a time when there is so much competition and people are worried about price and fuel economy," said Brandy Schaffels, an analyst at auto information company TrueCar.com.

"It is smoother and more refined than in the past and much less boxy than the previous version," she said.

The company doesn't expect a return to the glory days. Explorer sales peaked in 2000 at 445,157 vehicles and accounted for 13.1% of Ford sales, but barely surpassed 50,000 last year. The Dearborn, Mich., automaker believes the new version will have brisk sales.

"We have 4 million Explorers on the road today, and 140,000 Explorer owners come back every year to buy a new vehicle. We are hoping they will come into our showroom and take a look," said Amy Marentic, a Ford marketing manager.

Marentic wants to grab back customers such as Jerry Dale of North Hollywood. The 51-year-old, single television writer owned a 2000 Explorer for six years until it was totaled in an accident four years ago. He replaced it with the smaller Subaru Forester.

He's thinking about the Explorer again, enticed by reports that the new version will get 20% to 30% better mileage than the current model, depending on the engine option.

Like most of the buyers who turned the Explorer into an automotive icon, Dale said he didn't have much need for the rugged capabilities of the vehicle, including the ability to tow a boat.

"I am an urban dweller. I buy the vehicle because I like the look and the feel," he said. "It is an emotional decision." But for Ford to get his business, "it has to show some evolution from the old Explorer. I want people to notice it is a new car," Dale said.

In its redesign, Ford abandoned the old construction method of bolting the body to a truck frame to improve handling and fuel economy. The SUV now has the unibody construction of competitors such as the Honda Pilot and Toyota Highlander — the chassis and much of the body of the vehicle are one unit.

The Explorer now comes as a front-wheel or four-wheel-drive vehicle. The old rear-wheel drive is gone. The new engines, both a 3.5-liter V-6 and an optional turbocharged four-cylinder, use less gas but have similar power to the previous offerings.

Ford is pitching a variety of improvements to the vehicle's stability. Additionally, one safety option is inflatable seat belts in the second-row seats that don't use explosives and deploy slower than conventional airbags. The belts spread crash forces across a wider surface than a traditional seat belt, a factor that helps protect passengers, especially children.

The emphasis on safety is designed to alleviate any lingering concerns from earlier in the decade when the vehicle suffered from tire blowouts and rollovers that caused several hundred fatal accidents. The new Explorer is expected to hit showrooms in December or early next year. The exact price has not been released, but Ford officials have hinted that it will start around $28,000 to $30,000.

The Explorer's challenge will be to get shoppers' attention in a sea of competition, even from Ford itself, said Karl Brauer, an analyst at Edmunds.com.

"There are just a huge number of these type of vehicles on the market, including Ford's Edge and the Ford Flex," Brauer said. "At the end of the day they are all car-based SUVs with front-wheel drive and all-wheel drive available and the same or similar drivetrains. There is just a lot of overlap."

The new Explorer will have less towing capacity than the outgoing model -- 5,000 pounds, versus 7,115 pounds

The new Explorer has a 2.0-liter, four-cylinder EcoBoost engine, which has the power of a V-6 -- 237 horsepower -- with better fuel economy. The government hasn't issued fuel economy ratings, but Derrick Kuzak, head of global product development at Ford, said the engine would be similar to a 2010 Toyota Camry sedan with a V-6 engine. That Camry gets 19 miles per gallon in the city and 28 on the highway.

The Explorer also has a 3.7-liter V-6 that gets 290 horsepower -- the same as the current V-8 -- and 20 percent better fuel economy than the outgoing V-6.