Nobody in Kansas City even knew what a soccer mom was in 1990 when Gary Crossley Ford introduced the first generation Explorer. Soccer? That’s like a cross between basketball and kickball, right??
By the mid-’90s, every other mom in the preschool pick-up lane was driving an Explorer, most of them in Eddie Bauer green. A new generation of parents was taking a hard 180º turn against their own fend-for-yourself, be-home-when-the-streetlights-turn-on, mom-got-a-new-job, and dad-isn’t-going-to-live-with-us-anymore childhoods. Their children were going to have structure, activities, and, for the first time in American history, every child now needed a calendar
And their moms all needed a shiny new Ford Explorer to get them from after-school theater club to soccer practice and back home in time to grab some takeout on the way.
It’s not like Ford invented the SUV with the Explorer; it wasn’t even Ford’s first effort.
But earlier SUVs like the Ford Bronco, the Jeep Cherokee, and the International Harvester Scout, they were all packaged, polished, marketed for, and targeted to guys. Outdoorsy guys. Guys who wanted a vehicle that they could take hunting, fishing, and camping or at least lead the neighbors to believe they were occasionally doing some hunting fishing, and camping.
But those 1990s Ford Explorers were targeted squarely at overworked and over-scheduled parents, mostly moms, desperate to fill little Jason and Hallie’s every waking moment with significance. Just because we’re eating fast food from a paper bag in the back seat of the family car instead of around the family table doesn’t mean we can’t do it with a little style!
Over the last 30 years, Ford has gone on to sell 8 Million Ford Explorers making it the best selling SUV of all time
For three decades choosy moms chose the Ford Explorer because of the extra cargo room, surprising fuel efficiency, and industry-leading technology and safety advances.
But the real genius for the Explorer has been what it’s not. It’s not your mother’s kiddy hauler and grocery getter – the dreaded station wagons of yore. It’s not a giant truck that drives more like a tank. And it’s not, I repeat it is most definitely not, a minivan.
Cool moms drive Ford Explorers
It was the success of the Explorer that made Detroit sit up and take notice that American drivers like to sit up and take notice… and the higher they sit the better. Low-profile sedans have almost become extinct today on I-70 and I-35 through Kansas City and the interstate highway system across America.
The SUV rules the American road these days, and today’s soccer moms love the Explorer as much as their moms did.
“I love this car, fuel-efficient and spacious for a family of five. Our whole family enjoys it and can’t wait to take it on our next team trip,” says Paulene J. a Lee’s Summit mother of three (an 8-year-old sweeper, a 6-year-old midfielder, and a 3-year-old future goaltender).
The fact that for a good chunk of its 30-year history, the Explorer was manufactured right here in Missouri at Ford’s St. Louis Assembly plant probably didn’t hurt its popularity with hometown drivers either.
Gary Crossley Ford has been helping Kansas City soccer moms find the perfect Explorer for their team since the very beginning, and today we’ve got an Explorer to fit the changing tastes of modern consumers.
The Ford Explorer ST adds a little giddyup and go, plus aggressive styling cues for the performance-minded driver.
The new Explorer Timberline harkens back to the offroad roots of the SUV in case there’s a team camping trip next spring.
The Platinum model ups the luxury factor and adds a hybrid engine that dramatically boosts fuel efficiency.
And Ford is preparing now for the best-selling SUV of all time to lead the way into the future of transportation with an all-electric Ford Explorer planned for 2024.
Come Experience the Gary Crossley Ford Difference. You bring the team; we’ll supply the orange slices.
