In today’s used car market, it’s hard to find a vehicle that offers more bang (or space) for your buck than Ford’s Expedition. Today’s Nice Price or No Dice ’99 XLT might be a prime example, but, as always, you’ll get the final word on that.
Daimler-Benz deserves kudos for being one of the few stalwart automakers to still sell a traditional estate model here in the U.S. Mercedes has offered a wagon on the E-Class platform for nearly half a century, beginning with the W123 in 1977. Yesterday, we looked at that model’s prodigy of nearly two decades later (and with only one major model change): a 1995 Mercedes-Benz E320 Estate.
That car came to us in stately silver, with the promise of proper maintenance and no mechanical issues. It also had all the wagon-y goodness one could want, with a spacious load area and a fold-up rear-facing third row to take us all back to our formative years. That was all enough to make the classic Benz a solid contender at its $10,250 asking price. We all circled our wagons and awarded the longroof a razor-thin 51% ‘Nice Price’ win.
Bucking the Bronco
Yesterday’s Mercedes held a lot of appeal, with its classic proportions, legendary build quality, and status-symbol three-pointed star hood ornament. What if, however, you needed something similar, but with vastly more room inside, more pedestrian mechanicals to make maintenance easier, and a price tag that eschewed any sense of status-seeking? If those criteria fit your expectations and budget (more on that in a minute), then the 1999 Ford Expedition XLT 4X4 we have under adjudication today should fit the bill.
Ford introduced the Expedition for the 1997 model year, basing it on the then-new F-Series pickup chassis and styling it to look like the company’s wildly popular, and more fun-sized Explorer. Nominally, the Expedition replaced the long-in-the-tooth two-door Bronco in Ford’s sales-leading truck lineup. Sorry, O.J. It also finally gave Ford a direct competitor to Chevrolet’s long-running Suburban three-row SUV, something the company had never offered before.
Large and in charge
The mad mix of solid F-Series stoutness and Explorer-curious-buyer-friendly style proved a winning combination for the Expedition, and even more so for the Lincoln Navigator that it spawned, the model that arguably has kept the lights on at Ford’s fancy-pants brand for more than three decades.
This Expedition comes in appliance white over an institutional but dutifully long-wearing gray mousefur-and-plastic interior. There’s nothing particularly fancy or luxurious about this large SUV, which is laudable for anyone seeking basic but dang-big transportation. And dang-big it is.
If you were buying Fords at Costco, this would be the model the box stores would offer, and you’d probably have to buy two of them, connected by a plastic grab handle. The deets are: a 119-inch wheelbase, supporting over 200 inches of overall length. With over six and a half feet of overall width, the truck offers more than 63 inches of interior shoulder room for stretching out or for road trip games of slug bug.
Everything you need
This Expedition is claimed to have a V8, but the ad doesn’t specify which V8 is under its hood. Standard equipment was Ford’s 4.6-liter SOHC Triton V8 offering 215 horsepower and 290 pound-feet of torque. As an option, buyers could opt for a 5.4-liter displacement edition making 230 horses and raising torque output to 325 pound-feet.
Whether or not the engine makes a difference at this Expedition’s price (more on that in a minute) will have to be seen. What we do know is that behind the engine is a standard four-speed automatic transmission and, as this is a 4X4 edition, a two-speed Borg-Warner transfer case feeding Ford’s ControlTrac pushbutton 4WD.
According to the ad, that drivetrain has confidently pushed the truck to 143,279 miles, and it seems ready for even more, as the seller claims the truck is mechanically sound and has no warning lights nagging from the instrument cluster. The exterior is free of dents or significant paint failure, and it rolls on factory alloys fitted with tires with plenty of life left. The cabin looks just as serviceable as it is unexciting, with only a cracked, worn console armrest as an obvious sign of age and use. This truck has all the basics covered, too, with front and rear climate control, cruise, power windows and locks, and what looks like a towing package. A clean title and get-out-of-jail-free card from the smog tester are additional check marks in this Expedition’s favor.
It costs what?
Okay, so that’s all well and good, but what would something this size and with these capabilities rightfully cost? This Expedition—which appears to do it all—asks $2,600. See? I told you we would get to that value proposition. This isn’t an outlier, either: everywhere you look, prices on old Expeditions are down in the bottom of the well with poor, unfortunate Timmy.
For all of us who have lamented that the entry point for the used car market has (like everything) risen substantially since the pandemic, here is a class of vehicles that the valuation tsunami passed by unaffected. It’s like discovering a valley of big, dopey dinosaurs right in your own backyard. Two reasons these Fords are likely so cheap are that they get really bad fuel economy, averaging around 15 mpg no matter what, and that, regardless of displacement, the Triton V8s fitted to these models have a reputation for spitting out spark plugs like expectorated loogies. Both issues are expensive considerations in themselves.
Regardless, we now need you to choose whether this Expedition is worth even that $2,600 asking, or if it’s best to pass on the big—but cheap—beast.
You decide!
Sacramento, California, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
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