Incongruous tech sullies, but does not ruin, this luxurious cruiser’s mission.
Have you ever torn apart every corner of your home, swearing you left an item in some specific place, only to find it hiding somewhere that makes absolutely no sense? Perhaps you placed it there while in a fugue state, for reasons that made sense at that moment but are no longer apparent. Why else would your AirPods be in the freezer?
That’s what it feels like to drive the 2025 Ford Expedition, at least sometimes. There are many facets of this seven-seater that make perfect sense, but there are certain corners of the new-Expedition experience that leave us wondering what the folks in Dearborn might be smoking. Thankfully, those small issues don’t really get in the way of Ford delivering on its mission to create a comfortable, capable three-row SUV.
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We Begin Under the Hood
While the powertrain isn’t often the headline-grabber in any family vehicle, Ford didn’t scrimp on the Expedition’s juice. A twin-turbo 3.5-liter V-6 resides in the engine bay, and in standard guise it produces a meaty 400 horsepower and 480 pound-feet of torque. But opting for the $6545 Stealth Performance package bumps output to 440 horses and 510 pound-feet. That’s enough scoot to shove this 5844-pound brick to 60 mph in just 5.1 seconds and to dispatch the quarter-mile in 13.8 seconds at 99 mph. This Expedition is quicker than it has any right to be. Sadly, there’s a price to be paid in fuel economy, with the SUV mustering just 20 mpg on our 75-mph highway fuel economy test, falling short of the EPA’s 22-mpg estimate. Although we did get 23 mpg out of the long-wheelbase Max variant.
The power comes on nice and smooth. As you lean on the accelerator, the 10-speed automatic sprints its way down the order, picks the right gear, and shoves you off toward the horizon accompanied by an ample quantity of engine noise—our microphone recorded 79 decibels at wide-open throttle, positively drowning out its closest competitors.
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Ride and Handling
Smooth doesn’t describe the engine alone. The ride quality is clearly tuned for a luxury-forward vibe that keeps things nice and soft. Credit to Ford’s engineers here for accomplishing this without relying on air springs, either. This Expedition rides on a combination of steel springs and adaptive dampers, but the result could easily be mistaken for a pneumatic solution. The SUV simply soaks up bad pavement and transmits very little harshness. Depending on your preferences, its inherent softness might make it too wallowy in corners; then again, considering we measured a just-fine 0.78 g on the skidpad, you’re not liable to be blitzing hairpins in this thing anyhow.
HIGHS: Stealth package hustle, luxury-forward ride, La-Z-Boy-tier seating.
Braking performance is adequate, requiring 180 feet to clamp down from 70 mph, but you may have an issue with how the brake pedal feels. It became a love-or-hate situation at the office. Whereas its competitors tend to have stiffer brake feel, the Expedition’s was on the softer side. Some editors found this easier for modulation, but others simply deemed the pedal too mushy—and, at the top of the throw, a bit too grabby.
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The Inside Story
The front seats are basically loungers, swallowing occupants in a sea of soft leather, making it easy to knock out a few hours of driving with little fatigue. There’s plenty of storage in the center armrest cubby, as well as in the deep cubby next to the cupholders. But the center console has a party trick: Hit a button and it slides rearward, uncovering even more storage and offering easier access for second-row occupants.
Once you start moving away from the first row, though, things aren’t as great. The second row is fine, but its amenities don’t stack up to the competition, and that situation is more obvious when you finally crawl back to the third row. While large windows let in a good amount of light, the adults we crammed back there complained of poor foot and elbow room. Riders in the outboard seats found their elbows constantly inside the cupholders. Thankfully, children should find the space suitable.
View Interior PhotosMichael Simari|Car and Driver
If you’re wondering how that left-field introduction factored in, perhaps you’d like to fiddle with the Expedition’s headlights. You reach down and to the left, as you would in most modern cars, spin the dial, and—oh no, you’ve changed the vehicle’s drive mode and activated the four-wheel drive! In its infinite wisdom, Ford decided to put the drivetrain controls where the headlight ones used to be—and where your muscle memory still thinks they’re located. Want to adjust the headlights? That’s now done via the central touchscreen by pressing a small tile that Ford placed in the magical land of Narnia (the bottom-right corner).
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Silly decision-making continues from there. The widescreen display just below the windshield is largely empty; granted, you get camera feeds when you engage the turn signals, but this real estate could be better utilized in literally every other situation. Looking for a tachometer, a pretty standard inclusion for a car? You can only see it in Sport mode, and even then, it takes up maybe 20 pixels and requires opera glasses to read, like a postage stamp on a Times Square billboard.
LOWS: Touchy brakes, strange tech logic, maybe a little too floaty.
The steering-wheel buttons are devoid of labels; to see what they do, you must rest a finger on said button and let the screen show you its intended function. Even the steering wheel itself feels a bit off. Squircles are slowly becoming commonplace as dashboard design adapts to its flatscreen future, but that doesn’t mean we like ’em. Yes, the Expedition is quick, but not quick enough to earn the Ford GT’s tiller.
View Interior PhotosMichael Simari|Car and Driver
Thankfully, not every corner of the Expedition’s human-machine interface is fraught with questionable decisions seemingly made over three-martini Dearborn lunches. Ford’s infotainment software is still easy to use, and we appreciate that it shows Apple Maps (via CarPlay, wireless or wired) on the primary dashboard display, which frees up space on the lower touchscreen to fiddle with music or dictate a message. BlueCruise, Ford’s hands-free highway driving aid, is easy to use (once you figure out which wheel button activates it) and does a commendable job of holding its lane position and, when requested, changing lanes.
Body-on-frame three-row SUVs carry the dubious honor of always being expensive, and the Expedition is no different. Like its cohorts, the Expedition starts off in the mid-$60,000 range, but the sky’s the limit with options and fancy trims. Our Platinum model is one rung from the bottom, and the sole option is the aforementioned $6545 Stealth Performance package that adds the high-output V-6, adaptive dampers, 22-inch wheels, blacked-out exterior trim, red brake calipers, and a high-flow exhaust. Out the door, this little number would run you $83,490. We were gonna say that pricing is pushing toward Navigator levels, but the Lincoln starts at $102,190 these days, so the Ford’s got plenty of runway left.
View Interior PhotosMichael Simari|Car and Driver
The 2025 Ford Expedition is capacious enough to take the entire family to the beach for a long weekend, and it’s connected enough to do half the driving and keep all your passengers’ devices topped off, but it’s also hiding a surprising amount of hustle under the hood. Sure, some of the tech seems designed to frustrate rather than assist, but if you can either ignore those things or simply get used to them, what remains is an eminently solid vehicle for large families on the go.
