The volume button is now very hard to deal with. When you go to turn it either way, the volume moves up and down. Its hard to describe, but I'll try to give an example. Your driving on your way to work, dreading the hours ahead and have the volume set at a moderate volume as your spirits are low.... and then all of a sudden on of your favorite song comes on. YES! You're ready to enjoy the moment of escape and go to turn up the volume which in most cases should be such an easy task you do not even realize you do it. But sadly, your Explorer has other plans. I turn it up and it responds by going all the way to zero and now I cannot even hear the song. You continue to turn the knob with great finesse ... after 10 seconds you manage to get the volume back up to 4. You have a moment where you think to yourself, am I going to settle or push for what I want before the song ends? You settle, until the chorus comes on and you lose control and start to beg the knob to comply. The chorus ends and the song is about to be over. To which then, you have finally achieved the desired volume. Another favorite of mine is when I need to turn my volume down to talk to someone and instead it instantly goes to full blast....that can be awkward when trying to communicate with someone who is not in the vehicle and has no idea why you just blasted your music. In this case, turning off the radio is best. I have found the best fix is to move the knob slowly and ask nicely.

Sick to death of all the problems. Ford just throws these things off the assembly line and then says "Oh so sorry, it's out of warranty". We actually won a lawsuit regarding a 2002 Explorer. The tailgate window exploded in my hand when trying to shut it. The car dealer knew it was a piece of junk and the judge called his selling it to us "the most egregious case of taking advantage she'd ever seen".

We had to replace the transmission in this 2004 model, replaced the visors and interior overhead console, one back seatbelt doesn't work, again a cheap plastic problem, and the electrical/computer problem where a plug next to the computer melted and caused the engine to cut off while driving down the road, well that almost got us all killed. Turns out there is a group of wires near the rear and they were supposed to be suspended in some sort of harness and never were, so over time, the plastic coating rubbed off and caused at least one wire to ground out, which caused the plug near the computer to overheat and slide out of its socket, causing the engine to shut off. Once it cooled, sometimes the motor would start again. This cost us more than one battery, lots of time, being stalled at 2 in the morning with our daughter in the back seat. After $2500 spent in multiple visits trying to fix the electrical issue, and another $2600 for the transmission, and just under $1000 for the interior console and visors, add more $$ for visits to check out the Check Engine light and the ABS light... wonder what I'm leaving out... ? Oh yes, the air conditioning has been blowing hot on once side for quite awhile. The crack in the back window frame on EVERY SINGLE EXPLORER I see reminds me of the Ford Grenada back in the 80s.

Does anybody else remember the Ford Grenada? The gas cap was located behind the license plate and on every single Grenada, the spring on the license plate broke so they all drove around with their license plate facing the ground, wide open.

We have no idea why the Check Engine light stays on. No idea why the back passenger windows quit working years ago. No idea why the cruise control works about 1 out of 20 times you try to use it, and no idea why the volume control on the radio slips deafening everyone in the car.

Owning one of these Explorers is like being in a club with other unfortunate individuals who have found themselves wondering if the $9,000 they've spent on repairs makes it worth keeping the car now. My mechanic calls it the "Ford Exploder".