Ford being seduced by the dark side with its new Expedition

By Jim Bray
October 9, 2025

I think it's time to opine about distracted driving, yet again.

No, I'm not going to whine about drivers on their phones, or bad driving per se. This time. Besides, anyone who drives regularly should have noticed by now that driving skills appear to be on a serious downward slide.

No, I want to talk about car manufacturers who in their zeal to make their vehicles more relevant to the online generation (and perhaps avoid even more onerous regulations than they have to navigate already) are making their vehicles so complicated that it's getting nearly impossible to just drive rather than operating a big, upholstered smart device.

Case in point: the latest Ford Expedition. Now, I don't mean to slag Ford exclusively here because they're only one manufacturer and, to be fair, I've traditionally found them to be one of the best brands (of the ones I get to drive) for not beating its customers over the heads with ridiculous tech and overly complex interfaces.

Time was when Ford's Sync system was one of the easiest touch screen/instrument panel interfaces around. It was straightforward and it worked. Oh, it may not have offered all the stuff today's carmakers seem duty bound to cram into their offerings (or is it "cram down our throats?), but Ford seemed to recognize the difference between a vehicle and a smart phone. And they seemed to understand ease of use issues.

But with this latest iteration of the Expedition, it appears Ford has been seduced by the dark side of the Force because, within about two minutes of picking up Ford's sample Expedition at a local dealer, I wanted to kick the bejeebers out of it – and I never got over that.

Why? Well, it's bad enough that Ford has changed its centre stack screen's interface to a swipe and touch one like pretty well everyone else is using now (so you have to take your eyes off the road to see where you're swiping and touching – which takes longer than it did with the much simpler Sync), but even worse is the steering wheel-mounted controls with which you can control stuff like audio volume and source, cruise control, settings and the like.

Traditional buttons – which could be a tad onerous but at least were quickly at hand and mostly straightforward – have been replaced with a kind of track pad-like thing on either side of the steering wheel. And you use it with your thumbs, moving them around so a cursor on the instrument panel will move around to whatever control you want to tweak.

Sounds straightforward – and I admit I'm old, though I've been using computers and tech like that since the 1970's – but in practice it's a nightmare! And it means your eyes are forced away from the road ahead and onto the big LCD screen that takes the place of today's instrument panels. So instead of driving, you're poking around the interfaces.

Hell, you can't even adjust the headlights or the seat memory in the Expedition without going to the centre stack!

On the upside, this means your eyes don't get to notice all those "distracted driving in effect" signs and highway/driving tips that governments like to put up on the highways and byways to tell us not to drive distracted (which I assume means it's simply fine if the government distracts us). And you may not see that pedestrian walking across in front of you obliviously because he/she/it is plugged into ear buds and staring at his/her/its own smart screen.

So, yeah, the distracted driving comes from having to use the vehicle's damn interfaces. How many collisions (or even just rude gestures from other motorists) will this cause over the coming years?

Between Bluetooth and CarPlay/Android Auto, with some voice recognition thrown in for good measure – not that voice recognition is particularly good these days – there's enough interfacing for nearly any possibility, so why bother with all this interactivity and connectivity and complexity?

There's a time and place for everything, and driving a car is not the time or place to be surfing the web (or whatever other activity you choose to do instead of pay attention to the job at hand).

It's time for cars (and SUV's and whatever wheeled thingy tickles your fancy) to just be cars again.

And it's a damn shame, because the Expedition – while about twice the size I like in a vehicle (okay, three times…) – has a lot to be fond of.

And to be fair, they haven't removed all the buttons etc. from the interior. Below the central LCD there's a row of buttons next to the rotary volume control. They work stuff like the auto shutoff for red lights (another stupid feature, but not Ford's fault), traction control and the like.

The downside here, if you're someone who wears reading glasses and aspires to be five feet seven inches tall, is that they're far away and therefore hard to reach – and they're pretty well illegible from the driver's seat.

Naturally, your experience may vary.

Okay, enough ranting. It's time to look at the other aspects of Ford's gigantic Expedition – and as mentioned, there's a lot to like.

One thing I loved is its drive train. Ford's sample was of the "Tremor" trim level, the first year such an option has been made available. It's near the top of the line (only the King Ranch is higher) and it appears aimed at the off-road crowd.

At its heart is Ford's terrific 3.5 litre twin turbo EcoBoost engine, which in this incarnation (inSUVnation?) cranks out a quite lovely 440 horses and 510 torquey things, which is plenty to move this bus-like beastie with abandon. It doesn't make it feel any smaller, but it sure does pull!

It sounds fantastic, too!

Not as fantastic is the typical 10-speed automatic transmission. It works fine, but there are too many gears for my liking.

You won't forget that this particular trim level focuses on being an off-roader first and foremost. For example, it comes standard with 4x4, a 3.73 electronic-locking differential, and 18 x 8.5-inch Dark Carbonized Gray-painted aluminum wheels with Electric Spice pockets paired with 33-inch all-terrain tires that this little guy found didn't help to get in or out.

Expedition's suspension includes a Multilink Independent Rear, with stabilizer bars fore and aft. You also get AdvanceTrac with RSC (Roll Stability Control), Trail Control (Includes One Pedal Drive and Turn Assist), Trailer Sway Control, Integrated Trailer Brake Controller with Heavy-Duty Trailer Tow Package,
Lane-Centering Assist, Hill Start Assist and Hill Descent Control (the latter is on 4x4 Models only).

Inside, you get three rows of sets, heated and ventilated leather-trimmed front seats "with unique Tremor logo", heated captain's chairs in the second row and a third row that features power recline.

Behind the nifty, squarish steering wheel that kind of reminded me of a flight yoke, there's a customizable, panoramic 24-inch instrument panel display; there's also a 13.2-inch center-stack touchscreen that, as mentioned, may just drive you nuts. Ford calls that an "immersive Ford Digital Experience", in case you've been wanting an immersive digital experience in your big SUV.

My grandkids were really taken with the interior of the Expedition, thanks to its array of buttons and gadgets – so much so that they eschewed going for a drive and just wanted to play inside the big bus as if it were a playground.

Kids!

Also featured is a rocking Bang and Olufsen audio system, and it's a peach. I tried some of my high-resolution music files using it and was very impressed.

Not as impressive for a short-legged dwarf like me was that I couldn't find a perfect driving position no matter how much I cussed. Perhaps Ford's designers have larger folk than me in mind as their target customer. Yet I have no trouble finding a perfect place to put my posterior in some other vehicles of major size.

Interior materials are fine and the third row is actually big enough for adults – at least for a while. And there's an abundance of storage bins and the like.

The Ford Expedition is definitely not for me, and that's fine. I'm more of an Escape-sized consumer (well, I'm still a tad smaller than an Escape…), and I'm hoping that Ford keeps its grubby little tech-loving hands off its interfaces lest its usability be ruined like the Expedition's has. I guess I'll know better when they send the next Escape for me to play with.

But if you're looking for a big and robust and quite comfortable miniature bus and don't mind being beaten over the head by intrusive technology that could cause you to kill someone, this big Expedition could be just for you.

The Ford Expedition starts at $84,815 CAD and you can option it up from there. The test sample Tremor starts at $107,165 and the top line King Ranch will set you back at least $110,235.