Time to enter the Publisher's Clearing House sweeps

Vacation! Destination Orlando. We live too far away to drive, so that means rental car.

I went on-line and ordered up ... a Taurus. I didn't want to spend my vacation in a Taurus, especially not with 2 young adults and a 10 year old in the back seat, but that's what I reserved. I was counting on the rental agency to offer to upsize me. They did. If I'd reserved an Expedition, it would have cost about $300 for the week, the Taurus was $230. The offer to upsize was for $5/day, so my gamble saved me a whopping $35 -- not enough to buy lunch in a theme park or fill the 28 gallon gas tank even once, but I was happy. So were the back-seat passengers. We own a Taurus.

Day 1: Or perhaps I should say night one. It was dark by the time we loaded our luggage into the back and headed off to find our rental house. The rear seat folds to make loads of storage space. It comfortably holds luggage for 5 for a week. With the rear seat folded, my 22 & 24 year old sons (6" and 5'10) were nearly shoulder to shoulder with their 10 year old brother, but they had no complaints about headroom or leg room.. Specs state that there is 39.8" of headroom in the second row and 38.2 in the third. Shoulder room in the second row is a generous 64.3 inches in the second row, tolerable even with the third seat folded. Leg room is 38.7 inches in row 2.

The 10 year old was delighted with the assortment of pockets and cup holders he could reach from his middle seat. With the vehicle fully loaded, the 5.4 L V8 easily accelerated onto the Beeline Expressway where the speed limit is 70 mph. You have a choice of opening just the upper half of the hatch or the entire liftgate when unloading, so removing all that luggage was easy too.

As for the front seat, I enjoyed the well-cushioned leather seats and the 41.2" leg room. I may only be 5'6", but my legs are nearly as long as that 6' son I'd parked in the back seat. There was plenty of room for my feet, too.

Day 2: With the luggage out of the way, we opened up the third row of seating and let our 10 year old settle in there. At 4'8" he wasn't about to complain about space back there. Headroom is 38.2" and legroom is 36.3". None of the rest of us climbed back that far to check it out. He found more cup holders and storage back there, too.

The tire pressure monitoring system alerted us to a potential problem that morning. For some reason, all 4 tires had dangerously low tire pressure. Once we'd put air in them, we didn't hear any more from the system, but were grateful that it had alerted us to the problem before we got out on the highway.

We chose that day for a side trip to Tampa -- about 1.5 hours from Orlando. We found that the Expedition is a thirsty beast compared to our smaller cars, but not unreasonable for its size at about 17 miles/gallon overall for our trip. EPA estimate is 14 city/19 highway. The ride is very smooth regardless of road conditions. With all the construction on the Florida highways, we were grateful for that. The height of the vehicle makes it easy to see past other cars when in heavy traffic and the power steering makes it easy to control with little driver fatigue.

Day 3: Off to the theme park. Again, we were grateful for the gas charged front shocks and the coil over shock double-wishbone independent rear suspension as we traversed the construction zones. Navigating the turns in the parking garage and easing into the assigned space was easily accomplished thanks to the power rack and pinion steering. The temperature hit the upper 70's with no clouds to block the sun, so it was time to check out the climate controls. Since we were in Florida, I can't say much about the heating, but AC is as chilly as you want it and the rear auxiliary controls allowed us to keep everyone happy.

Day 4: A hostage situation in a bank that closed the route to our rental had us checking out the local radio stations for details and suggestions for detours instead of listening to our CDs on the AM/FM premium in-dash 6-CD changer with clock, 4 premium speakers (120 watts peak), driver-adjusted speed-compensated volume, RDS equipped, partial mute with reverse sensing activation, MP3 capable(from the Ford web site) I don't know what some of that means, but the speed-compensated volume is something I want in my next car. It means that you don't have to fiddle with knobs to keep from being deafened when you stop at a light. The sound adjusts automatically. The car is very quiet even at highway speeds, but I still appreciated this feature -- and the quality of the sound we were getting, even though we did have to stop twice to get help with directions.

Day 5: My son wanted to charge his laptop while we were en route to the park. My husband wanted to charge his cell phone. No problem! Power ports front and rear! We also discovered that the "info" button I'd been pushing was what made the message center cycle between average fuel economy, distance to empty, and compass. My husband was so relieved to find that things weren't just shifting on their own. We also figured out that if you pushed while you turned you could reset the trip odometer. Reading the owner's manual would doubtless have speeded that along, but who reads manuals?

Day 7: Time to return the Expedition to the rental company and head home. I'd love to own this vehicle. It is comfortable. It handles well, it would tow the boat my husband lusts for. It has room for my family, our luggage, and even a couple of friends. If I win the lottery, or the Publisher’s Clearing House folks stop off at my house during the Super Bowl, you can bet I'll be at the Ford dealership the next day. At something over $35,000 when equipped like this model, we won't be buying one otherwise. I just can't justify the expense -- especially since we're in the process of replacing our heat pump. It died shortly after we got home from our vacation.