2025 Ford Expedition First Drive

If you’re in the market for a three-row SUV, a new 2025 Ford Expedition will run you at least $62,000. Mind you, its main competitor, the Chevy Tahoe, will likewise cost at least $60,000. Leap to the Toyota Sequoia instead, and you’re looking at just a bit more than $62,000. Now, moving to the Jeep Grand Wagoneer doesn’t save you either, starting at $62,000, and the bargain in this brawl is perhaps only the Nissan Armada. But that’s still going to cost you $58,530.

So, besides the price, which is in line with its peers, what should would-be buyers know about the recently refreshed Expedition?

Well, this is a thorough refresh. The interior and exterior have been significantly revised, its chassis dynamics are superb, and, for the first time ever, there’s a Tremor edition that comes with impressive off-roading credentials. Overall, the 2025 Expedition is a big step forward, and better positioned against Ford’s rivals in the segment. But… there are a few aspects that we don’t love and that we bet Ford will address eventually.

What’s Good?

Ford deeply altered the interior of the Expedition. They split a bunch of stuff in half, and we do mean, literally.

Now, there’s a 13.2-inch center screen, which incorporates most functions—too many, for our likes, but we’ll circle back to that—and a 24-inch upper screen that works like an instrument cluster. This panoramic screen embeds a speedo, but also puts mapping, or audio choice (the driver can choose secondary options), further up on the dash.

The idea is to put these within the driver’s vision, so they’re visible with only a glance away from the road.

There’s also a new split tailgate. Think Range Rover and you have the picture. This clamshells in half, so there’s a lower tailgate portion, like a short pickup truck tailgate, and a taller hatch. You can then use the lower portion for taking a load off, and wisely, Ford lets you open the hatch only, so loading and unloading doesn’t require stretching over the tailgate.

Ford also pitches accessories for this, which enable splitting the aft load bay into an upper and lower section for luggage. You can also pull this system out onto the tailgate, for instance, to serve food while tailgating.

Drives Smaller

Throughout two days of testing in and around Louisville, Kentucky, we got to drive the Expedition in all sorts of situations. That included long highway hauls and poking around town. One thing that continued to surprise us was just how comfortable this beast is. It is a beast, by the way. The Max version stretches to nearly 18.5 feet, and the “normal” Expedition is 17.5 feet long.

But Ford has truly tuned chassis dynamics and steering so that the Expedition/Max are easy to drive and belie their bulk. More than once, we had to quickly change lanes (unfamiliar roads have that effect) and the Expedition pulled all its moves with zero sweat.

One advantage here: The squoval (square-oval) steering wheel. It’s odd at first, and then you realize it creates more usable corners at the top and bottom ends of the wheel. When parking, and especially when backing up, that turned out to be very handy. Ford’s semi-autonomous BlueCruise also provides a technological aid to tedious highway driving, and we think that’s a genuine advantage vs. all brands, save Chevy’s

.

Nicer Digs

Ford also gussied up the Expedition considerably, and vs. competition, particularly at Chevy, the Expedition cabin has fewer hard plastics and more soft surfaces. Across the dash, doors, and all around the cabin, this is a handsome interior, and a sharper exterior.

And what your hands touch, like the vent controls and door levers, is substantial and often made of genuine metal, not plastic. The shift and volume knobs are also heavily knurled and meaty. Opt for the King Ranch model, and you’ll receive saddle-like leather, King Ranch logos embossed on the seatbacks and center console, and more pronounced stitching. Ford wants to charge upscale prices, but at least the digs feel premium to match. And FYI, if you’re not into the King Ranch bling, the Platinum rung (starting at $74,430) is hardly Motel 6.

In every grade of Expedition we tested, the seats are comfy and supportive, and the driver sightlines are excellent for a vehicle this huge.

Powered Center Console

Ford riffed off the current EV trend of creating a bi-level center storage system between the front passengers. The upper tray incorporates a wireless phone charger, plus USBs, dual cupholders (two more grace each front door), and a substantial bin beneath the armrests.

The console slides back, and beneath it reveals a much larger cabinet that’s big enough for a laptop bag or purse. Cleverly, the console locks when you shut off the Expedition. Even if thieves know this system exists, it won’t be worth their effort to try to safe-crack their way in.

Excellent Propulsion

Ford offers one engine on the Expedition, with two different levels of output. The standard 3.5-liter V-6 produces 400 horsepower. Opt for the Platinum with the Stealth Performance Package, or the Tremor, and that bumps up to 440 horsepower.

Performance Specifications

Both motors are very powerful, and Ford says that at least half of all Expedition owners tow at least occasionally. Probably if you were bumping up against the very highest towing weight, you might thirst for more muscle, but we think otherwise, the output is plenty prodigious. The single demerit: Ford hasn’t offered a hybrid, and fuel economy suffers as a result, especially vs. the Toyota Sequoia.

More Buttons, Please

We’ll be straight: We don’t love Ford’s recipe for in-car controls. Only a few hard switches remain in the center stack, including a volume knob for the audio system. You can stab a button to disable the start/stop ignition, hit your hazards, disable traction control, or enable the camera view of the vehicle. But otherwise, even adjusting the steering column requires using a menu system and a non-haptic D-pad on the steering wheel.

While Ford engineers told us this is a voice-first system using Google Built-in, Google will not bypass tapping through menus to get to some settings, such as adjusting audio settings, or popping the rear hatch. All of that requires menu diving, and it’s counter to the argument that Ford made by dividing the upper and lower screens—that this keeps your eyes closer to the road.

Google can perform some functions: It lets you raise or lower cabin temperature, for example. It’ll also map you to both locations you know, like an address, or find a list of restaurants to try by genre (i.e., “Hey Google, what’s the best Chinese restaurant in Louisville?”). But otherwise, our request is simple: Don’t eliminate hard switches that work perfectly fine. Tesla was wrong!

It’s Very Roomy

Ford’s besting the

for legroom and cargo room. The picture is more nuanced against the

, which offers superior legroom in the first two rows, but worse legroom in the third row. And the Tahoe is much closer to the Ford in cargo capacity.

Interior Dimensions

Beyond the

, there are no real challengers for overall spaciousness from Ford’s primary rivals, especially when you consider the Expedition’s massive cargo advantage if you go for the Max version. Yep, versus the Chevy Suburban, the ballgame changes, but by straddling two categories, Ford manages a dual offering that’s much roomier than especially what Jeep and Toyota have to offer.

Tremor Rocks!

The Tremor version of the Expedition gives it legit off-roading chops. This version is lifted from 8.7 inches to 10.6 inches of ground clearance, and Ford said it worked with General Tire on the Grabber 33-inch rubber to find the right balance of off-road grip and lower noise for pavement. The Tremor also gets unique, 18-inch wheels and special paint as well as body cladding and underbody skid plates.

We only got to test the Tremor version of this truck on dirt, so we can’t verify how it drives around town. But it sure did crush it on slick, Indiana mud. We deployed a few of multiple off-road modes, including the one-pedal cruise control system that works very much like what we’ve seen from other brands, such as Land Rover. This lets you crawl along, both for climbing up steep grades and descending them. And because this is a very big vehicle, Trail Turn Assist, which brakes the inside rear wheel when you’re trying to cut around sharp corners, saved our bacon (and Ford’s Tremor) more than once.

TopSpeed’s Take

One dark horse in this contest could be the forthcoming 2026 Hyundai Palisade. The 2025 starts at just under $40,000, and while we don’t yet know the MSRP of the new version, we do know it will be offered in an XRT PRO version, with 8.4 inches of ground clearance, an electronic rear limited-slip differential (eLSD), and meatier, 255/60R18 tires.

That’s not going to match the $81,000 Tremor Expedition for ground clearance. But Hyundai’s top-trim 2025

barely crests $60,000. If that’s still the case for the XRT PRO, you might just go chase an aftermarket lift kit and pocket the difference. Also: Hyundai promised significantly better fuel economy.

Or if off-roading is really your thing, perhaps the third row of the Expedition isn’t as critical to your decision, and a Rivian R1S should be on your radar. With up to 14.7 inches of ground clearance and instant electric torque at any wheel, we haven’t tested much on this planet that’s as capable off-road. Is this Ford very good? It is. The retooled interior, handling, and core competencies are all superb.

But the meh fuel economy and screen-embedded controls are bummers that would have us, at least, test-driving peers to truly be sure we want to go all in on this Expedition with Ford.