WHAT CAR ?
August 2024
As with ‘Puma’ and ‘Mustang’, the Explorer nameplate has been repurposed on a new Ford model
Shakespeare famously wrote that “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”, but would a daisy be more special if it was called a rose? That seems to be the view at Ford, which has made a habit in recent years of applying famous model names from its past to very different modern cars in the hope that this will give them added appeal. The Puma badge, for example, is currently used on a small SUV, even though it started out on a sporty coupé. Meanwhile, the revered Mustang nameplate was chosen when Ford launched its first electric SUV. Ford has continued this approach with its latest model, the Explorer, which you can read about from page 22. But given the diverging fortunes of the models above, I suspect its long-term success or failure will have more to do with how good a car it is than how much history its name has.