2025 Ford Explorer ST Review and Test Drive

Ford's fun family hauler gets a dramatic technology upgrade for 2025.

Christian Wardlaw | 

Feb 4, 2025 | 7 min read

Christian Wardlaw

Enter the refreshed 2025 Ford Explorer. This midsize three-row SUV is available in Active, ST-Line, Platinum, and ST trim levels, and base prices range from the low $40,000s to the mid-$50,000s. That includes the destination charge to ship the SUV from the Chicago, Illinois, assembly plant to your local dealership.

For this Explorer review, I test-drove the ST in Southern California. The only option on the test vehicle was four-wheel drive (4WD), bringing the manufacturer's suggested retail price to $60,795, including the $1,595 destination charge. Ford provided the vehicle for this Explorer ST review.

Christian Wardlaw

Is the 2025 Ford Explorer ST a Good SUV?

If you like to drive but need an SUV, the Ford Explorer ST is a compelling choice. Thanks to its three rows of seats, more than 85 cubic-feet of maximum cargo space, and 5,000 pounds of towing capacity, you need not sacrifice utility or practicality for driving fun. In its competitive set, I think the Dodge Durango R/T and Mazda CX-90 3.3 Turbo S are rivals when it comes to making the journey as enjoyable as the destination.

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What's New and Different About the 2025 Ford Explorer ST?

Two versions of the 2025 Ford Explorer wear ST badges. The more affordable ST-Line has a sporty look, while the more expensive ST gets a performance overhaul. The Explorer ST includes a twin-turbocharged V6 engine, transmission paddle shifters, a sport-tuned suspension, upgraded brakes with red-painted calipers, and 21-inch wheels. Those modifications make it more entertaining to drive than other versions of the Explorer.

Compared with last year's Explorer ST, the 2025 model receives a design and technology refresh that goes a long way toward making it more competitive with other midsize three-row SUVs. Updated styling, improved interior quality, a dramatically better Ford Digital Experience infotainment system, and available BlueCruise hands-free driving technology may seem like minor changes, but they collectively make the 2025 Explorer genuinely desirable.

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What It's Like to Drive the 2025 Ford Explorer ST

With few exceptions, I love to drive, and my favorite vehicles provide rewarding performance and capable handling at an accessible price. Unfortunately, traditional sports cars and sports sedans lack the size, practicality, and convenience of a sport/utility vehicle. That's where the Ford Explorer ST shines brightest.

Equipped with a twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter V6 engine, the ST boasts 400 horsepower and 415 pound-feet of torque, delivered to the SUV's rear wheels through a 10-speed automatic transmission. My ST test vehicle included performance-oriented suspension and braking systems coupled with sizable 21-inch wheels wrapped in substantial Pirelli Scorpion Zero tires, and a 4WD system is available.

Drivers can choose from numerous powertrain calibration modes, including Sport, which improves the accelerator's responsiveness while adding some weight to the steering. Quick but not fast, the Explorer ST easily hustles through thick traffic and around big-city suburbs. On the highway, the ST effortlessly and comfortably cruises with little noise intrusion, making it an appealing road tripper.

The ST's ride is firm, though. You'll feel the road, and Ford doesn't offer an adaptive damping suspension for this model, so sudden but brief ride motions can occur. The true test of any performance-oriented vehicle is a rousing run across the Santa Monica Mountains near Malibu. In this environment, except for its tendency to laterally toss its weight at the rear axle when encountering mid-curve whoops and dips, the Explorer excelled. An adaptive damping suspension option would be helpful.

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Comfort is excellent, thanks partly to the standard heated and ventilated front seats and heated second-row captain's chairs. The artificial suede inserts in the first and second rows help to hold occupants in place when cornering, but they and the carpeted floor mats are magnets for pet hair. The flat, low, and unsupportive third-row seat accommodates adults if the second-row passengers slide their seats forward.

The maximum seating capacity for the ST is six people, and the cargo area expands from 16.3 cu-ft behind the third row to a generous 46 cu-ft behind the second row. Maximum volume measures 85.3 cu-ft. Ford also provides a useful underfloor storage compartment.

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Google-Based Infotainment and BlueCruise Driving Systems

I feel the new Ford Digital Experience infotainment system is a dramatic improvement over the technology in the previous Explorer.

Google Maps, Google Assistant, and Google Play apps form the system's foundation, displayed on a landscape-oriented 13.2-inch touchscreen. You can also use Amazon Alexa as your digital assistant or wirelessly run Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. If that's not enough choice, the technology also offers SiriusXM 360L, 5G connectivity, and access to video entertainment through a Vivaldi browser. Gaming with a Bluetooth-enabled controller is also possible.

The Ford Digital Experience infotainment system works perfectly, with few exceptions, and the automaker thoughtfully provides a small shelf beneath the screen to steady your hand while using it. In addition, the ST's 14-speaker Bang & Olufsen audio system delivers impressive sound quality, and Ford provides a volume knob for the stereo.

However, I'm not a fan of the strip of virtual climate controls along the bottom of the display, and I'm sure people who live in areas where it gets cold will tire of this glove-unfriendly design. Fortunately, Google Assistant responds to voice commands regarding temperature adjustment and other climate functions.

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BlueCruise is standard on the Explorer ST and includes a free 90-day trial subscription. It is a hands-free driver-assistance system that pairs adaptive cruise control and lane-centering assist with a lane-change-assist function and a camera-based driver-monitoring system. I've used BlueCruise extensively in various driving situations, and while it is impressive technology, it is not ready to qualify as a Level 3 advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS).

In the Explorer ST, BlueCruise calmly addressed gap management in thickening and variable traffic conditions, behaving in a smooth, sophisticated, and safe manner. It isn't faultless, though. While driving in the right lane of a rural freeway, it mistakenly and momentarily attempted to take an exit ramp, resulting in alerts for me to take control.

Regarding the Explorer ST's other ADAS, there isn't much to complain about except that the lane-keeping and lane-centering-assist systems struggle when two travel lanes merge into one or one lane expands to two. Fortunately, the steering inputs are gentle, and if they bother you, you can easily turn off the lane-management tech using a button on the steering wheel.

As of this writing, evaluations to establish overall safety ratings are incomplete. However, the SUV scores favorably in the crash tests the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have completed.

Christian Wardlaw

Equipped with good looks, a comfortable cabin, loads of utility, pleasing performance, and competitive technology, the 2025 Ford Explorer ST is an SUV I would buy for myself. With 7.8 inches of ground clearance, it won't go too far off-road, but that's not a problem in my household.

There is a downside to the 2025 Ford Explorer ST, though, and that is its fuel economy. I averaged just 17.3 mpg on my evaluation loop, 2.7 mpg short of the EPA's official fuel-economy estimate in combined driving. But I sure had fun while doing it.

Christian Wardlaw

Chris says his first word was "car." For as long as he can remember, he's been obsessed with them. The design. The engineering. The performance. And the purpose. He is a car enthusiast who loves to drive, but is most passionate about the cars, trucks, and SUVs that people actually buy. He began his career as the editor-in-chief of Edmunds.com in the 1990s, and for more than 30 years has created automotive content for CarGurus, J.D. Power, Kelley Blue Book, the New York Daily News, and others. Chris owns Speedy Daddy Media, has been contributing to Capital One Auto Navigator since 2019, and lives in California with his wife, kids, dog, and 2004 Mazdaspeed Miata.