"When in doubt, add a door," is the general rule of truck design at the Ford Motor Company right now.
And it's a rule that's been standing the Detroit-based firm in good stead, since people who buy pickups and sport-utes increasingly want them to be roomier and have more doors.
But there is also a small but growing group of people who like sport-utes with two doors. It is this group of consumers that Ford wants to charm with its 2001 model Ford Explorer Sport, which it recently unveiled and which will be going on sale early next year.
Ford says Explorer Sport is the sales leader among 2-door sport-utes and that the changes in the new vehicle are "designed to inspire confidence in any driving situation" for the "young, active and independent-minded buyers looking for more fun and adventure than he or she can find in a car."
To help Explorer Sport look the part, it will share its new modern front-end sheet metal with the all-new Explorer Sport Trac, the sport-ute with the small pickup turck bed which also goes on sale beginning early next year.
That front end would include complex-reflector headlamps which flank a classic Ford grille "which flows back and up to the vehicle's muscular power dome hood. An upswept, wraparound front fascia houses driving lamps and integrates with the vehicle's lower body-side molding."