Ford’s Short-Lived Naturally Aspirated V10 SUV Was Too Big For This World

“Can you name the truck with four-wheel drive, smells like a steak and seats thirty-five, Canyonero!” So goes the commercial jingle used to advertise an oversized SUV in an episode of The Simpsons from the late 1990s, an era where SUVs seemed to be getting bigger and bigger, as if automakers were testing the limits of just how big we could go before retreating back to more fuel-efficient mid-sizes and compacts like the Explorer.

With the heaviest models weighing in at nearly four tons, and a length of almost 19-feet from bumper to bumper, there’s an argument to be made that the line is drawn right at the Ford Excursion, an F-250-based competitor to the Chevy Suburban, and out-measuring that SUV by a foot and a half. If you go any bigger than this, you’re not building an SUV anymore, you’re building a school bus… which, coincidentally, could be powered by the same V10 as the Excursion. Here’s why this enormous family car is a perfect emblem of early-aughts excess.

The Excursion Was A Product Of Its Time

Ford first expanded the F-Series with the Super Duty F-250 and F-350 pickups back in 1999. Around this same time, Chevrolet introduced the ninth-gen Suburban, based on the GMT800, which would light a fire under Ford’s butt to bring their own gigantic SUV to market for the 2000 model year.

Ford already had the Expedition at this time, so they had the full-size SUV segment covered, but the Expedition was about a foot short of the 219-inch Suburban. The only logical thing to do from there would have been to focus on fuel economy and interior features in order to stay ahead of Chevy, but this was the late-1990s. We were riding high on millennial-era optimism, partying like it was 1999. So what was Ford to do but introduce an even bigger SUV based on a pickup truck that people use to haul prefab houses and 50-foot yachts?

The base engine found in the Excursion was a 250-horse 5.4-liter Triton V8. A solid engine, and more than capable of pushing the Excursion’s imposing curb weight down the road, but if you really wanted to make the most of this gigantic SUV, you wanted the Triton V10, a two-valve version of an engine used by Ford motorhomes, the Blue Bird Vision school bus, and the New Flyer Low Floor city bus.

Exactly How Big Was This Thing?

While the Excursion boasted some impressive performance specs, the SUV’s appeal had a lot to do with its size, not its muscle. So, exactly how big are we talking, here?

In terms of size, the Ford Excursion was pretty much unbeaten within Ford’s lineup in the early-00s. The E-350 Super Wagon could seat 12-15 passengers, and was a bit larger in body length, height, and wheelbase, but the Excursion was about as big as it got for something you could reasonably call a daily driver or a family car.

It Was Just Too Darn Big

Alright, we’ve been beating around the bush long enough. What sort of fuel economy does this monstrosity get? The EPA doesn’t have any extensive data on the SUV, but drivers generally report an average of 10 miles to the gallon with the V10 engine, combined. You can expect an average of around 13-14 mpg on the highway, in light to moderate traffic.

In January of 2000, gas was averaging around $1.33 per gallon, according to the Energy Information Administration. By the end of 2005, prices were creeping over two bucks, hitting $2.23 in December 2005. By the mid-2000s, it was clear that the Excursion was built for a different time. The SUV was becoming more and more expensive to fill up, and it wasn’t cheap to begin with. The Bureau of Transportation estimates that the average American drives around 40 miles a day. By the Excursion’s final model year, that would have you paying nearly $10 every day in gas. Adjusting for inflation, that’s close to $20.

Americans Don’t Actually Want To Drive A School Bus To Work Every Morning (Unless You’re A School Bus Driver)

In terms of sales, the Excursion got off to a solid start in its first model year, but those numbers started falling off immediately.

While the Excursion wasn’t a smashing success as a mainstream family car, it has proven quite popular in the aftermarket, inspiring the Hennessey VelociRaptor SUV, and being used as the foundation for one-off limousines and armored vehicles. An SUV this big doesn’t make a lot of sense as a daily driver, but it’s perfect for escorting five-star generals and jumping sand dunes with seven friends in tow.

Excursions Go Cheap In 2025 (And You’ll Need The Savings For Gas Money)

With an SUV this big, you would think that the value of the metal content alone would keep the prices up, but the Excursion can be had for cheap if you shop around. Checking in with Kelley Blue Book, here’s what the fair market looks like for a base model…

Kelley Blue Book generally assumes a mileage of around 15,000 miles per year, so these models could be approaching their first quarter-million on the odometer. Checking in with AutoTempest, we were able to find the following deals on V10 models…

• A 2000 XLT model is listed in Kentucky at $29,999 with 81,775 miles.
• A 2000 Limited model is listed in Indiana for $4,995 with 162,041 miles on the odometer.
• A 2001 Limited is listed in Texas for $14,883 with 169,469 miles.
• A 2003 XLT model in North Carolina is listed at $24,995 with 75,491 miles.
• A 2000 Limited in Florida is listed at $8,900 with 212,491 miles on the odometer.

We’re only providing these as an example of what to expect. There’s no telling which of these models will be available by the time you run a search of your own, so you’ll want to check the listings for yourself.

As to the question of what anyone wants with a twenty-year-old nine-seat SUV that struggles to get ten miles to the gallon, we don’t know. Maybe you’ve got a cool custom idea in mind, maybe the Expedition just isn’t big for you, or maybe you didn’t pass your CDL test and you want the next best thing to a school bus of your own.

As far as we’re concerned, the Excursion is just an interesting historical watermark. This was the point where American automakers truly found out when enough was enough.

Sources: EIA.gov, Ford, BTS.gov, AutoTempest, Kelley Blue Book.