There’s a few things that hot rodders and gear heads have always known, especially when it comes to car spotting on the highways and byways. For starters, the ability to spot the law in police-spec cruisers, patrol cars, or other heavy duty vehicles, often unmarked, out keeping the peace and keeping said hot rodders mostly in line. Police cars have always had some mythology around them in gearhead circles. They can come from the factory with muscled up engines, heavy duty suspension systems, and often times dressed in a plain Jane exterior that can catch the unsuspecting by surprise. Getting hold of a used police package car has been the popular pursuit of many over the years but in modern times anyone can buy this stuff off the showroom floor. Not only that you can buy it and not have to live in the spartan surroundings of any fleet spec’d vehicle. Don’t believe me? The 2025 Ford Explorer ST is the proof that I’ll stand on right now.
After the Panther platform went out of production people wondered what the next generation of police car was going to look like and act like. Yes, Dodge made some inroads with their Chargers, Chevrolet has had Tahoe police package units out there forever and the Caprice PPV was a fun short term solution, but Ford has become the dominant player in the marketplace once again and the Explorer has been their most well received police fleet offering. If you’re reading BangShift, chances are, you can spot an unmarked police spec Explorer from a mile away in the dark (they don’t have roof rails) or worse, you’ve seen on with the wig-wags on in your rear view mirror.
Let’s just say that the 2025 Explorer ST RWD can absolutely put you in the same shoes as those law enforcement officers except these shoes are way more comfortable and can turn family drudgery into some good old full throttle fun.
The interesting thing about the Explorer ST is that it does a few things really well and those few things can tend to trick you into thinking that the ST does everything far better than a standard cruising model Explorer but having some experience with the less aggressive models of this line, we can speak with some authority in telling you that isn’t totally the case.
The styling and look of the ST is definitely far more in our wheelhouse than the typical family spec Explorer. The stance of our rear wheel drive Explorer ST was slightly more low slung than you’d find in the more common all wheel drive examples, which was cool. This generation’s Explorer styling from the large front end to the more crisp lines front to back is modern in ways other generations could never pull off. Explorers over the course of time have aged quickly in our opinion. This one will be current and contemporary in its look for a longer timeframe than previous generations in our opinion. The 20″ wheels with Pirelli Scorpion rubber were handsome and fitting in a performance vibe for the ST trim.
The exterior may be very subtle in its changes but the interior is where you start to really feel the ST in this Explorer ST. While others have kind of panned the upgraded interior trim of this model, we’re fans. It’s impossible to take a production line Ford Explorer and give it the feel of a race car and that is not the point here. What can be done and what is done here is taking a mundane and pedestrian interior and with very smart choices in materials and accents, kick it up about 10 notches. It’s the impression of performance that this interior lends itself to which is exactly what an ST buyer is looking for. They are not going to be hot lapping Sebring with this rig, they are going to be gripping the wheel and maybe winning some stop light grand prixs locally, clipping an apex on a highway on ramp, and generally leaning a little more into the driving dynamics than the typical Explorer owner.
With seats that feature more bolstering than typical Explorer units, the nice tractive material that holds you well, a steering wheel with a much thicker rim for better grip, and the ST logos along with the red stitching and accents like the Ford Performance still protectors, the interior properly sets the mood that this isn’t your typical mom buggy. This said, the layout of the interior is the same as others across the lineup so it’s not a drastic departure but more a performance elevation. The seats are not over the top race-style or exceptionally comfortable as opposed to the regular ones in an Explorer but they definitely struck us as a notable upgrade. Infotainment and other controls are easy to use and the more performance minded digital gauges in the dash are a nice touch.
The rear seats are trimmed out like the fronts and don’t really, beyond their congruent look with the rest of the interior offer a whole lot other discuss. They are comfortable, leg room, as one could expect in an SUV of this size is plenty, even for our two 6+ foot passengers in the back. The microfiber style material, same as the material in the front seats is grippy. There’s a hint of bolstering but that’s about it.
A three row unit, the Explorer has more than enough storage room with the rear seats down. Even with the third row up there is plenty of room to store your goods from a trip to the local grocery, hardware, party, or landscaping store. We don’t really expect people to be doing a ton of heavy hauling in an Explorer ST, but there’s plenty of of room if you wanted to. Now in terms of the human hauling in the third row, that’s not great. The existence of the third row is good in theory and likely great for small passengers but like most every three row SUV out there that is not in the truly full sized battleship class of these things, it’s not a place you want to spend hours, in. There simply is not a lot of room to work with. Ford engineers used all they could and it’s fully functional, it is just not a very comfortable place to spend a long drive.
The real fun here comes from the 400hp that the 3.0L EcoBoost V6 puts out. Yes, this is the cop car part as well. The base police Explorers have naturally aspirated engines, the interceptors though? They have this growler in them and it’s both an eager piece and one that delivers the power in a pretty refined way. The really interesting thing about modern high performance engines is just how much they have benefitted from their modern performance transmission counterparts. Backed with a 10-speed auto, this large SUV is a 13-second drag strip performer in AWD form and this one with RWD only and a few hundred pounds less curb weight should be able to run mid to low 13s in the right air on a good track.
This said, looking at how deeply the engine is places into the chassis, we’d not be rushing to be making any performance upgrades on this beast. To say access appears tricky to effectively all but the air intake is an understatement. Thankfully and rightfully, most Explorer ST buyers will be more than satisfied to have a 400hp 13-second ripper under their right foot without touching bolt one.
The engine’s horsepower is not really matched with any equivalent changes on the handling or braking front in our experience. The ST is certainly faster but does not feel more nimble, more capable on the binders, or otherwise more effective in other areas. The horsepower is the star of the show. The driving dynamics are not bad, they are just the same as one would expect for any large and heavy SUV.
Our final verdict on the 2025 Explorer ST RWD? It’s capable, it’s fast, it’s far more fun than a run of the mill Explorer but what it isn’t is some sort of transformative experience in an SUV. If you want to spice up your daily driver life, if you want to convince your better half that the styling of this is cooler and more hip than other Explorers to sneak in some more juice under your right foot, do it. We don’t see anyone being disappointed in the idea of a 400hp family hauler unless their expectations are that they’ll be buying a rig that can defy physics and take down sports cars in the bends. It can’t do that but boy it can scare the daylights out of them from a dig!
