Good afternoon! I hope y’all can help me figure out if this is normal. I was test driving a 2012 Ford Explorer XLT 2WD V6 naturally aspirated. It seemed pretty good however trying a rapid acceleration test, there was a very, very noticeable lag from a stop or low speed; similar to my wife’s Prius in Eco mode. Is this an econo mode and is it able to switch to a performance acceleration responsiveness, is it a MyKey safety configuration (I didn’t see any notifications when driving like I do on the Ford fire trucks or ambulances I drive,) or is that expected for that engine/transmission combo and not fixable?

Thank you!

 

Are the ambulances and firetrucks 8 or 10 cyl engines by any chance?

You will notice a difference if the engine sizes are different.
If the Explorer is locked in limp mode , that could be one reason for what seemed like very poor performance
Did it up shift like normal or seem to stay in one gear.

There could be other reasons , but some things need to be eliminated first.

 

It felt like a limp mode, but only when accelerating from a stop or low speed. I didn’t see any check engine light or MyKey alert. Forcing it into manual shift did seem to help responsiveness, but that was toward the end of my test drive so I didn’t get to play with that too much.

The other Fords I’ve driven are E350 and F450’s both ecoboost and non ecoboost as well as gas and diesel, so maybe I’m just expecting too much from a base engine Explorer.