Ford may have missed the boat on the Explorer Sport Trac's reason for being. First, the slick retractable rear window from the old model is gone, replaced by fixed rear glass. Second, Ford did not engineer a cargo bed “midgate” system similar to the Chevrolet Avalanche, opting instead to follow its original recipe of adding a separate composite cargo box to an Explorer SUV cabin. Third, our test truck came equipped with an optional tonneau cover for the cargo bed. The tonneau cover is heavy, hard to remove, and it gets in the way. Buyers must really want a weather-proof cargo bed to put up with this thing, and in that case, perhaps the Explorer SUV might better suit them.

Assuming that an Explorer Sport Trac buyer cares about none of these issues, he will find a useful vehicle equipped with giant tie-down cleats, a swiveling bed extender, small integrated bed storage compartments, and a cargo box that is easy to clean. Loading is easy once you clear the liftover height, though we'd like to see grocery bag hooks integrated either on the bed extender, on the tailgate, or in the rear seat. If you need additional cargo space than the box will allow, the Explorer Sport Trac's rear seats fold down in a 60/40 split to create a hard floor.