Today in Automotive History
1990 The Ford Explorer Rolls Out
The Ford Explorer was introduced to the public on this day.
One of the first generation sports utility vehicles released by the Big Three in the early 1990s, the Ford Explorer became one of the company's best-selling models almost immediately.
Like sports cars before them, "Sport Utility Vehicles" (SUVs) became the chosen automobiles for the glamorous world of entertainment, and their virtues were even extolled in pop music. Ice Cube rapped, "I put the petal to the floor of my two-tone Ford Explorer," in his song "Down For Whatever."
However, SUVs have come under fire recently for the relatively high proportion of deaths resulting from accidents involving them.
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