I am leasing a 2017 Fusion Sport and a 2018 Explorer XLT AWD. Both cars have had a lot of issues as well as design flaws that can be rather catastrophic. Ford chooses to ignore its customer base and keep pushing out garbage. I wanted to get a 2021 Explorer ST, but seeing how much of a flop the 2020 Explorer/Aviator has been (leaving the factory without operational instrument panels, missing parking brake buttons, leaking transmissions, transmissions that fail left and right, engine oil pans that leak, owners that had a trans fail and then the loaner Explorer trans failed followed by their replaced trans failed), I am giving up on Ford. I've bought nothing but Fords over 30 years and really really really wish I had just kept my 2007 Mustang GT because it was problem-free. The newer Fords all seem to have a problem. My 2018 Explorer hood is already rusting (aluminum corrosion) at under 10k miles. The right rear door is misaligned due to stamping flaws, and the 3.5L N/A V6 has an internal water pump that can give up the ghost at 27k miles or 100k miles, and when it does there's a good chance it takes out the engine. Either $2000 repair or $8000 repair. A lot of the Explorer issues have to do with the Chicago Assembly plant, which has been notorious for producing garbage. My 2014 SHO had a lot of body alignment issues as well, and many many many Taurus's between 2013-2015 had the same alignment issues.It wasn't a one off problem.
How is the 2018-up Traverse? Has it been relatively problem-free? I've read issues with the 9-speed transaxle at least for the initial 2018 release. This is the 9-speed that was jointly developed by Ford/GM, and Ford took out 4th gear and made it into the 8-speed transaxle on the newer Edges. SUVs like the Equinox, Edge, and Blazer have too small of a fuel tank. The Traverse seems to have a good balance of highway MPG's (27 mpg at 75 mph according to Car and Driver) and fuel tank capacity (almost 22 gal) giving it a 540+ mile range. My girlfriend's 2015 Malibu 2.0 gets about 30 mpg on the highway and has a 18 gal tank and we were seeing about a 500 mile range during a cross country road trip. My 2018 Explorer barely gets over 300 miles before having to fill up. My Fusion Sport is much better at over 400 miles.