Splitting the Difference

When historians write the story of early 21st century vehicle design, 2000 will go down in the books as the start of the Sybil school of styling.

Cars and trucks intended to fulfill multiple functions are going to have multiple personalities.

So far, though the year is young, none wears its many faces better than the 2001 Ford Explorer Sport Trac, an SUV-cum-pickup with traces of sedan-like comfort in the interior and with exterior lines borrowed from Cinderella and Freightliner.

This is the third entry in a new category of mutant truck that wants to be all things to all people--thus the relatively roomy and comfy five-passenger interior, the ride height of a bog-stomping sport-utility vehicle, the muscular nose of a big rig and the short but effective pickup bed replacing the enclosed cargo area of a standard Explorer.

Nissan was first out of the gate in this segment last year with its Frontier Crew Cab, and Dodge arrived second with its just-released Dakota Quad Cab.

Others surely will follow. Indeed, Chevrolet will show a four-door S-10 compact pickup at the Chicago Auto Show this week and in Detroit last month unveiled the brutish Avalanche, also slated for production next year, in the full-size segment. And Ford will follow the mid-size Sport Trac next month with the full-size F-150 SuperCrew.

The idea of pickups with rear seat room for real people (or call ‘em sport-utilities with open cargo boxes, if you will) is a good one, born, no doubt, in the fertile mind of a marketing maven or a designer with some errant marketing genes in the DNA.

The baby boomers who have made regular-size pickups such a hit in the market are getting older, as are the 16- to 20-year-olds who have made the compact pickup segment so big.

The youngsters want to maintain an active lifestyle, but they are marrying, having families and running out of room in the single-bench-seat cabins that have sustained them since they first passed their driving tests. The oldsters are finding that their bones crave a little more succor on long rides than even the poshest of regular pickups can give.

But neither group really wants to retire to a sedan. And for the twentysomethings, at least, a regulation SUV can be a bit pricey.

The sport-utility truck (Nissan has already applied for a trademark for the acronym SUT) is priced in between and offers to those still enamored of trucks a compromise that makes a lot of sense.

True, the beds are shorter than those of conventional pickups. (How else to make the passenger cabins longer and still have the trucks fit in the garage?) But you can still wedge in half a dozen sheets of plywood if you don’t mind a few feet hanging out in back with a red warning flag flapping. And they easily hold bicycles, scuba gear, snowboards, camping stuff and quite a few of the other bits and pieces of equipment essential to the lifestyles of the buyers auto makers are trying to attract.

Most important, they hold four adults with ease (the Frontier and Sport Trac claim five-person capacity, and the Dakota goes all the way to six--although in all cases it would help if the back-seat passengers were fairly compact, and Dodge is thinking wishfully about the capacity of the Quad Cab’s front seat).

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Of the bunch, the Sport Trac is the most car-like, offering the smoothest ride and the most rear-seat head- and legroom. It also has the smallest cargo bed and the highest base price, starting at $23,050 for the two-wheel-drive version scheduled to start showing up at dealerships in the next week. The 4x4 scheduled to follow shortly will start at $25,820.

Those prices are about $5,000 above base for the Nissan Crew Cab models and $3,000 higher than the Dakota Quad Cabs.

For the extra money, the Sport Trac provides a heftier engine, Ford’s 4.0-liter V-6 with 205 horsepower and 240 foot-pounds of torque (the Dakota has two optional V-8s, however). Not to mention a list of goodies that includes the industry’s first all-plastic cargo box: Look, ma! No rust, no dents, no cargo liner needed!

Air conditioning is standard, as is an in-dash CD player. The interior is pretty much all Explorers, although the Sport Trac features white-faced gauges, and thankfully, there’s not a speck of wood trim, faux or real, in the whole cabin.

Initially, all models come with a five-speed automatic transmission. A five-speed manual is due in the spring.

Other nice touches include an electrically controlled roll-down center section in the back window and a no-fuss rubber floor.

That’s right, rubber. No rugs to shampoo (although carpeted floor mats are standard), just a nice black textured and fitted rubber cover that makes cleaning the cab a breeze after a trip to the snow or the beach. And the inch-thick padding that makes the Sport Trac’s floor soft enough even for Mr. Whipple also serves as a terrific sound-deadening material that quiets the ride. (A caution here: One of the two Sport Tracs I’ve driven had a real problem with wind noise around the A-pillars at freeway speeds.)

The roll-down back window makes a great pass-through for long items (such as 2-by-4s) that won’t fit inside the cargo box, and a “vent” setting on the dash-mounted control switch opens it a precise 2 inches to let the cabin breathe (an especially nice touch on hot days).

Towing capacity, thanks to the torquey engine, is a healthy 5,200 pounds. An optional $100 payload package boosts the two-wheel-drive model’s carrying capacity to 1,500 pounds from the stock 1,200. The four-wheel-drive’s cargo limit jumps to 1,460 pounds from 1,180 with the addition of heavier shocks, rear leaf springs and front torsion bars.

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Though part of the same new hybrid-utility vehicle category as the Frontier Crew and Dakota Quad, Sport Trac has a distinctly different look. The reason is that Ford opted to maximize passenger room at the expense of cargo space, mating the long and tall Explorer cabin to a pickup bed that is only 4 feet, 2 inches long.

The first few times you see it, the Sport Trac may look a bit ungainly, with a lopsidedly long front and bobbed tail. But here’s betting that it will grow on most viewers. Ford’s designers helped by making the walls of the cargo bed about 3 inches taller than normal for a pickup, making the nearly square bed deeper and improving the vehicle’s profile substantially.

The curving rear wall of the passenger cabin helps keep the Sport Trac from looking like just another truck wannabe by clearly separating the cabin from the bed. From some angles the curved cabin is reminiscent of the rounded coach a fairy godmother once conjured from a pumpkin--although the muscular front end, with its bulging hood and fenders, looks more big rig than regal brougham.

Back to that short bed: It does hold a lot, and Ford provides an optional $195 stainless-steel cargo cage that flips out when the tailgate is down to extend the bed area to just more than 6 feet. When tucked inside the bed, the cage divides it almost in half, creating a space in which groceries, potted plants and other small items can be corralled so they don’t roll around in transit.

Among other notable touches, the Sport Trac’s plastic cargo box contains a weatherproof 12-volt power socket (an industry first for an open cargo area); the cargo box is 20% lighter than a steel one, and the weight savings improves ride and handling; and there are three child-seat tether anchors mounted behind the top of the rear seats.

The Sport Trac handles much like a standard Explorer, meaning it is nimble enough but not set up to run with the Porsches, or even the Mustangs, on tortuous mountain roads. Its 43.1-foot turning radius means a lot of three-point turns when performing about-faces on residential streets, but it doesn’t feel cumbersome, thanks to an efficient power-steering system.

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On the downside, a few things--little, but important to many who might consider spending $24,000 or so on a new vehicle:

* The head restraints on the back seats are set laughably low. I’m 6 feet, 2 inches, and at their highest the tops of the restraints hit me at the knob on the top of my spine. No neck-and-head protection there at all.

* Although there are sufficient cup holders for the front seat, it is unbelievable that Ford built a vehicle aimed specifically at people who want to carry rear-seat passengers--kids, especially--and did not provide cup holders in back as standard equipment. Perhaps that’s the real reason for those rubber floors--to make spilled soda and juice easier to clean up.

* The body is mounted so high on the frame that the optional side step bars ought to be standard. It’s a big step up into the cab, and Ford will lose a few customers whose stature makes reaching into the engine compartment or over the taller-than-normal sides of the pickup bed just too much of a chore.

* Fuel economy is, at best, truck-like. Driven even in the wimpy manner of test drivers seeking to maximize the government ratings, the Sport Trac delivers 16 miles per gallon around town, 20 on the open road, so make that 15 and 18 for most real people.

Final word: Ford built the Sport Trac for a niche market the auto industry has only recently identified. It will probably sell well--it certainly draws lots of looks and positive comments from passers-by. But it is a hybrid--a blending of two kinds of vehicles--and as with most hybrids, there are compromises. Make sure you can live with them before signing that lease or sales contract.

Times staff writer John O’Dell

can be reached at john.odell@latimes.com.