Pick Up STX: Ford adds new two-row Expedition variant, but not for Canada

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Fresh off claiming the crown as Canada’s top-selling auto brand for the 12th year in a row, Ford has added a new – and cheaper – option to the big-dog Expedition lineup. The only catch? You’ll have to shop south of the border to find it.

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Called the XL STX, it slots in under the XLT trim to create a new lower price point for the Blue Oval brute.

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Its third row is binned, leaving this truck a five-passenger conveyance, which is more than the average number of passengers one will ever find in a modern SUV anyway. Absent the extra seats and all their mechanisms, this two-row setup surely has more cargo space than a standard Expedition. After all, even folded seats consume space, right?

Spotting an XL STX on American highways will be easy thanks to its toothy five-bar gloss black grille and 18-inch aluminum wheels painted a dark Magnetic Metallic colour. Its powertrain is unchanged compared to more expensive Expedition SUVs, with the 3.5L EcoBoost V6 standing ready to dance with a 10-speed automatic transmission. The trim’s only available on the regular-length truck and not the jumbo Max version.

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Back here in the Great White North, nearly 3,500 new Expeditions found their way into Canadian driveways in 2020. This is about equal to the number of Transit Connect vans that were sold, a machine generally selected for commercial purposes. Ford’s best-selling crossover is the Escape, with 23,747 of the things rolling away from dealers last year. A total of 128,649 F-Series pickup trucks were sold, if you’re wondering, making it Canada’s best-selling vehicle for the squillionth (actually 11th) consecutive year.

The Expedition was refurbished unto the zenith of plushness just a couple of short years ago, marking the return of snazzy King Ranch and Platinum trims. It, along with a couple of rivals, remain one of the few games in town that’ll permit owners to carry a yaffle of passengers and haul a heavy trailer.