I was afraid leasing my 2013 would be a bad idea. I only changed to a CAI, and Livernois tune and 20% tints. The car got hit a couple months after I got it in a Tbone. Lady hit me 60mph running a red light and I had quite a few injuries. I would have been killed if I was in my previous Ford Focus, so for that the car served me well. But it took over 3 months to repair, it was not totaled because the repair estimate was under 50% but it ended up costing $32k and Ford didn't have parts available for the rebuild for 3 months. I drove rentals covered by insurance since the car could not be completed in time which included a camaro that I beat the hell out of, and smoked the tires down a few thousand miles. I also got to drive around a BMW 328i with Xdrive and that was fun in the snow. Then I got it back, a week later a teenage girl that just got her license was texting through the apartment complex, and hit the SHO, $6k more damage.
Fast forward to many repairs over the past 2 years in addition to the accidents damage and the car has been a headache. This summer some connection came off not long after a scheduled maintenance throwing CEL codes that I thought was the tune. It was not, and Livernois was so helpful and patient trying to figure out all the erros. My transmission was replaced in the accident damage and it used to slam into gear at low speed with or without the tune. I also had the clicking on the left wheel that the dealer kept saying "couldnt replicate". Then just last month the SHO died on the highway on a sunday afternoon. It was the Fuel pump and relay, even though I had the recall done during the summer. This car has had it.
I have 11 months to go, and because of a move this summer racked up ridiculous mileage sitting now at 28/30k miles on my lease and the car needs new tires. So I decided to stop in my dealership and see if there were any options regarding the Explorer Sport and sure as s*** I left there yesterday with a swap scheduled for this Thursday for a 2015 Sport. Livernois will transfer vehicles once at no charge, and I have a brand new K&N panel from the SHO that will work in the Sport. I am tinting next weekend. One other problem I never liked, is not long after I got mine in 2012 did the police editions come out. Now with tints the SHO looks like your either a cop buff or people think your cop.
Its been fun but I missed having an SUV, and always regretted selling my 2006 Trailblazer SS. Other then the Jeep SRT (which is priced way too high) nothing really fit that bill, but the Sport with the tune comes damn close for me with a 4WD system, and the bonus is now I can Tow! I track motorcycles and for 2 years have been begging and borrowing to get to the track, no more! I have smoked some serious cars with the SHO, and always laughed at the lower end imports that tried to race the SHO. But the time has come for me to break away, maybe come back after the Sport.
