The Ford Explorer was released in March 1990 as the 1991 model year. First generation Explorers were equipped with the then new 155 hp (116 kW) 4.0 L Cologne V-6, manufactured in Cologne, Germany. Vehicles came with either Ford's own 4-speed A4LD automatic transmission, built in France, or Mazda's 5-speed M5OD manual transmission. Like the Bronco II it replaced, it was an SUV derivative of the Ranger pickup, thus Explorers came equipped with many of the Ranger's optional features. Like its direct competitor, the Chevrolet S-10 Blazer, Explorers were available in both 3-door and 5-door body styles and with either rear-wheel drive or four-wheel drive. The four-wheel drive versions were equipped with a Borg Warner 13–54 part-time four-wheel drive transfer case.
The 13–54 was available with either "Touch Drive" electronic push-button shifting or manual lever-operated shifting. Both were "shift-on-the-fly" designs that allowed the SUVs to be shifted from two-wheel drive to "four-high" at any speed and into "four-low" when the vehicle was stopped. All Explorers were equipped with the Ford 8.8 axle in either a limited slip or open version with a variety of available gear ratios. Four-wheel-drive front axles were the TTB ("Twin Traction Beam") Dana 35 with some Dana 44-spec components.
Explorers initially came in 4 trim levels: the base model XL (which was later replaced with the XLS trim package as the base trim), XLT, Sport (which was what the 3-door version was called), and the upscale Eddie Bauer edition. For the 1993 model year, engine output was increased by 5 hp (4 kW) for a total of 160 hp (119 kW). The Limited edition, added for the 1993 model year, was available only in the 5-door body style and was positioned at the top of the lineup above the Eddie Bauer edition. It featured automatic headlights, an auto-dimming rear-view mirror, foglamps, a center roof console with compass and outside thermometer, unique wheels and grille, and an automatic transmission as standard equipment. The grill and headlight trims on the Limited edition were paint-matched to the body color, unlike the chrome (XLT) or black plastic (XL) versions on other trim levels.
Similar to the 5-door Ford Explorer, the 3-door Explorer Sport model came in both rear-wheel drive and four-wheel drive variants. It replaced the Ford Bronco II as Ford's 3-door mid-size SUV. A variant of the Explorer Sport was sold by Mazda as the Navajo, which won Motor Trend's Truck of the Year award, until it was discontinued in 1994.
A common complaint about the first generation models is that the light-duty A4LD automatic transmission, which was basically the 3-speed Ford C3 transmission with an overdrive gear, was not well-suited for towing and was unable to cope with higher power output from modified engines. Improved fluid cooling using aftermarket transmission coolers can alleviate these issues. Also, the automatic locking front hubs on four-wheel drive vehicles tended to fail prematurely; the manual versions, made for Ford by Warn, suffered from fewer reliability problems.
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