jpcortese
Member
I had my heart set on either the 2018 Denali or RST. Well, a new vehicle has entered the fray and right now I'm totally confused as to what to do. Yesterday, my wife and I test drove both the new Ford Expedition Limited and the Denali. We had each for one hour and test drove both over the same streets and highway making sure we traveled the same exact course. We also took turns driving each vehicle. Afterwards we stopped at Starbucks to compare mental notes. Here are our observations. As far as comfort, we both thought the Expedition was more spacious and comfortable. She thought the seats in the Denali were too hard. The second and third row seats in the Expedition offered more leg room. She giggled trying to sit in the 3rd row of the Denali and thought that only little kids could sit in them. Not a real problem since they would be seldom used. As far as performance, on the highway and going up to 80 miles an hour we both thought that they were equally the same. This was also the case from a standing start. That was a surprise since the Expedition had a 6 cylinder twin turbo charged engine and the Denali had the 6.2 v8. Anyway there was no difference that we could tell. Horsepower and torque felt the same. BTW, the Denali requires Premium fuel while the Expedition requires Regular. Not a concern for either of us however. Also we both felt that the 10 speed tranny in both were great and acted with the same smoothness. From a road handling point of view, we both felt the Denali felt more truck like and the Expedition more car like, but that is just a feeling. We both felt bumps more in the Denali. Could be because of the different suspensions. The Expedition felt bigger in all respects and that made parking a little more difficult, especially for her. We didn't measure the two but the Expedition looked to be longer and wider, but they seemed close. I didn't like the rotary shifter in the Expedition and she didn't like the column shifter in the Denali so that was pretty much a wash. Either would be acceptable although the rotary knob would take some getting used to. As to pricing, both were in the same ballpark so one didn't favor the other. From a cargo standpoint she didn't like the platform in the Denali and thought that the Expedition would be easier for her to load and unload groceries and other stuff. The Expedition cargo area also looked flatter. From a availability point of view, the GMC dealer had 8 Denali's while the Ford dealer only had one Limited. So there seems to be more Denali's to choose from. The Ford dealer said that they could order one to my specs and have in about 3 months. In conclusion, both are good choices although there are pluses and minuses with both. We are in no hurry to do anything so we agreed to think about it for awhile longer. Hopes this helps.
