2025 Ford Explorer vs. 2025 Chevrolet Traverse Review

2025 Ford Explorer ST ・ Photo by Brady Holt

The 2025 Ford Explorer is one of America’s favorite vehicles. Its early generations helped cement the SUV as a high-end daily driver rather than a utilitarian tool. And more recently, it has become a family-friendly three-row crossover with enough attitude to avoid being a mere family car. 

The Explorer is freshly updated for 2025 with revised styling, a new dashboard, and other upgrades. But it also faces the Chevrolet Traverse, an extra-spacious three-row crossover that was fully redesigned last year. Both start around $40,000. For this review, we’ve tested both the Explorer and the Traverse to see how they compare in eight categories and then name an overall winner. Keep reading to see which one we chose and which one sounds like the better plus-sized crossover for you. 

Exterior Design

The current-generation Explorer debuted for the 2020 model year, and 2025 brings its first major design change. It has bigger and more squared-off headlights and grille, while last year’s had been slimmer and more rectangular. The headlights are still rounded around the edges. Around the back, the boxier taillights add a lightbar that extends onto the tailgate. The overall body remains crisply tailored, with angular windows and a sharp crease below them. 

The Traverse is a little longer than the Explorer, and it goes out of its way to avoid looking like an anonymous long box. Up front, its grille is bigger and boxier than even the updated Explorer, and it’s paired with two-tiered headlamps – slim and menacing up on the top, with boxier lights below surrounded by blacked-out bumper trim. Though the Traverse is a light-duty crossover, it has a front end inspired by a Chevy truck. Meanwhile, boldly shaped LED taillights split off in two directions (one part wrapping around the side of the vehicle, one curving down toward the bumper). And the unusually shaped side windows give the Traverse a sporty touch. 

Both our tested Explorer ST and Traverse RS wear the available sport-themed styling cues. The Traverse is also available as the off-road-themed Z71, while an equivalent Explorer Tremor model is expected next year. 

It’s up to you to choose between the more confidently subdued Explorer and the more truck-like yet also more decorated Traverse. 

Winner: Tie

2024 Chevrolet Traverse RS ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Interior Design

Inside, the two crossovers once again take different styling approaches. But we’ll give the narrow edge to the Traverse’s ease of use. 

The Traverse’s dashboard is dominated by a pair of screens – a huge 17.7-inch touchscreen that bumps against an 11-inch digital gauge cluster. The infotainment system generally works well, and many key functions receive physical buttons and knobs rather than forcing you into the screen for everything. At one point, our test vehicle’s screen took a couple of minutes to switch on after we started driving, but it was otherwise cooperative during our week with the Traverse. 

The updated Explorer subs out last year’s wee 8-inch screen and narrow portrait-oriented 10-inch unit. Now, every Explorer has a 13.2-inch landscape-oriented touchscreen at the center of the boxier new dashboard, plus a 12.3-inch digital gauge cluster behind the steering wheel. It’s a less flowing, more purposeful-looking interior than the Traverse’s. (Neither SUV feels quite like a luxury car, even at prices that top $50,000 as tested.) But while we won’t argue with anyone’s aesthetic pick, we did not like the Explorer’s climate controls. They require careful taps on small screen icons, often just to summon a menu for further taps. 

Winner: Chevrolet Traverse 

2024 Chevrolet Traverse RS ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Passenger Accommodations

We’ve been big fans of the Explorer’s front seats since 2020. Cushy yet supportive, they hold you nicely in place without making you feel cramped. But as a people-hauler, the Traverse is the clear winner. 

The Chevrolet’s first advantage is numeric. Thanks to a three-passenger third row, it fits seven people with second-row captain’s chairs and eight with a second-row bench seat. The Explorer fits just two seatbelts into the far back, making room for just seven and six people, respectively. 

But the Traverse also fits those people more comfortably, too. The third row isn’t stretch-out spacious, but it can squeeze in adults more comfortably than an Explorer. It’s also easier to get in and out of the Chevrolet’s. And if you have to allocate legroom among the three rows, the Traverse has more to go around. We prefer the Ford’s front seats, but the Traverse otherwise wins. 

Winner: Chevrolet Traverse

2024 Chevrolet Traverse RS ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Cargo and Utility

The Traverse also has more cargo room than the Explorer.  It fits 22.3 cubic feet of luggage space behind its third row, 56.6 cubic feet with the third row folded flat, and 97.6 cubic feet behind the front seats. That’s the most cargo room of any crossover SUV (except for the Traverse’s own corporate cousins – the GMC Acadia and Buick Enclave).

The Explorer has decent cargo space, too: 18.2 cubic feet of space behind the third row, 47.9 cubic feet behind the second row, and 87.8 cubic feet behind the front seats. The rear seats fold easily, and a hidden storage area under the cargo floor is big enough to hold a couple of backpacks. But the Traverse is the cargo-carrying winner. Both SUVs are rated to tow up to 5,000 pounds. 

Winner: Chevrolet Traverse

2024 Chevrolet Traverse RS ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Ride and Handling

Despite its extra size, the Traverse is an easy crossover to drive. It has a smooth, comfortable ride and easy, natural handling. You don’t feel like you’re driving the biggest car in its class. Only its wide 39-foot turning circle betrays its girth. Still, the Explorer was our pick. 

Whether it’s our latest performance-focused Explorer ST test vehicle or more mainstream models we’ve tested in the past, the Explorer is downright fun to drive for an SUV. It’s agile and capable, with firm and responsive steering and capable handling. Yet even the most stiffly sprung ST rides comfortably. The Explorer gives an extra dose of performance without cutting into comfort and refinement. Its turning circle is only a few inches tighter than the Traverse’s, though.

When you prefer to let your SUV do its own driving, we preferred the Traverse’s Super Cruise hands-free driving system over the Explorer’s equivalent BlueCruise. Super Cruise is available on more roads than BlueCruise, and Ford’s system harangues us to watch the road if bright sun makes us squint. But overall, we prefer how the Explorer drives. 

Winner: Ford Explorer

2025 Ford Explorer ST ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Acceleration

The Explorer is available with a choice of turbocharged “EcoBoost” engines, and we’re fans of both. Most Explorers have a 2.3-liter four-cylinder with 300 horsepower and 310 lb-ft of torque. This engine is smooth, lively, and has a hearty growl for a four-cylinder – it sounds eager and menacing, not harsh or droning. Our most recent test car has the optional 3.0-liter V6 that makes a whopping 400 horsepower and 415 lb-ft of torque, which sounds even richer and can chase luxury SUVs in a straight line. 

The Traverse is quick, too, but the advantage only lasts on paper. With 328 horsepower and 326 lb-ft of torque, the Chevy’s 2.5-liter four-cylinder turbo is more powerful than the four-cylinder Explorer and most other three-row crossovers. But the engine is rough and raspy, making it sound overworked even when it has power to spare. Plus, it’s not any quicker than even a four-cylinder Explorer – to say nothing of the Ford’s mighty V6. 

Winner: Ford Explorer 

2025 Ford Explorer ST ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Fuel Economy

Despite its speed, the Explorer also gets solid gas mileage for its class. In EPA testing, a rear-wheel-drive 2.3-liter Explorer gets 20 mpg in the city, 29 mpg on the highway, and 24 mpg combined; when we last tested a rear-drive four-cylinder Explorer, we averaged 23 mpg. All-wheel drive models get about 1 mpg less. Our V6 ST AWD test vehicle gets an estimated 18 mpg city, 25 mpg highway, and 20 mpg combined, and we got an impressive 21 mpg during a weeklong test. (We’d have gotten less if we’d frequently made full use of the ST’s 400 hp.) 

The Traverse is economical for its size and power, too. But it comes up short of the Explorer in EPA testing: 20 mpg city, 27 mpg highway, and 23 mpg combined with front-wheel drive, and 19 mpg city, 24 mpg highway, and 21 mpg combined with all-wheel drive. We got 22 mpg from our AWD test vehicle, which beat the EPA’s estimate. But the Explorer still takes this category. 

Winner: Ford Explorer

2025 Ford Explorer ST ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Pricing and Features

The 2025 Ford Explorer and 2025 Chevrolet Traverse have similar starting prices of $40,050 and $40,700, respectively. Both crossovers also come well-equipped at those prices, with the base Explorer Active and Traverse LT including features that folks might be used to paying extra for. These include adaptive cruise control, heated front seats, power liftgates, big touchscreens with GPS navigation, push-button starting, blind-spot monitoring, and trailer-towing equipment. Chevy also throws in a surround-view parking camera at that price (optional on the Ford). 

It’s also easy to upgrade these crossovers further. Both of them offer a sunroof and leatherette upholstery instead of the standard cloth on even the base trim level. Or you can push them all the way past $50,000 with amenities that include genuine leather; bigger alloy wheels; premium stereos (12 speakers on the Ford, 10 speakers on the Chevrolet); the hands-free driving tech we mentioned; ventilated front seats; and heated second-row seats. The Explorer is the only one of the two available with massaging front seats, while the Traverse has exclusive self-parking technology. 

Price-conscious shoppers should keep an eye on particular amenities that are more widely available on one SUV than the other. For instance, the base Explorer has an optional power-adjustable passenger seat that’s exclusive to top-trim Chevrolets costing more than $50,000. But overall, these closely matched crossovers are a tie in this category. 

Winner: Tie

2024 Chevrolet Traverse RS ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Final Thoughts

For some families, the 2025 Chevrolet Traverse is the clear winner. It has more room than the Ford for both passengers and cargo – providing not just more legroom but also extra seating capacity. Yet it still costs about the same as a similarly equipped Explorer. 

But our pick is the 2025 Ford Explorer. It’s not the roomiest three-row crossover, but it still has quite a bit of space by many standards. And between its more engaging handling and its quieter, more refined acceleration, we much preferred how it drives. Throw in the Explorer’s better gas mileage and available V6 engine, and its lead grows. We wish some of its controls were a little easier to use, and some folks will want more cargo space and third-row legroom – two areas where the Traverse beats it. But the Explorer is our overall winner. 

Winner: Ford Explorer

2025 Ford Explorer ST ・ Photo by Brady Holt