 Bought this vehicle new in 2007.  I've had to do very few repairs and have had the oil changed every 5,000 miles.  I took over changing oil at around 120,000 miles and started with synthetic oil.  As of writing this review, I have just over 200K on this vehicle and did an oil change on it yesterday.  All in all, this has been, and continues to be a very solid and reliable vehicle.  The only repairs I have needed to do so far are replace the thermostat bypass hose, replace upper and lower thermostat housings, and replace the front and rear wheel bearings.  I have had a coolant leak for some time now.  I'm not sure where it is going, but I keep filling the overflow tank to keep a proper level in it.  Yesterdays oil change was not normal though.  The oil was congealed inside, therefore I figured out where the coolant is going.  I would have expected the oil to get milky, but apparently the gold coolant that Ford uses does not do this, and normally the vehicle gets driven far enough every day to bring the engine up to proper operating temperatures.  I pulled the oil pan off and cleaned out what I could.  At this point, I will continue to run the vehicle until the engine gives up.  I will switch to regular high mileage non-synthetic oil and increase the oil change frequencies to 3,000 miles.  I will pull the oil pan off as needed to clean out the sump to keep the oil pump pick up screen clear.  I would say that if I had to do it over again, I would get the V8 and not the V6.  The V8 would be easier to work on.  The V6, although a great engine with more than enough torque, has a cam chain and chain driven oil pump on the back side of the engine that require the engine to be pulled to service them.  I mention this because I also found a piece of chain tensioner in yesterdays oil change.  Whether it is from a cam chain tensioner or the oil pump drive chain tensioner is unclear, but I'm sure I will find out soon enough.This was also my first 4WD vehicle.  The 4WD has only been needed a handful of times since purchased, but I try to exercise the system at least every six months to make sure everything still works.  So far I've had no problems with either the 4WD system or the Stabilitrac Traction System in it.Under the performance category, I gave road handling and transmission OK ratings.  It's an SUV, so road handling is low on the list anyway, but it does a pretty good job.  The transmission has always been a bit twitchy, but has not exhibited any of the failures of the earlier model sealed transmissions.I gave the overall rating 5 stars.  8 years, 200,000 miles, and many miles of vacation memories.  Hopefully, it will last a few more months, at which point I can start car shopping again9/21/17 Update:  230,000 miles and still going.  Cam chains are noisy, so we don't use this vehicle for long distance driving, but it continues to start and run.  It burns no oil, and I still have to add coolant, but the Explorer continues to perform.