When Ford discontinued the Excursion after the 2005 model year, they left a massive, body-on-frame-shaped hole in the American SUV market — and in a lot of people’s hearts. The Suburban got a refresh. The Sequoia got a makeover. But nothing, nothing, has ever quite filled the throne that the Excursion vacated.

The answer is simple: the market is screaming for it. The Chevy Suburban and GMC Yukon XL top out at a relatively modest footprint compared to what serious buyers — ranchers, large families, fleet operators, overlanders, and people who simply refuse to compromise — actually need. The Navigator is luxurious but soft. The Sequoia is capable but cautious.

Nobody is building the uncompromising, brute-force, body-on-frame full-size SUV that can tow a horse trailer, carry nine people in genuine comfort, and look absolutely menacing doing all of it. Ford built that truck once. It’s time to build it again.

Ford’s current heavy-duty truck design philosophy is confident to the point of being confrontational. It’s unapologetically large, architecturally structured, and built around one central idea: function made beautiful through sheer conviction. There are no soft edges here. No apologetic curves trying to look aerodynamic when everyone knows it isn’t. The new F-250 wears its purpose like armor.

A next-generation Excursion must carry this DNA front to back.

The new F-250’s front end is a masterclass in structured aggression — a massive, upright grille dominating the fascia with horizontal bars stacked like a fortress gate. For the Excursion, scale it up and make it unmistakably SUV. Imagine the same bold, slab-faced grille stretching confidently across a front end that’s a full 80-plus inches wide.

Ford’s current design trend uses a strong horizontal light bar connecting the headlights across the grille. On the Excursion, this feature would read like a crown — a single glowing stripe that says this is the one in charge. Tow hooks — real ones, exposed and painted in matte black — sit at the corners, because this truck was never pretending.

The original Excursion was 226 inches long and nearly 80 inches tall. A modern Excursion should lean into those proportions without shame — because that size isn’t a flaw, it’s the point. A sharp character line would stretch across three full rows of doors — a long, dramatic slash that turns the massive profile into something almost architectural.

• Tall, Upright Greenhouse: Maximizing headroom and that commanding over-road visibility that Excursion drivers always loved, with flush-mounted glass and thin pillars
• Square-Shouldered Wheel Arches: Pronounced and flared to accommodate 20-inch wheels minimum, with optional 22s for statement-makers
• Illuminated Running Boards: Wide, textured, electrically folding step boards — not the skinny chrome afterthought kind
• Split Liftgate Rear: Top half swings up traditionally; lower half folds down as a 500-lb-rated step platform
• Full-Width LED Light Bar: Connecting both taillights across the rear for a signature night presence impossible to miss in a rearview mirror

Ford’s current Super Duty lineup gives us an excellent menu to work from. A next-gen Excursion should offer at least two choices, possibly three — each one a statement in its own right.

• 7.3L Godzilla V8The naturally aspirated 7.3-liter pushrod V8 — 430 horsepower and 485 lb-ft of torque. The purist’s choice: honest, durable, and satisfying to listen to when you put your foot down.
• 6.7L Power Stroke TurbodieselUp to 500 horsepower and a cataclysmic 1,200 lb-ft of torque. The long-haul champion. Fuel range, towing capacity, and low-end grunt that feels like the earth itself is helping you pull.
• 7.3L Hybrid — The WildcardA mild or plug-in hybrid paired with the 7.3L. Not because it suddenly becomes a fuel sipper (it won’t), but because instant electric torque fill makes the Excursion feel even more effortlessly powerful — plus 7.2 kW of Pro Power Onboard exportable power.

Ford has made enormous strides in interior quality with the F-150 and Super Duty lines. The Excursion’s cabin should take everything Ford has learned and apply it at maximum scale.

• Three Real Rows: Not the “we technically fit three seats back there” kind — actual, adult-sized, ventilated, heated third-row seats with their own climate zones and USB-C ports
• SYNC 5 Touchscreen: 13.2-inch minimum, landscape-oriented, flanked by physical knobs for climate because truck people are right to demand them
• Full Digital Cluster: Configurable with off-road data, towing metrics, or clean navigation — behind a flat-bottom steering wheel
• Panoramic Moonroof: Stretching across rows one and two, with acoustic glass that turns the freeway into a whisper
• Platinum & King Ranch Luxury: Leather that actually feels like leather, open-pore wood or brushed metal accents, ambient lighting — inherited and amplified from Super Duty trim levels
• Cargo Capacity: 45+ cubic feet behind row three; 150+ cubic feet with everything folded — enough for the whole family’s luggage and the dog’s gear

A modern Excursion needs a trim structure that honors its roots while reaching for new buyers — from fleet-ready workhorses to full-luxury flagships.

• XL: Work-ready base, steel wheels, vinyl floors, no-nonsense — for fleets, fire departments, and people who want to spec it exactly their way
• XLT: The honest middle: alloy wheels, cloth seating, and all the tech you actually need
• Lariat: Where it starts to get comfortable — leather, moonroof, premium audio, the works
• King Ranch: Western-inspired luxury with Mesa Brown leather, unique badging, and the Horse & Rider emblem stitched into every headrest
• Platinum: The flagship — massaging front seats, 22-inch wheels, every driver assistance feature Ford offers, and a cabin that makes a Navigator blush

Look, we know this is a brainstorm. We know the regulatory environment is complicated, the fuel economy math is challenging, and the business case requires a big bet. But consider: when Ram brought back the Ramcharger name as a plug-in hybrid SUV, the internet lost its mind with excitement.

Ford has something even more powerful in its back pocket: the Excursion name — a genuine legend with genuine fans who have been waiting two decades for exactly this. The demand is there. The design language is ready. The powertrain portfolio is capable. And the market? The market has a King Ranch-shaped hole in it that nothing else can fill.

Build it, Ford. Big and bold and unapologetically American. We’ll be first in line.