Fords shows off Expedition SUV in Kansas City

The Expedition is a 4-door, 9-passenger SUV that Ford says fits easily into a standard garage. It will replace the 2-door Bronco and give the company a heavy-duty SUV to compete with General Motors Corp.'s Tahoe/Yukon and Suburban.

The Expedition is part of a $5 billion, full-size truck development effort that started with the F150.

In a mild surprise. Ford also introduces the F250 pickup truck in Kansas City. Its lineup has been expanded and now includes a regular-cab 4x2 and 4x4 and supercab 4x2 and 4X4, with a choice of four trim levels. The previous F250 was offered only as a regular-cab 4x2 model.

Ford says Expedition and F250 derive half of their parts from the F150. All three vehicles, except for some facial differentiation, are identical from the front end to the A-pillar. And the vehicles use the same modular and 5.4L V-8 Triton engines mated to electronic transmissions.

Ford won't reveal Expedition development costs, but says it took 34 months from clay model to Job one, which comes July 22. Analysts peg development costs for the Expedition and its Lincoln Navigator stablemate at $1.3 billion. The Lincoln version debuts next March.

Ford expects to sell about 150,000 of its big SUVs (including about 20,000 Navigators) annually. Maximum capacity is estimated at about 190,000 units.

Insiders say the Expedition will be priced competitively with GM's Tahoe/Yukon, which bases at $31,709.