I love toy car SUVs. I'm not sure why - perhaps I had so few of them as a kid. I always wanted the Hot Wheels Ford Bronco, and the Ford Flareside Pickup (Baja Bouncer - which I know was a pick-up not an SUV....), so when in '97 Matchbox introduced the full-size SUV Chevy Tahoe and Ford Expedition, I had to have them. 
Within a year, Matchbox introduced a more expensive version of each of them as part of a 2 car pack, one painted and one unpainted, with rubber tires, fancy rims and a highly detailed paint job. I bought both the Tahoe and the Expedition. The 2 Ford's shown are from that pack, the blue as the original painted Expedition, and the white was a John Carroll special of the unpainted version. I appreciated the casting, and just wished Matchbox would follow it up with a slightly longer model of a Ford Excursion... 
They never made the Excursion. But a few years later, when Matchbox was going through their mid 2000s renaissance, they brought out this excellent casting of a Lincoln Navigator. The Navigator is slightly larger than the Expedition, and squarer relative to the Ford's curves. I loved it instantly, and bought it in several colors.
So, time for a showdown! Which Matchbox Ford Full-Size SUV is the better casting...?
Well, actually, its no contest. As much as I appreciated having the Ford model, I never thought the real life truck was very handsome (its a bit too rounded for me) and I don't like the model version's plastic base. The Lincoln on the other hand was a handsome squared-off formal design, and Matchbox did a great job with the model. Of the 4 colors that I have, the maroon is interior-less and so the obvious loser. The basic dark blue one has nice wheels. The $2.99 upmarket beige version is kind of an uninspiring color, and I never liked those wheels. Which leaves the beautiful light blue version with the super handsome 5 spoke wheels. The detail is spot on, the sunroof looks great, the size of the casting fits right into 1/64 scale, and paint and wheels are great. Overall, a great casting, and the winner of the Ford full size luxury SUV challenge!
