Here Are 4 Eddie Bauer Fords You Probably Didn’t Know About

Eddie Bauer is closing all of its stores in North America and is expected to file for bankruptcy because, well, people just don’t buy Eddie Bauer clothing anymore. This really shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, though. If you ask the average person what Eddie Bauer is, more likely than not, they’re going to say it’s some sort of Ford trim — and in a lot of ways, they were right.

Starting in the mid-1980s and really hitting its stride in the 1990s, Eddie Bauer Fords were absolutely everywhere. You could immediately tell whose parents were making a bit more money than yours if they drove up to the school drop off in a Ford with that now-iconic beige-gold-ish trim surrounding the wheel arches.

The first car to get the Eddie Bauer treatment was the ’84 Bronco, and the partnership had quite a run. As I said, it really hit its stride — just like the Eddie Bauer brand — in the 1990s, but it sadly started to peter out as we got farther and farther into the 2000s. The partnership officially ended in 2010, with the Explorer and Expedition being the last gasp of the outdoorsy-but-luxurious collaboration.

Like me, I’m sure those two vehicles (and an Excursion or F-150) are the first ones you think of when you think of Eddie Bauer Fords, but did you know the two companies actually teamed up for eight different vehicles? Wild, I know — and that’s why we’ve decided to take a walk down foggy memory lane and check out some of the lesser-known Eddie Bauer Fords, because this is Jalopnik after all, and we can’t just be normal about anything.

On the outside, the original Eddie Bauer Ford set the tone — the two-tone that is. Right from the very start, it came with that beige lower trim to set it apart from other Bronco IIs. Apparently, it’s “Sandlewood,” which sounds a lot nicer than beige-ish, but that’s neither here nor there. It also came with some unique exterior color options like Scarlet Red, according to Hagerty, as well as 15-inch alloy wheels.

Inside the all-tan interior, drivers got a leather-wrapped steering wheel, some very funky cloth seats (with air pump lumbar) and a unique two-piece luggage set that was apparently “shipped directly from Eddie Bauer.” That’s class.

Under the hood, buyers were treated to the mighty Ford Cologne V6 (early cars were 2.8s and later were 2.9s), and they were paired up to a five-speed manual transmission. If you’re fancy, a four-speed auto was an option. Of course, power could be sent to either the rear or all four wheels.

What a machine. This is Genesis, and it was sadly overshadowed by what came later.

That’s right, Ford made an Eddie Bauer minivan, and exactly none of them exist today. If I’m not mistaken, this is the first-ever luxury minivan, though, so cars like the Chrysler Pacifica Pinnacle and Mercedes-Benz R-Class can trace their roots back to this beast.

Placed above the Aerostar XLT, the Eddie Bauer donned the same two-tone exterior we love, but this time the sandlewood trim was more pronounced on the rockerpanels and less so on the wheel arches.

Originally, it came with cloth seats on the inside, but later in the production run, leather became an option. It is an Eddie Bauer after all. There was apparently a neat option that would allow for the second and third row bench seats to fold flat into a large bed area across the rear half of the interior, but most Aerostar Eddie Bauer buyers probably skipped that in favor of optional second-row captain’s chairs, shown in this sick-ass 1988 Aerostar Wagon brochure I found online.

The van came standard with an enlarged 4.0-liter Cologne V6, putting out a whopping 160 horsepower, and buyers could choose either rear- or all-wheel-drive. Alas, its flame was extinguished in 1994.

As far as I can tell, this was the shortest-lived Eddie Bauer edition Ford, lasting just two model years, and it very well may have been the most phoned-in one ever. The Taurus X, of course, was a renamed Ford Freestyle. At the time, it was sort of funky, but it never really found its footing in the market. The fact Ford even bothered to make an Eddie Bauer edition is wild to me, but it did, so here we are.

As far as I can tell, the only changes the Eddie Bauer got over the SEL were color-matched door handles and different-colored lower fascia. However, there were now two (still very beige) options: Arizona Beige Metallic and Ingot Silver Metallic. The thing is, these cars were harder to spot because the SEL also had a contrasting lower fascia — just not in beige. Something else this particular Eddie Bauer had going against it was the fact that it wasn’t the top trim — the Limited was. This wasn’t unique to the Taurus X, as other Ford models had the same lineup arrangement, but we’re not talking about those cars right now.

In any case, it slotted between the SEL and Limited, which was not a very large space. On the inside, buyers got an AM/FM stereo with a single-disc CD/MP3 player and an aux jack that could be hooked up to Ford’s Sync system, two-tone leather seats in the first and second row (third-row passengers had to suffer with vinyl) and heated front seats.

Under the hood of every Taurus X Eddie Bauer was a beefy 3.5-liter Ford Duratec V6, putting out 263 hp, which was then mated up to a six-speed automatic transmission. Buyers could pick from either front- or all-wheel-drive.

I really cannot believe the American auto industry nearly collapsed at the end of the aughts.

I was going to cut it off here, but during my research, I found two more oddities: a couple of Japanese Domestic Market Explorer Eddie Bauer editions. Of course, these cars were incredibly common here in the U.S., but the same cannot be said for Japan. I mean, the Explorer was an exceedingly rare car in the country, so the Eddie Bauer edition must have been quite the special vehicle. The fact that at three generations of Explorer Eddie Bauers — the second, third and fourth — were officially sold in Japan is so wonderful to me.

There are five Explorer Eddie Bauers built between 2000 and 2007 currently for sale on GooNet, a Japanese vehicle for-sale website. Most are fitted with the modular V8, but some the 2000 Explorer carries a 4.0-liter V6. That one is also the most interesting to me. One, because my dad had a ’99 Explorer when I was a kid, and two, because it’s right-hand drive. For a time, Ford actually built RHD Explorers, stopping only after the third generation. Look, it’s even got a console-mounted shifter! That’s something we never got in America.

What a strange and wonderful automotive world we live in.