So far, I really like my 02 explorer (paid $2000 for it with 102k miles , it now has 138k miles)
And my 06 expedition (paid $5000 for it with 133k miles, it now has 137k miles on it).
I removed the center console on both, and have no conversions on either. They both sit roughly the same height (door ledge wise, Expedition is a lot taller tho, but door ledge is within an inch or 2 of each other).
I personally see no reason to buy a right hand drive. It’d be nice, but I wouldn’t dig into house funds for something like that. Right hand drives are pretty pricey if you ask me.
The only thing I really look for when purchasing a route vehicle is “it’s gotta have a steering column mounted shifter (no floor shifter allowed), and the passenger mirror NEEDS to fold in.” Those are my 2 main concerns. Center consoles are fairly easy to remove. I prefer an suv, oh yeah, I’m in bfny, so 4x4 is a must (so I guess I have 3 requirements) there ain’t no 2 wheel drive going to get me around here in the middle of some of our snow storms up here. (A few years back, Buffalo ny got 7 FEET of snow dumped on them in just 3 or 4 days... 7 feet. Not inches, Buffalo was shut down for many days. My area only got between a foot to 2 feet. We lucked out, but Buffalo got hit hard that year.) even a front wheel drive vehicle I wouldn’t trust as a route vehicle in our snow. 4x4 or I won’t buy it.
All in all, it really isn’t that bad driving a left hand drive vehicle from the right seat. My explorer, I just have an old couch cushion cut down to size to fit between the front seats. And for the expedition, I made a wooden box, about 7 inches tall to fit between the seats, and I use same couch cushion on top of the box, so that my 2 bucket seats are “almost” like a bench seat in both vehicles....
Give it a try. My first route vehicle only set me back 2 grand (And is still running strong) 35000 plus miles (mostly route miles, with a few K miles personal use). Ema driving the explorer got me more than enough to buy the expedition. So now, I swap out vehicles every month. One is with my mechanic making sure she’s good to go, next month, I swap out and leave it with mechanic to make sure she’s good to go. Change the oil, and make sure everything’s ready for next months abuse. I told my mechanic “don’t let her break down on me while I’m out there delivering mail. I know chit happens, but you find problems before they happen and fix em.your job is to keep me delivering mail.”
A word of advise. Run 10 ply truck tires on everything!!! I’ve picked up more flat tires on passenger load rated tires than I care to count. (My expedition, I’m on flat #4 now...... passenger rated tires was on it when I bought it, and I’m gonna run them bald, but E load rated tires will go on it when these junk tires are bald). I had several flats on my explorer to. Once those tires was bald, I got E load tires, and (knock on wood), haven’t had a flat in her yet.
Oh yeah, gas milage sux azz in the expedition. 5.4 liter v8, I get between 9 and 11 mpg delivering mail (right now, it depends on wether ac is running or not). With my 4 liter v6 explorer, it ranged from 11-14 mpg delivering mail. 11 was in full time 4x4 during the winter. 12 during summer months running ac all day long. And 14 in spring and fall, no ac, no 4x4..... I’ll find out this winter how bad the expedition does in full time 4x4.