True statement. I don't think most owners would have a problem replacing a worn out water pump, about a $40 part, but the labor involved in this repair vs Explorers of past generations is about 4:1 ratio, meaning that on this generation it cost roughly $1,600 to replace vs around $400 for past generations with very little chance of catastrophic damage to the engine unless the driver is not paying attention to the temperature gauge. More importantly, there is very little maintenance suggested by Ford to prevent this problem, inspections and a coolant change at 100,000 miles, therefore, an owner should rightfully expect the water pump to last 150,000 miles. What makes a tremendous amount of sense would have been for Ford to put at least sensor on the coolant reservoir so that if the level begins to decrease the owner has a chance of figuring it out the problem of this closed system before potential catastrophic damage. IMO there should be recall and yes I do think this is a potential safety issue due to being stranded, etc.
Many people will buy these vehicles at around the 100,000 mark because that is what they can afford, plus they may have knowledge of reliability associated with the previous Explorer generations and think this is a similar vehicle. Unfortunately they could be saddled with about a $7,000 decision should water pump leak into the coolant, a horrible scenario for someone who bought a car that they could just afford, especially the single soccer mom with kids.