The 2008 Explorer Sport Trac looks very much like the 2008 Explorer. From just behind the front doors forward, it shares its design with the current Explorer. This is part of Ford's plan to push brand identity, and why the fronts of Ford's light-duty trucks, be they pickups or SUVs, wear many of the same design features. Common features with the Explorer include the chrome-framed grille, bumper centerpiece, lower air intake, wraparound body-color lower fascia above the blacked-out front air dam, and the signature geometric housings for the compound headlights/running lights.

The 2008 Sport Trac is considerably longer than the Explorer. Wheelbase (distance between the tires front to rear) and overall length (bumper to bumper) are both almost 17 inches longer. Thus, while the Explorer is the more people-oriented of the two, the Sport Trac's longer wheelbase promises a less choppy, more controlled ride. Curious. The Dodge Dakota Quad Cab is the only other midsize pickup to exceed the Sport Trac in wheelbase and overall length, and by less than an inch in wheelbase. Of the remaining four-door, short-bed, midsize pickups, the Chevrolet Colorado, the Honda Ridgeline, the Nissan Frontier and the Toyota Tacoma measure between three and four inches shorter overall. The Sport Trac's bed is 4.5 feet long, the rest around 5 feet.

From the rear, the Sport Trac looks like a Ford pickup. One distinctive aspect is that the sides of the bed and the tailgate rise as much as three inches higher than is the norm in the segment. While this increases the space enclosed by the bed, it definitely makes hefting boxes and bags up and over into the bed more of a strain, a painful trait it shares with the Honda Ridgeline. By making the Sport Trac look taller, it also raises the Sport Trac's visual center of gravity, although the wider body and wider track help to reduce this impression.