Despite the fact that our Flex has racked up nearly 50,000 miles, I had yet to spend any real quality time in it. That changed this week when I took it to Vegas, about a 600-mile round trip from my house in greater L.A. I averaged 22.4 mpg with the drive being mostly open freeway cruising running between 70-80 mph.
Herewith are some random cheers and jeers I had for this Ford, some of which you may have already seen noted by my colleagues.
Cheers:
-- Great seats: Plush, wide and yet supportive enough for a four-hour stint.
-- Nav system: Easy to use and clear graphics too.
-- Sync system: Easy hook-up to my phone, a voice recognition system that knows what I'm saying, and a cool weather forecast function.
-- Awesome highway cruiser. With the speed limit being 75 over much of the ride, I just set the cruise at 80. With the engine loafing along at 2000 rpm, the low levels of road and wind noise and the lack of vibration, it felt like we were going more like 50.
-- Capless fuel filler. I was surprised by how much I appreciated this feature which eliminates the minor steps of removing and replacing a fuel cap. Didn't think I was that lazy!
-- Plenty of cubbies for snacks, cell phone and wallet.
Jeers:
-- Nav system Traffic: Showed the freeway (yes the portion I was on) as "green" when it should've shown "red" -- it was very slow-moving traffic for a few miles.
-- The cruise control: The buttons are all the same, so you have to glance at them to operate the system, and there's no "cancel" mode.
As you can see, there's plenty good and not much bad to say about the Flex. Now I know why this car is so popular with the staff for road trips.
Note:
I did not see the Flock of Seagulls. The sign caught my eye so I had to shoot it as proof that, nearly three decades later, The Flock are still milking their crowd pleaser: "I Ran". Besides, I'll take "Space Age Love Song" over I Ran any day.
John DiPietro, Automotive Editor @ 46,921 miles
bodyblue says:
03:00 PM, 02/ 5/10
I never get tired about hearing about how good the Flex really is. Are you guys going to keep it for 100K?
wrinklebump says:
03:02 PM, 02/ 5/10
Is that a Terrain in the lot? Like the color on it.
johnnyturbo says:
03:05 PM, 02/ 5/10
@ bodyblue,
Yes, we intend on keeping the Flex for 100k.
@ wrinklebump,
Yep, that's a Terrain.
vwthing1 says:
03:22 PM, 02/ 5/10
I did see a flock of seagulls back in '01 at an '80's band festival show... they insisted on playing their "new material" for most of the set, then trotted out "I ran" at the very end. Note to Flock-- bad idea.
gdmstrb says:
03:23 PM, 02/ 5/10
I'm starting to wonder if real time traffic is an utter waste. I've never found it to be accurate, at times it will fluctuate from red to orange back to red and thus throwing off travel times. Until the technology is in place, I wouldn't rely on these sorts of systems for any sort of accuracy.
zsh says:
03:25 PM, 02/ 5/10
My wife was convinced she wanted a Hybrid Escape so we took our Flex into the dealer and they talked us out of buying it. Rather, they wanted to sell us a Subaru Outback. We decided to stick with the Flex even if it has 36000 miles on it.
firstwagon says:
03:30 PM, 02/ 5/10
"even if it has 36000 miles on it."
Not sure I follow, do you think 36K miles is a lot?
ergsum says:
03:33 PM, 02/ 5/10
What is it about the Flex and Seagulls?
rick8365 says:
03:41 PM, 02/ 5/10
"What is it about the Flex and Seagulls?" hahaha - I had the same thought!
felonious says:
03:48 PM, 02/ 5/10
I can't wait to get mine! :) Every post makes me want it more.
siarizona says:
06:18 PM, 02/ 5/10
Glad to hear you're going to 100K, look forward to the reports. Impressed so far.
blueprint1 says:
06:52 PM, 02/ 6/10
But how do you play Flock tapes in the Flex ?