Ford’s Flex brings high style to the masses

The Flex’s second and third rows of seats are spacious and comfortable, and they’re also cleverly designed to fold away. The second row slides fore and aft to balance second row and third row legroom, as needed, and the seat backs recline for comfort. The third row of seats is conveniently accessible because the second row seats flip forward and out of the way. Once seated, occupants will find that the third row is even sufficiently roomy and comfortable for adults, with more legroom and better thigh support — that’s not typical for seats in the way back.

Just as importantly to some drivers, the third row seats fold flat to provide cargo space. Even when the seats are raised there is a useful 20 cubic feet of cargo space behind them thanks to a deep cargo well behind the third row.

The Flex is nearly as practical as a van, and could be improved on only with the substitution of sliding second-row doors for the hinged doors on the Flex. Ford examined that possibility for the car, but found that vain consumers would buy only a fraction as many Flexes if the otherwise identical vehicle were equipped with sliding doors, presumably because it would look too much like a minivan.

So instead everyone who parks next to one in a parking lot will be at risk that the tots exploding out of the Flex’s back seats won’t remember not to fling the doors open to dent the adjacent cars.

The Flex shares its underlying hardware with the competent but unexciting Taurus and Taurus X (previously known as the Five Hundred and Freestyle), and it delivers the same safe-and-responsible driving experience. We could hope for a little responsiveness to the driver, as delivered by the Honda Odyssey, but instead get the car-as-transportation-appliance experience of a Toyota. At least the power steering has some heft and feedback that has been eliminated from Toyota’s products.

The Flex’s engine, however, quickly reminds the driver that there is machinery at work. Especially under hard acceleration, the 3.5-liter Duratech V-6 is coarse and loud. This is not a deal-breaking shortcoming, but it is disappointing that Ford still seems unable to sweat the details on powertrains that rival any competitor with their specs on paper, but don’t measure up in the real world.

The Flex’s six-speed automatic transmission is well tuned, and the throttle, brake and steering are all correctly calibrated so that it’s easy for the driver to navigate smoothly at parking lot and suburban speeds without any unexpected lurches. Delicacy of control during light application of the pedals is a seemingly obvious but too-often overlooked detail that Ford got right with the Flex, and it’s an important detail when hauling passengers who don’t need any extra help spilling their drinks or snacks in the car.

No one dropped their burger on the ground during the cookout I attended, but there was one ketchup-on-the-new shirt incident. And after enough discussion I was able to identify the Flex’s species: It’s a freshly-evolved member of the North American family station wagon family, a variety previously thought to be extinct. I thought only the surfers with their vintage “woodies” knew station wagons could be cool-looking cars, but congratulations to Ford for figuring that out.

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