2006 Ford Freestyle

Upon arriving to pick up said vehicle, I was disappointed to see it was a Ford, even more disappointed to see it was a cross over SUV/Minivan type vehicle and that much more disappointed when it was in that faded Red woman color that Ford offers. I was pretty sure my weekend of driving was going to suck at this point in time.

However, I was pleasantly suprised. After sitting in the vehicle, you can see the typical ford dash and radio controls. Fired it up and off we went. First notable experience... WTF, a vehicle this size has no off the line power?!? Later, I would realize that it utilizes a CVT type of transmission which necessitates limiting torque shock to the transmission to prevent belt slippage. However, once moving, the vehicle has plenty of power... wow, it actually makes it easy to drive as power is readily available. The transmission simulates gears, but when power is required is gives up simulates gearing and just shoots the RPM high where they sit a-la jet turbine status.

Quick accerlations up onramps or massive pushes of the throttle are left with the RPMs high and pulling power to easily pass other vehicles. Impressive power, I will say that. I'm sure having the RPMs sitting that high like a jet turbine would probably freak some people out, but I knowing that the engine is in peak operating mode makes me feel better that the power is there. I was very suprised.

Crusing on the highway is done with aplomb as the ride is smooth, power is available for you to choose your crusing speed, not be aerodynamically limited and the noise level is fairly quiet. The suspension soaks up bumps as required, but road feel is still decent so you can tell you are driving on a certain type of surface... but not down to the fact if you just driven over a painted strip on the road or not.

A major kudos (especially for a vehicle of this type) ... BRAKES! Woo hoo, Ford finally put some decent brakes on this type of car. Jabs on the brakes are left you feeling as if air brakes are deployed from the side and top of the vehicle to help slow it's momentum. Braking is met with some excessive nose dive, but that's expected as the height of the vehicle is on SUV like levels (just with smaller tires). A full panic stop is left you thinking that one of your rear passengers has tossed an anchor out of the rear to help haul you down from speed. It was very impressive to say the least.

The interior was comfortable... but anything more than 60-75 minutes became uncomfortable, not to the point of you needing a rest, just enough to make you figgity. The controls were typical FORD, in the event that they were blah and you really avoided trying to use them if you did have to. Seating was available for 7 however, only 4 of them could be adults with 3 small children sitting on the fold down rear seat in the very rear by the hatch.

Speaking of rear seats by the hatch... while they did fold away into the rear of the vehicle. The fit and finish just seemed to be after thought. While folded down they were far from flush and it happened on more than one occasion that items would slip between the cracks necessitating for you to remove all your cargo, fold the seat up grab you small items and then put everything back to how it was before. That was a royal pain in the arse.

Gas consumption was decent... but nothing to be proud of, and ground clearance while on SUV type levels was more to be compared with minivans that typical SUVs (I guess that's why it's a cross over).

That's all for now... questions are welcomed.

2005 Ford Freestar

After about 900 miles of driving... I learned that I will NEVER buy one of these and will do my absolute best to avoid driving one ever again. What a horrible vehicle. Granted, it has seating for 7 possibly 8... but that's only really useful if your familiy is the equivalent of it's own soccer team. Now you may ask, what is so terrible wrong with this vehicle? For starters, and this is a big big issue. The damn thing has no brakes! It is like driving a tractor trailor when it comes to stopping. Stopping distances require that you look into the next zip code to see traffic conditions and be wary if a panic stop must be initiated. Pushes of the brake pedal really do not slow the vehicle down, they more just attempt to change direction of the vehicle from a straight to verticle as if the vehicle was trying to drive underground with the massive nose dive.

Next negative issue ... while it just manage to have a decent amount of low end torque (I'm guessing to motivate the soccer team from stop lights), the power required to achieve anything over a snails pace is just not there. Highway cruising speed around here is 70, achiving anything over that requires a clear length of road that could double as a runway for a 747.

Well, it's a minivan, so we won't even bother to examine the lack of handling... next section.

As for comfort... the drivers chair is the only one I really sat in, but it's is like sitting on carboard ontop of a piece of granite semi molded towards the shape of your body. The headrest are nonadjustable, so if you head does not fit that particular curvature... you're out of luck. The support is pretty much non existant. You've have a better ride is you took out the drivers seat and replaced it with an upside down painters bucket.

The radio... well, it works. That's an upside, but controlling it while simple... leaves much to the imagination when it comes to quality. I guess, they made it that way so that if you crank it up you can hopefully drown out that soccer team with noise (it really wouldn't be music, just noise).

After my time behind the wheel... I don't think I'll every drive one of these things again. I can only hope their Japanese equivalents have much much more thought put into them or else the soccer mom era will soon be doomed to oblivion since the only thing left for these things to do is spontaneously combust to be any worse.

EDIT: By the way... the cupholders suck!