I am in the process of looking seriously at dumping the SUV and trying to avoid a minivan. I’d like people’s experience and feedback on their experience with the Ford Freestyle. What are your likes? Dislikes? Fuel Mileage under what conditions? How is it in bad weather like snow & ice? Etc…
Thanks!
My wife and I rented one last summer and drove it to Miami. We liked it. It got great gas mileage. Nice little SUV. Has the CVT transmission. We were going to buy one but our only complaint was that there were very few features. The interior was kind of plain, no real special gadgets. We bought a 2006 Trail Blazer LT, which is loaded, for just about the same money.
transman
For just about the same money, NOT.
Not if you count the cost of fuel for the life of the car.
That cost difference will only go up in the next several years, just as the price of fuel has gone up over the past few years.
Trailblazer has little more space that you will use, but DOES consume more gasoline.
Thats because I wasn’t referring to the cost of gasoline. If you READ my post you will see I was referring to the OPTIONS the loaded Trail Blazer had compared to the top of the line Freestyle. There was no comparison, the Trail Blazer has much better options or gadgets than the top of the line Freestyle has and the price comparison was close. I also stated that Freestyle got great gas mileage. My wife’s a gadget person, she chose the 17 MPG Trail Blazer over the 24+ MPG Freestyle. To tell you the truth, I was pushing her towards the Freestyle, but you know how some women are…LOL
transman
imho - stop avoiding the minivan - whatever it is get over it and actually try one out. That is, unless you have no kids - than just get a nice little sports car.
nothing like being short sighted. Regardless of what the original post said, the costs all around are not worth the gadetry.
Your wife’s choice of gadgets over fuel consumption reminds me of a slogan I read recently about another GM product:
“Real soldiers are dying, so you can play solder in your Hummer.”
Why are you dumping the SUV?
If fuel mileage is your motivater the Freestyle is a not an optimal choice. My coworkers AWD/CVT Freestyle returns a paltry 18MPG in mixed driving.
That’s pretty pathetic fuel mileage for the Freestyle from what I have gathered. How does your coworker drive their Freestyle? Is it fully weighted down? Loan it to a teenager?
Dumping the SUV is for multiple reasons.
- Fuel Mileage
- We moved and now live in a large metro area instead of a rural environment. So there is much less of a problem with snow drifts, etc.
- Parking in a large metro area sucks for large vehicles. Rural areas have parking lots design for larger vehicles like pickups (can’t haul 2k lbs of manure in the trunk of a hatchback). Cities don’t.
- The hauling need for the capacity (2 large dogs) has gone away due to the relocation. So need less capacity.
Add it all up and the SUV just isn’t as useful as it once was. Also have a longer commute. So changing it out does offer up some tangible benefits.
They drove about 70% city with shorter trips. Normal driver not feathering throttle nor flooring it.
The Freestyle has been replaced with the new 2008 Taurus X, which is a much better vehicle because it has the new 3.5 V-6 with 263 horsepower. The Freestyle
is underpowered with about 221 hp. The Taurus X has had some great press reviews.