Any Freestyle/Taurus X Owners out there?

I am looking for a new "family" car to add to the fleet, and my ideal choice would be another Kia Rondo. I know it, I like it, its in my price range, so why not. But I would like some additional features and AWD for Pittsburgh Winters, which the Kia doesn't offer. I love the Flex, but they are a little too rich for my blood for a 4th car. The local dealer had an AWD Freestyle, and that seems to fit the bill perfectly. Yes, I know it's not a Miata, but is this thing relatively reliable? Any major issues?

Friends of ours have one and they love it.

Based on one of the Volvo chassis. I am not sure what they use for an engine or relaibility though.

I have one, we've owned it for two weeks. here are my thoughts:

Real world driving mixed 25% hwy, 75% city yields 27 mpg with FWD according to the onboard. Amazing for a three row vehicle.

The kids have plenty of room in the way back or second row seats. We have lots of room up front. Lots of room to store stuff everywhere. We got the split second row option, I recommend that.

Ford is AWESOME with OBD-II data if you do your own diagnostics. That and parts are likely easier to come by than for a Kia.

Drives smaller than the PT Cruiser in our fleet.

Nice well in the trunk area makes the hatch more functional than it otherwise would be.

The engine is the 3.0 Duratec V6. Seems fine. The CVT makes it feel slower, but in reality it has every bit of power than a daily commuter type vehicle needs.

The CVT is weird. if you've never driven one, it will take some getting used to. It makes it really easy to drive economically, which may be why our mileage is so good. If you are a driver who constantly cuts people off and zips away from stoplights, you may not like it as much, but it lends itself very well to cruising.

As far as working on it, I replaced the control valve in th compressor because the A?C wasn't doing anything (pretty common among variable scroll compressors from what I read) for about $30 and about 10 minutes taking my time. An oil change was that quick and I didn't even need to jack it up. It has a timing chain, not belt, and it's roomier under the hood than the PT Cruiser, and Ford sprung for neato locking connectors on everything instead of clamps and friction. This means that you can actually remove old vacuum hoses when accessing things instead of ripping them in half.

I found a perfectly preserved praying mantis in the airbox, that's gotta be worth something.

The 3.0 Duratec V6 has an excellent reputation for reliability. I only drove the one in my Taurus wagon 166,000 miles in 10 years, but it was as good as new when I sold it, used no oil, zero repairs.

chuckles wrote: The 3.0 Duratec V6 has an excellent reputation for reliability. I only drove the one in my Taurus wagon 166,000 miles in 10 years, but it was as good as new when I sold it, used no oil, zero repairs.

I can vouce for that part as well. Ours has 149k now and the owner is not a DIY kinda guy. There was 5k on the oil change and it was exactly where it should have been when I changed it, smack dab between the lines on the stick. Nice engine.

tuna55 wrote: If you are a driver who constantly cuts people off and zips away from stoplights, you may not like it as much, but it lends itself very well to cruising.

My family would very much like me to to kick that habit, so this might be worthwhile. I want to drive the 3.0 and 3.5 and see if the extra power and less MPG are worth it. I also have to consider not going with AWD to get all the interior toys!

pinchvalve wrote:

tuna55 wrote: If you are a driver who constantly cuts people off and zips away from stoplights, you may not like it as much, but it lends itself very well to cruising.

My family would very much like me to to kick that habit, so this might be worthwhile. I want to drive the 3.0 and 3.5 and see if the extra power and less MPG are worth it. I also have to consider not going with AWD to get all the interior toys!

Trust me, once you get the mileage indicator on the display, you become more conscious of it. Once so far I had it floored to highway speed on a ramp from stopped and it accelerated quicker than I anticipated that it would, and quicker than it needed to. There's only so much legitimate "need" for speed in reality on public roads. Especially with the fam in the car. Stay with the 3.0 and CVT.