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Comments
- tires are expensive to replace as they have a 50 aspect ratio.
- it doesn't ride as smooth as the FS, but I enjoy that it handles better.
- It will only accept a 1 1/4" hitch for my bike rack so I can only carry 2 bikes vs. 4 on a 2" hitch. Of course, if it could handle a 2" hitch, it would be a heavier car and then mpg would suffer. It's a tradeoff I have no trouble living with.
- Mazda does not recommend towing with this vehicle and I believe it will invalidate your warranty if you do. I could be wrong on this, but I don't tow, so I don't worry about it.
- brakes tend to "moan" when backing up when damp. I have read and been told that this is normal.
- It has a fan for the rear seat, but it doesn't come directly from the heater/ac. It just helps circulate the air. It doesn't seem to take any longer to warm up the back seat occupants. I just asked my kids and they have no complaints.
- It is smaller than the FS, but makes really good use of the space, so we haven't really noticed the difference except when going on vacation. I figured we can always buy a car rack and a storage compartment for much less than the difference between the cars. We haven't needed to, though.
That's all I can think of. I have only taken it back to the dealer once and that was to replace a piece of missing interior molding that we noted when we picked up the car. We have had to replace the tires; 2 at 20k miles because I hit a pot hole and damaged one of the tires and the other 2 just last week because I didn't do a wheel alignment when I replaced the first 2. I hit a REALLY deep pot hole that I saw at the last minute. I am very surprised that I didn't flat the tire and do other damage. I won't write what I am thinking as that will jinx me, but let's just say that I am very happy with its quality.
In summary, I love the car and would buy it again. Hope that helps.
Do you have a FB account?
:lemon: You may be surprized to learn that many of us are STILL paying on our Freestyles. We are NOT particulary thrilled to have to walk into any deal completely upside down!
FORD has the market cornered with the CVT's in the Freestyles.
There is a right and a wrong in life....and people ought to know the difference.
Now, I'm not trying to be rude, but what difference does it possibly make, how many people any Freestyle owneres haul around ?
Whether it is a single owner, OR we deliver meals-on-wheels to the elderly..WE DESERVE to have a transmission that lasts MORE than 65k miles.
How appropriate that you would suggest to "nutabug" to sell it whilst it is running good. Fairly confident it's going to "fail" again??? :sick:
I mentioned selling it after it's fixed because nutabug indicated that they wouldn't feel confident driving it...it's not a good idea to drive any car you don't feel confident with.
The reason I asked how many people nutabug hauls around is that if they are going to sell the Freestyle and buy another vehicle, maybe some money could be saved by buying a used, smaller vehicle.
My comments we're in no way a defense of Ford. Generally it's a bad idea to put so little down payment on a car that you're "upside down" on it. Folks in that situation would be bette off buying a 2-3 year old model than brand new.
And as several others have posted...individual failure instances don't necessarily point to a overall problem. For example, my brother had a Honda Civic engine fail on him at 70,000 miles (out of warranty). He'll never buy another Honda because of that experience. Does that mean that all Hondas are lemons because of that failure...it does to my brother! But you get my point.
That being said, by all means go after Ford....good luck!
FORD has the market cornered with the CVT's in the Freestyles.
There is a right and a wrong in life....and people ought to know the difference.
Now, I'm not trying to be rude, but what difference does it possibly make, how many people any Freestyle owneres haul around ?
Whether it is a single owner, OR we deliver meals-on-wheels to the elderly..WE DESERVE to have a transmission that lasts MORE than 65k miles."
I actually sold my 2006 FS a couple of years ago, but mainly because I wanted a smaller vehicle.
Ford has not "cornered the market". Anyone who wishes could set up a repair shop and get the parts from the suppliers by negotiating the prices and contract at the wholesale level. But there simply aren't enough ZF CVT units out there to make it profitable.
I must point out that each auto manufacturer warrants a specific car part for a certain amount of time. In the case of the FS drivetrain, I think that is 50-60K depending on when you bought the car. This is the length of time that Ford, and each owner, agreed upon when the vehicle was purchased. I realize that people tend to expect longer periods, but any part on any vehicle is subject to breakdown. I'm sorry your FS tranny went bad, but it is not the result of bad design - the transmission is actually more reliable than most. But you, and the other people reporting problems here, got a bad one, or simply had some combination of bad luck.
Good luck in your efforts to resolve the issue.
You SOLD your FS before anything happened to it, so you haven't a clue on what it's like to a) get parts for it b) get ANYONE to work on an existing one c) have to pay over 5K for a remanned one from FORD because nobody else will touch them.
That, is CORNERING THE MARKET....... There are even FORD dealers that won't work on the damn things.
I called EVERY transmission ship in a tri-county area. NOT ONE shop will touch this CVT transmission. They all have the very SAME negative comments to say about it. Quite similar to the Saturn IVT......which btw is a "type of" CVT....and Saturn LOST in a class action lawsuit addressing the transmission.
If there " simply aren't enough ZF CVT units out there to make it profitable" (your quote) , where are the parts coming from, Stevedebi ???? There are people on this forum that have waited 5-6 weeks for a parts.
How does somebody that did NOT have a problem with this transmission and SOLD thier vehicle, chime and and tell ALL of us that are out thousand and thousands of dollars, that we just suffered a little bad luck. Give me a break. :lemon: It is what it is.....
I probably wasn't clear on the statement. The parts are coming from Europe. But there are not enough Ford ZF transmissions (i.e., 2005-2007 Freestyle and Ford 500) on the road to make it profitable for an independent transmission shop to get set up to fix them.
I agree that Ford should have allowed for more spares. It would be interesting for people to indicate their manufacture date; perhaps there is a correlation in dates and failures.
I didn't like the "cornering the market" phrase because it implies that Ford is intentionally restricting the market. That is illegal and is not the case. The people with problems got a bad transmission, and (again) there just weren't that many of them produced in those three years; they are uncommon.
This is different from the Saturn problem, in which case the transmission design was defective. I think it is in production that the Ford CVT problems occurred, rather than design.
I am sorry for your troubles, and it would bother me too if it had happened, although my FS was a lease and I had the extended warranty added so that it would finish the lease while under warranty. But I tend to do that with all my leases; it wasn't because of any particular FS part or concern.
That being said, the cost of replacing ANY transmission on a vehicle of this size will probably be a few thousand dollars, so if I need to replace my CVT, I'll end up paying an extra $1000 in comparison to a non-CVT.
However, if I'd have driven a 7 passenger vehicle (eg minivan or SUV) with a normal transmission, I'd probably average about 18-19mpg. With my Freestyle after over nearly 80,000 miles my average has been 22-23mpg. It rarely goes under 20mpg and on long road trips I'll get 25-27mpg. So if I would have owned another SUV or minivan, after 80,000 miles at 18mpg at $2.5/gal, I'd have spent $11,111 in gas, and with my FS at 22mpg at $2.5/gal I spent $9,091. That's a savings of $2020 for me.
So at least in my case, if my transmission ever does need replacing (so far no problems other than a Transmission Control Module replaced under the emissions warranty) and costs me $1000 more than a normal transmission, at least I'll know I've already saved twice that amount in gas.
No I won't be happy about replacing the transmission (or making any other repair) but I have to look at the total cost of ownership and not just a single repair.
For those of you that have had multiple transmission repairs/replacements I agree, that does really stink, as does it stink for anyone with any car that has multiple problems. I've read many other car forums here on Edmunds (Freestar transmission, Odyssey, transmission, Suburban transmission, Ram transmission, Lexus RX 300 transmission) and every car out there as similar stories with a few folks who have a lot of problems and then a bunch of other folks saying they’re not having any problems...the Freestyle is no different, and the owners of those other vehicles are just as irate as those here.
i am assuming the current one can be unbolted and a larger one can replace it.
try etrailer dot com.
Now here's the "kicker" on the transmission. $5500 to have a "remanned" one installed.
HOWEVER ::::::: FORD provides a 3 year 100K mile warranty on the REMANNED one ! Does anyone else find this just a bit odd ?
Any particular reason they wouldn't offer that on a brand new one???? :confuse:
Now here's the "kicker" on the transmission. $5500 to have a "remanned" one installed.
HOWEVER ::::::: FORD provides a 3 year 100K mile warranty on the REMANNED one ! Does anyone else find this just a bit odd ?
Any particular reason they wouldn't offer that on a brand new one???? "
The maximum I ever got was 27 on my 2006 SEL, at 70 MPH.
I think they don't have new ones because the transmission is no longer manufactured. They have to remanufacture them.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/TireSearchResults.jsp?tireIndex=0&autoMake=Ford&au- toYear=2005&autoModel=Freestyle&autoModClar=&width=215/&ratio=65&diameter=17&sor- tCode=49581&skipOver=true&minSpeedRating=S&minLoadRating=S&tab=All
As for the dresses for the dance - I recommend royal blue dresses
I've been running Pirelli Scorpion high speed snow tires year around capable, and really love them.
Additionally the initial purchase cost of a Freestyle was a lot less than an Odyssey a my time of purchase, so that's another savings.
I do agree that no-one wants any big repair costs.
Most definately a problem with these CVT transmissions in the 05-07 Freestyles. You cannot get a new transmission because they no longer make them. ( I know, shocking, right ?)
I have been having this discussion/argument about these transmissions for almost a year. Mine did NOT accelerate at all, as I was in the middle of a very busy intersection. Damn near got me killed. I had to cut off the engine, turn it back on, drop it into gear and then it BOLTED me across the road. Nice, huh?
Oh...I hate to add insult to an "almost injury" but be prepared to get your checkbook out. My "remanned" tranny plus installation was $5,500. :mad:
I called FORD, wrote to FORD..... nobody seems to care. :lemon:
Have seen lot of postings saying wrench light and check transmission light most were for throttle body replacement. Told parts on back order but dealer found part and replaced throttle body same day. Have extended warranty and cost was deductible of $50.
You should take to dealer and have diagnostics ran on memory of computer. Should find problem and fix under your "new car" warranty.
Have seen lot of postings saying wrench light and check transmission light most were for throttle body replacement. Told parts on back order but dealer found part and replaced throttle body same day. Have extended warrenty and cost was deductible of $50.
You should take to dealer and have diaognosits ran on memory of computer. Should find problem and fix under your "new car" warranty.
The only way we can make sure the dealer fixes this problem is to call the Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration at 1-888-327-4236 and file a complaint. After they review the complaint they have the authority to request that the Dealer issues a recall and fix the issues. I just did this myself and it took me about 20 minutes, however, a case number was sent to me immediately. If we all take 20 minutes of our time, we can have Ford fix these problems and who knows? maybe even save somebody's life...
Again, thanks for posting.
Turns out it needed a fuel induction service. Service guy said should be done every 60k. Cleaned what they needed to clean and the car runs perfectly again. I have 81k on my 2007 now and it runs just as good as the day I bought it.
Just finished a 4,250mile tour of middle America and the car was flawless.
($600),plus $500 for labor. They would try order 1 but it was on "backorder". At first we told them to order but once i got my husband to read up on Fuel induction service, we are called them back to hold off on part (as we would have to pay for it if it arrived but we decided we did not want it.) Will take it somewhere else later in the week. In the meantime, i'll turn the AC off and get my car slightly rolling BEFORE or turning steering wheel in parking situations. This is a HUGE safety concern and a BIG disappointment for me as this is my 1st Ford.
I'll keep you posted.
That's what makes these forums so important to follow. I am bummed only because you paid about half as much as I did......I'll put that down to a more extensive cleaning on my car....not that I would know either way....good news
WHAT DO ALL OF YOU THINK WITH THE SAME PROBLEM?
I SERIOUSLY urge you to find a shop in your area that does Fuel Induction service and get it done BEFORE you do have an accident. Mine got worse when i had my A/C compressor replaced ( wonder if the guncked up fuel system air flow system is not what made my A/C go out.) It costs about about $125-150 and i am amazed at how much better my cars runs in general and NO lurching. My Ford dealer called yesterday to say that they had the throttle body in now. We told them that we did not need it as this fuel system cleaning seems to have fixed the problem.
I am also going to follow up with Ford Customer Care ( i wrote them earlier trying to alert them to the problem as well) and recommend that they should be advising their dealers to take this Fuel system cleaning approach 1st before replacing the throttle body. It makes sense that the diagnostic system would indicate at throttle body failure if the throttle body is not getting enough of what it needs to work and thus is having to work harder.