Ford Freestyle - Taurus X

northlakes

This happens at work too. The steam plant working alongside the cooling towers. Moisture in the car (i.e your breath) causes extra frost on the windows. When you use the automatic climate control, it uses the A/C to reduce the humidity in the heated air until it is dry enough, if that makes sense.

  A/C reduces humidity in the summer as well, maximizing the feeling of cool.

barnstormer64

It makes sense, given that I live in Houston.

 

Just surprised that it seems to stay on A/C basically all of the time.

 

No WONDER the compressors seem to fail down here a lot.

 

I guess I need to go on a longer drive in cold weather to see if/when the A/C switches off.

northlakes

Nicely put! The Freestyle brochure states, "...constantly monitors the following systems to determine when AWD operation is needed: throttle position, engine torque, engine and wheel speeds, traction control, and ...ABS."

lumbar

"Will the mp3 player play Windows Media format?"

 

AFAIK, if you burned the CD using Windows Media (WMA), it should play like a "regular" CD. I don't think the issue really involves mp3 since WMA isn't a compressed format. There are other compressed formats that provide superior sound to mp3 that probably are not compatible, however.

 

barnstormer64

Windows Media (WMA) is a compressed format, and it's not the same as mp3.

freestyle gal

"I've noticed that even when it's cold outside (35F, temperature set for 70F), that the "A/C" lights up when the climate control is set for automatic."

 

Yeah, mine does that too. Weird, isn't it? And sometimes the fan speed indicator stays on, sometimes not.

 

A word of caution--my Freestyle already has to have body work done. You know how when you open the door (usually on the passenger side) and it scrapes on a high curb? Well, my daughter did that to mine and the bottom panel partially popped off. It's just clipped on there. It was such a slight bump that I didn't even hear it. My daughter told me about it because she knew the car was new. Well, it looked bad with that piece of plastic popped partially off, so I took it into the dealer and asked them about it. I thought I would just be able to have one of the guys pop it back in with a special tool or something. Nope. Whole panel has to be replaced, painted, etc. Going to take about 6 days. That is something that has happened to all of our cars, I'm sure, but The Freestyle doesn't handle that kind of mishap very well, I'm afraid. I also had a rattle that sounded like it was coming from inside the driver side door. Well, the rocker panel isn't fitted right so they have to order a whole new one of those, too. Sigh. So I'm driving a rental Explorer. Geez. Other than that, it did great on my trip to L.A.--fun to drive, got about 25.5 MPG out on Interstate 5. Got stuck at the top of the Grapevine in a 2.5 hour traffic jam. I had to keep it running the whole time because we were crawling just fast enough that I couldn't shut it down and start it up. The temp gauge never budged, the car handled it amazingly well. Still got a very fussy 6-CD changer, but not enough to take in to be fixed. Still lovin' my Freebie.

northlakes

Correct.

 

MP3 (MPEG-1, audio level 3), MPEG-2/AAC (Apple), WMA (Windows), Atrac3 [sounds like 8-track] (Sony) are compressed music formats. In general, ~ 1MB/minute of stereo sound.

 

A car's CD/MP3 player would need to have decoders for WMA and AAC digital music in the electronics. There is some hope - the iTunes music library on my computer lets me burn an "MP3 CD", though AAC is the default compression for iTunes.

 

AIFF (Apple) and WAV (Windows) are uncompressed and when burned to CD, play like a regular CD. ~ 10 MB per minute of stereo sound.

lumbar

Mea culpa--I was thinking of (uncompressed) WAV, not WMA, when I answered. Thanks for clearing that up.

lumber2

Please note everyone that Lumbar is not me.

Any chance you could change your name to avoid confusion?

anotherwagon

Hey Lumber2 - Go for the 2nd test drive w/the kiddos? Just curious....

lumber2

anotherwagon: Never got out of the house me and my oldest were sick with flu or whatever is running through our house right now. Tough to do anything when all you want to do is sleep zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

anotherwagon

I know the feelin' - I'm just thinking you are brave to take the kids. We usually try to save that til last....the horns start to pop up when we pull in the car lot! Hope you are feeling better soon!

jschreiber

now at 2000 miles on Freestyle AWD SE model--

strengths--AWD is fabulous--dealt with subzero slippery Minnesota weather and roads much better than my previous Jeep

Fit and finish and interior comfort very superior

knock on wood absoulutely no problems

 

quirks--climate control is industrial strength and very efficient even for Minnesota--on Auto need to go down to 68 degrees after engine warmed up otherwise you roast

otherwise hard to complain about anything

stever

Sorry, as part of the Membership Agreement, you may maintain only one Forums user name. Not to mention that Lumbar has been around Edmunds a few years longer than you.

 

Steve, Host

lumber2

Taking kids (or my mother in law) is the best thing to do when out for a drive. The Salesmen love to seek to have your entire attention, guess what They can't get it with kids around. Or my MIL.

skier

Anybody have any luck finding molded splash guards

sac ltd awd

Sorry that you don't believe me tincup47, but in my area there is, in fact, a sizeable selection of Freestyles to choose from at our 6 local Ford dealers. All colors, all trim levels available in my area. I was able to play off several local dealers to get best price for the exact car I wanted. Guess national distribution is uneven? Could be that since approx. 1 in 8 Americans lives in California and we are "new car crazy" here that they are sending a lot of units this way? Just a guess??? :-)

tincup47

No doubt. Vehicles are not allocated on a 1 to 1 basis. The dealers that have a history of selling more vehicles get more vehicles. I was just letting everyone know that 30,000 vehicles over a 3-4 month period isn't going to have all of the lots overflowing, at least for a Ford dealer.

cment

The sales person just called me to say that the Limited w/FWD I ordered cannot get a build date because of a material hold. What is a "marerial hold?"

lumber2

Cruised through the local dealer web inventories, one discounter has nearly 50, others as few as 3, my local consistently 20...the same twenty......now whats up wid' dat?

wwest

Back in the early ninties the manfacturers switched from freon as a refrigerant to R-134a, a less efficient refrigerant.

 

One the design changes that were made to overcome that lack of efficiency was to close all of the pre-conditioned cabin air's escape routes.

 

The idea being that once you cool the passenger cabin to the desired level the less of that air that escapes the less "make-up" fresh incoming (HOT??!!) air must be cooled.

 

So, you drive up to the pass to pick your three teenagers, wet and sweaty after a day of snowboarding.

 

Soon the passenger cabin is heavy with moisture.

 

The windshield starts to fog over.

 

Lower the rear windows slightly, turn up the temperature setpoint, with the blower on high, to just below your personal discomfort level, and put the system in defrost/defog/demist.

 

Unplug the connection to the A/C clutch.

samnoe

Have been today on the GW bridge, and seen a big truck on the way to a Ford dealer... loaded with Freestyles, 1 Five Hundred, and 2 Freestar minivans.

 

And right there another truck, with Saturn minivans (Relay).

ldeckman

OK heres another one .. my average mpg on info computer is around 12.5 or so no where near the rated average mpg. Is this the actual mpg or is my computer screwed up ?? Resetting it seemed to have no affect... input anyone ? Also Is there any way to unlock the doors without either hitting the the unlock button or the remote. My rear passangers have felt trapped a couple of times.

barnstormer64

Try hitting the reset button a couple of times on the MPG indicator.

barnstormer64

Have you checked the rear doors to make sure the child-proof locking is disabled?

freestyle gal

I'm still having that weird pull to the right when I pull out from a dead stop. It's not huge, but noticeable to everyone who has driven it. Took in to the dealer, said it's not a safety issue and Ford will realign for me if I want. But I'm afraid they will make it worse, etc. So, I decided to check the tire pressure (even though they said they did). The rating is 32 is front, 34 in back. When I checked (and my husband checked), it was 36 front, 38 in back. I lowered then pressure to the specs and it really improved the ride, I must say--quieter for sure. My question is, do the dealers check and adjust tire pressure as part of their dealer prep stuff? It's the first time I've ever checked the tire pressure on a brand new car and now I'm wondering if it isn't a good idea to do so.

Also, I washed my car for the first time and I think that is the best way to find out how the car is built. I love the car and I realize that if every car was hand built and everything fit perfectly, I think you might have to pay a bit more (like a Rolls Royce maybe?). But, I found a third piece of loose, ill-fitting trim that needs to be replaced. The dealer has been great about fixing these cosmetic things and giving me free rental cars. I get the feeling that modern assembly line cars are like Lego block cars: snapped together and it usually is right, but there is just a certain number of things that get by quality control. As long as it's only silly stuff like that, I'm cool. All the guts under the hood are more my concern and I think I lucked out there! (Knocking on wood. Hard.)

freestyle gal

ldeckman: When I picked up my Freestyle, it had 15 miles on it, and the it read "12 MPG." As I drove it, it slowly crept up, faster at first, slower now. I'm at 22.7 now (I have the front-wheel drive SEL) although when I use the trip meter divided by gallons used, I always get a higher number. Now that I have 2,500K on the car, those numbers are getting closer and closer. The highest MPG I have seen using that method is almost 25.5 on a trip on I-5 to Los Angeles--very flat--drafting big trucks whenever I could, etc. The traffic was so heavy that I had to keep the speed down to about 60-65 MPH. I just don't think you can get great mileage driving at 70-80 MPH like I usually do on an open freeway. I was hoping for a bit closer to the 27 MPG on the sticker because I'm mostly on the freeway, but I understand that if you get 75% of that number, that's about the best you can expect. Still better than my Expedition or my husbands's F-150!

northlakes

Glad the tires pressures were balanced side to side. It should also be noted that tire pressure gauges vary greatly in price and accuracy. It wouldn't hurt to find another gauge or shop to measure your pressure to make sure you are not actually at 28 and 30 pounds, or somewhere in between.

 

I have found my digital air gauge to be most accurate, round dial analog gauge pretty good, Black and Decker Airstation to read about 1.5 pounds low, and an analog stick gauge to be low by about 3 pounds. When I add air with the Airstation, I just add the 1.5 pound fudge factor.

"Give an engineer a meter (gauge) and you have an expert; give two engineers meters and you have confusion..."

 

Regarding your Freebie's tendency to the right, I tried your light-grip-on-acceleration approach, but got no real tug wither way. Maybe yours was meant for doing crop circles. If the dealer does realign things, a check of the tie rod ends and steering rack may be useful.

anotherwagon

Starting to see more on the lots...still not much going on the roads. Salesman said they are selling (of course he would) I'm going to check some inventory on line in a sec.

 

Mine still scheduled for 24th....feet have been getting a little cold so I drove by the dealer today to visit another one.

pnewby

Don't let the wait make you nervous. 2mos and 2k, it is still tied for the best new vehicle I have purchased. (96 explorer was the other) So far the problems reported have been low compared to any other new car I have followed here. As always, a bad one here and there, and a lot of non-owners/Ford bashers that like to drop in and tell horror stories that never happened, or tales that aren't true. Still the occasional underpowered complainer, but they are always from someone that doesn't own one. Like I said, I'm happy so far.

anotherwagon

Thanks! Ya know - admittedly stupid on my part - but I never even thought about false bashing. Just never ocurred to me. Some folks need (other) hobbies....

 

My past several vehicles have been nightmares so I'm just a bit nervous, not to mention incredibly impatient.

freestyle gal

Thanks, northlakes, for your insightful response. I will try different gauges and see if they read differently, then try to average them, I guess. I used a digital one. I'm thinking that since no one else seems to experiencing this issue, that perhaps it wouldn't hurt to have the dealership look at it. And when I mention that they check the tie rod ends and steering rack, those gearheads will look at me with such respect! Hey, I watch American Chopper and Monster Garage! I thought it might be a FWD kind of anomaly and it seems like most of you folks have AWD, although isn't the AWD in FWD mode much of the time?

About those crop circles... not much of that around here! Well, we did have a sighting of one, but some kids finally admitted doing it. I just love California...

barnstormer64

In general, running slightly higher pressures will increase the gas mileage and the tire life, at the expense of a bit of ride comfort.

ldeckman

How should it work if the child saftey is off in the rear ? Will a pull on the interior rear door handle open the door ? Right now people are having to manually pull up the actual black door lock.

 

And Btw thanks for all your input.

xnappo

Well I got my Navman iCN-510 GPS navigation system from Outpost.com - it works great!

 

However I have a question about the power plugs. On every previous vehicle I have owned, the power to the "cigarette" jacks turned off with the car. However on my Freestyle they appear to be always on.

 

Is there any way to change this behaviour?

 

If not - does anyone have experience with allowing cell phones/ipods to charge with the car off? Does it drain the battery too much?

 

Thanks!

xnappo

barnstormer64

It shouldn't be a problem charging a cell phone or iPod with the battery off. The car battery has a LOT more charge than either of those devices can hold.

 

You can't easily change whether a "power point" (cigarette lighter) is switched or not. Have you checked all three of them to see if they are all unswitched?

xnappo

While I agree that once the phone is charged the trickle should be minimal I am not sure about the efficiency of the 12V->5V conversion. Anyone have experience with doing this?

 

Thanks,

xnappo

barnstormer64

I wouldn't want to routinely charge a laptop, iPod, AND cell phone from nearly depleted completely from a battery in a non-moving vehicle.

 

Even if not for power concerns, I wouldn't want to have all that equipment sitting in the vehicle routinely to finish charging for an extended period of time.

 

I prefer the non-switched powerpoints myself. I can always disconnect the power from the device if I decide that I don't want it to charge.

anotherwagon

Are there rear audio controls in the 3rd seat for non DVD models. LTD ?

I seem to remember the saleman saying yes but all the materials say no - so I'm confused.

barnstormer64

On the front radio, you can press the "2" and "4" buttons simultaneously. This alternates you between "single play" and "dual play" mode.

 

In "single play" mode, whatever source you've dialed in on the radio is pumped to all of the speakers (depending on how you've set the left/right and front/rear, of course).

 

In "dual play" mode, the rear speakers are disabled, and whatever you select on the radio is only pumped to the front speakers.

 

Those in the rear then need to listen on the wireless headphones. I believe that each set of wireless headphones has its own volume control.

anotherwagon

But this would only be w/the DVD system right?

 

Our Disco has rear audio w/out a DVD -

barnstormer64

Oops, you said "non-DVD". I missed that.

 

I highly doubt there's rear audio controls in the non-DVD version. Why would there be?

 

At any rate, I don't know where they'd even put them.

anotherwagon

"Why would there be"....well, so adults can keep their sanity when Lincoln Park is blaring...let's the kiddos in the back listen to the radio, cd & folks up front listen to something else. Pretty cool thing!

barnstormer64

Sounds like a cacophony to me! LOL

 

I can't imagine different sources coming out of the various speakers.

 

Only with headphones for the rear would this make sense, IMO. And the only way you get those is with the DVD.

 

Are there other cars where the back seats can be listening to the radio (out of the rear speakers) where the front seats can be listening to a CD (out of the front speakers)?

 

I've never heard of this, and it just sounds . . bizarre! It'd probably drive me insane. LOL

truckeegal

Hi, new poster here. While I haven't read all the previous posts, I have read a lot of them. I really like this car/SUV. I have test drove it. My only reservations about buying one are as follows: We live in Lake Tahoe CA. and have always had a 4-wheel drive, so the thought of not being able to put it in 4 wheel is kinda scary. We have a LOT of snow right now, and I test drove one in Reno, where there was some snow, and it did well. But how does it do with lots of snow, say 18 inches or more? Also, since it is such a new model, I am a bit concerned for its reliability. Finally, no where on the brochure, and no one at the dealership seems to have posted the Ground clearance on the AWD model?

Sorry if I am redundant, but over 2000 msgs. was a lot to go through.

anotherwagon

Noooo - he has headphones - any will work. I just want it again. Salesman told us yep but I'm thinking it isn't happening w/out the DVD deal...bummer.

barnstormer64

He's got headphones . . . but what would he plug them into? Guess I'm just confused.

 

The DVD model comes with two sets of wireless headphones, but I think they only receive what's coming from the DVD player.

 

Maybe you should get one with the DVD player after all!

barnstormer64

Can't answer the question about the snow.

 

But I believe that the ground clearance on the AWD version is about 1" higher than the FWD version.

 

I want to say maybe 5" on the FWD and 6" on the AWD?

skier

I too live in a place with tons of snow. The freestyle works great!

A couple of nights ago we have almost 20 inches of snow. The freestyle plowed through it no problem. I have put four snow tires on it.

fsmmcsi

Our C230 turns the lighter sockert off when the car is off, and that is very annoying, as we want to leave the phone plugged in and charging. Our Mountaineer is like the Frestyle - the lighter socket is always hot.