By accessing this website, you acknowledge that Edmunds and its third party business partners may use cookies, pixels, and similar technologies to collect information about you and your interactions with the website as described in our
Privacy Statement, and you agree that your use of the website is subject to our
Visitor Agreement.
Comments
She was dead set on Silver Frost and I was dead set on FWD.
The only SELs all had the leather option in our area. None of the dealers could locate one w/o leather to swap.
Too bad. It really looks like an impressive vehicle.
I assume you mean MPG, not MPH.
There's no real need to. It's just whether you want to see the average MPG since the last time you filled up or not.
That indicator will show you the average MPG since the last time you reset it.
Oh my--I have a Silver Frost FWD, but I'm not interested in selling it ;-) But it does have the leather. I've never had leather before and I have to say, now that I've got it, I much prefer it because it always looks clean and nice. I thought it might feel cold and uncomfortable but I haven't found that to be the case. Of course, I do live in California and the temperature here doesn't fluctuate much...
They've got Freestyles in the paper this week for 21,979 (two at that price). I'm assuming that they are probably SE FWDs, but they didn't say. Nice article today in the San Francisco Chronicle about the 500. It's probably online at SFgate if you're interested. I'll try and find the link for posting if anyone is interested.
PS- the owner's manual makes no mention of it either.
You need to get you car seats installed correctly now. Many places will do this for you for free. I believe fire departments and I know babies-r-us will do this for you. The car seats should not be able to move at all. I have 1 car seat installed in the middle of my middle row. Since There is a 3 point belt there you should use a seat belt clip behind the buckle to keep the belt tight. I believe this comes with all car seats and can be purchased for a buck or two at any place that sells car seats. If you don't use the clip you should be pulling the seat belt out all of the way so that you hear a ratcheting sound when it goes back in. Then put your knee with all of you weight on the car seat and feet the seat belt back into the tensioner. Either of these methods should keep the carseat tight. I use both methods. If you intsall the car seat in one of the outboard locations of the center row you should be using the "LATCH" system. If your carseat is not LATCH compatable then throw it away and get one that is because it is to old to be using now days. The latch system uses the two anchors between the bottom and back seat cushions plus a third anchor on the back of the seat at the bottom of the seat back. The latch system is the best way to go but it is only on the outboard sides of of the middle row and the passenger side of the third row. It is still the safest to your child in the middle of the car but if you have more than one you will have to put at least one next to the body of the car. You can not simply prop a carseat under a headrest. The middle postition is not to narrow for a carseat. I use it and can still just fold the passenger side forward to access the third row. Plus there is still plenty of room on either side of the car seat for large people to sit. I am 230lbs and have ample room next to the car seat in the middle row when my wife is driving. Whith our old car it was pretty tight. The car does not not need to be any bigger. It is already 2 inches wider and 10 inches longer than the latest generation explorer which is pretty good sized these day. The dimensions your speaking of would put it larger than a expeditition and close to the size of an excurion which is the biggest suv ever made. I find the Freestyle to have an amazing amount of room in all three rows. As far as the gas milage goes it is supposed to get 20 in town not 24. And if you read the fine print it is acceptable if it gets between like 17-23 mpg in town. Ours was getting about 17 at first now we are getting 18.5 around town. That is just surface streets only with no freeway thrown in. We only have 1200 miles on the car so I would expect it to creep up slightly more to maybe the 20 mpg range. We reset the MPG everytime we fill up with gas. What kind of car are you did you drive before the freestyle and how gigantic are you and the people you are hauling around?
Paragraphs, Please. Thanks
Second as far as mileage goes, we just went over 1000 miles on our AWD SEL. If I put on the cruise control at 65, I get about 25 mpg on the highway. Faster means a bit lower mileage. I don't drive in the city, but around my low-density suburban area I get about 23. It depends upon how aggressively I start, stop, and accelerate, and
mostly how much I have to start and stop in general. If for some reason you idle a lot, that would also drag it down. In Boston I doubt I would get 18.
Road conditions also seem to make a big difference--it looks like I get about 10mpg on my (very long) driveway, which is a bumpy mixture of mud, ice, and snow right now.
Finally, I don't have a purse, but my wife does. At first she put it inside the center console, but now we have other stuff in there. You can put it behind your seat as long as the person sitting there isn't too big. Or maybe if you could use a smallish purse you could put into the door storage next to the cupholder. We aren't using that for anything right now. It was easier when we had a space between the front seats. My wife doesn't usually drive when I am in the car, so generally she just puts her purse by her feet--I realize that won't work so well if you are driving!
After 5 days we are loving our Freestyle AWD SEL.
However, as most new car-owners do, I'm suffering from an acute case of hyper-observationitis. I just noticed that the driver side door is not perfectly flush with the right fender. An eighth of an inch perhaps. Hardly noticable to non-new car-owners, but for me it stands out. In fact, I find my self scrutinizing other late-model cars for similar "defects".
The functioning of the door isn't affected. It makes a satisifying suctioning whoomp when I close the door. No noticable wind noises at high speeds. It's probably a result of a yet to be fined-tuned assembly line (VIN number ends with 04587).
Question: Should I point this out to the dealer and have them look at it, but run the risk of them knocking it out of whack?
Sorry for being rude in my previous post. I'm glad that you got your car seats figured out. I have not tried 2 seats side by side but just looking at the space left over with the one in the middle it looks like there would be room. My seat just must be narrower. I can just fold he one side of the seat forward with the car seat in place. I did buy a mat to go under and behind car seats but could not use it because it was way to wide. It took up half of the back seat. I wanted it to protect the car seat from digging in to much but it was also meant to catch spillage from the child. That is a difficult situation if you have to put 2 car seats in and have to access the third row.
Or maybe you could put one child seat in the second row and one in the third. If you are driving you can't reach the seat directly behind you very well anyway, and if there is another adult they could sit in the second or third row to watch the kids.
Hi Sharonsel,
I'm a brand new grandma so I'm watching all the carseat posts with interest. RE: the plastic holder--yes, CDs fit and I've tried to them there, but they just fall out when I open the hatch. I've started taking my car CDs out of their crystal cases and putting them in sleeves--you can get so many more in your car that way and when I put them in the "kleenex holder," they don't fall out (as long as you put enough in there for a snug fit).
Title:
Thanks for the input (and showing me my right from my left). I brought it by the dealership and showed it to a mechanic, he said that he could adjust it easily but that it may make it stick out somewhere else (?!).
I told him I'd live with it for now but if it got the better of me I'd ask them to adjust it at my next oil change.
Man, owning a new car is stressful (at least for the first few weeks).
With the theater seating the way it is, 2 adults can sit in the second row and the kids can still see the DVD screen.
I love this car.
TSB 05-6-9
FORD: 2005 Five Hundred, Focus, Freestyle, Mustang, F-150
MERCURY: 2005 Montego
ISSUE:
Some 2005 Freestyle, Five Hundred/Montego vehicles built 5/17/2004 through 2/24/2005, and 2005 Mustang, Focus, F-150 vehicles, all vehicles equipped with a single or 6 disk CD player with MP3 capability, may exhibit one or more of the following intermittent CD player concerns.
CD player skips
Locks up when playing homemade CDs
Displays "Error" or "Bad Disc"
Will not accept CDs
CD inoperative or inconsistent playability of some CDRs.
ACTION:
Replace CD player with latest service level through your facing audio service center. When replacing the audio unit (radio) on 2005 Freestyle, Five Hundred, Montego and Mustang vehicles it is necessary to perform programmable module installation (PMI) prior to removal of the old audio unit. This information must be uploaded into the new audio unit once installed. Failure to perform PMI on the new audio unit may result in inoperative backlighting and/or diagnostic trouble code (DTC) B2477. If communication cannot be established with old audio unit to download this information, as built data will need to be used. As built data can be obtained at the Professional Technician Society (PTS) website or at www.motorcraft.com. For additional information, refer Workshop Manual Section 415-01 and 418-01
What is a TSB? Thank you for the heads up I will print out your post and take it to the dealer. They replaced my CD6/radio last Monday but I am still getting skipping and repeating. It happens about once or twice an hour so it seems minor but the radio in a brand new car should work right. Is this CD/radio model defective?
You can look them up at alldata.com but they don't have the 2005 information yet. I got this from a Mustang forum because I was looking for information on this error.
It's up to you if you want to get the stereo looked at and replaced. I don't plan on dealing with it because it's very frustrating. Ford's obviously aware there's a problem.
To all, I'm really loving our LTD. My wife wanted the Honda Pilot and I think this is growing on her.
Don't think that if there is a TSB on one of your cars that it will be fixed outside of the warranty period for free.
TSB's are only "notices that this MAY be a problem" without actually admitting fault.
I discovered this the hard way. My vehicle had a tsb regarding a distributer rotor which may crack. Lo and behold, at 60K, it cracked. The TSB meant the dealer knew about the problem well in advance, but it was still replaced at my dime.
Only if enough people complain about a TSB will it become a recall.
So get all TSB's fixed while still under warranty, even if it seems remote it would affect you.
Steve, Host
I'm with you, duhey2. Mine is fairly temperamental too, but funny enough, far less now than it was at the beginning; no idea why. It still spits out the random "bad disk" when I know the disk is fine and it will still skip sometimes but I've decided it's not worth the hassle, too. Mine is the 6 CD changer, SEL version. Are there also problems with the Audiophile system? I know it's an upgrade, but I'm now sure if the upgrade is just in the speakers or if the whole system is different.
Well, if the Freestyle starts really growing on your wife, you may not get to drive it as much...
Also, on the home-made CD's, make sure you write the name/info of the CD in black permanent marker. If you use labels, you might be damaging the system and causing the "bad disc" error.
Two weeks ago I purchased a Merlot limited with all the options and am enjoying everything about it. The ride is smooth and quiet, the fit and finish are perfect and it looks great. It took me no time to get accustomed to the transmission. Gas mileage is about 17mpg but I have only driven it about 600 miles and all of those miles have been stop and go. This weekend we will hit the parkway and I expect the mpg to rise.
Only one minor problem has been an occasional skip from the cd player. It does not happen often enough for me to be concerned about it now, if the problem worsens I will bring it to the attention of my dealer. All the other toys work fine.
My wife liked to ride in the Expedition but hated driving it. She has an 04 Freestar that she liked until my Freestyle came along. Now I have a hard time getting it away from her.
You'll see from previous posts that many of us are having problems with the CD player. I guess I don't have very high expectations of standard-issue car stereos (and I've never been surprised). I guess if you want a good stereo, after-market is what you need to do if it's that important to you. Mine is okay--if I'm going to blow money somewhere, the stereo won't be my first choice...
xnappo
Freestylegal, I think the Audiophile system may have more speakers in addition to the subwoofer. I think the head unit is the same as in, say, an SEL.
As to my wife, she's already giving me a hard time about driving it. When we were looking at it, she was hung up on it being a "station wagon". However, I did score a moral victory today when we received truck plates for it.
I'm bummed about the sunroof, inability to get silver with heated seats, all of which the Pilot EXL comes with for I reckon at most $1000 more than the Freestyle.
I can compromise on the heated seats (its springtime now and so less urgent), would love to have a sunroof but color Never.
It is taking me a little time being comfortable sitting lower than I was in my Expedition but it’s beginning to feel more normal to me everyday. Funny thing about being an ex Expedition owner, when I see them on the road now they seem so big, when I was driving one they didn’t seem all that big! I don’t miss mine at all when I see them at the gas pump.
As I said I am completely satisfied with my new Freestyle and enjoying it more everyday.
I am going to see how the problem works out with the c.d. player. If it bothers me on my drive to Iowa, I will talk to my dealer when I get back and get it replaced.
Happy Easter to everyone. Drive safe!
Still haven't seen another FreeStyle on the road since buying mine two and a half weeks ago!
I had burned a CD-R with a few songs (converted to audio, not MP3), and it skipped like crazy the first time I played it. This CD-R, though, had generated a warning in Nero after the burn that "Burn-Proof" had been implemented about FORTY times.
A CD full of MP3's that I'd burned before had never skipped.
Thus, I figured that just perhaps the places where burn-proof had been utilized (which basically stops the laser until data can catch up, then continues the burn, but leaving a small gap that hte CD-player is supposed to be able to ignore) were causing the issues.
However, since that time, I've played the CD again several times in the car, and it didn't skip once. Go figure.
It's quite inconsistent, really. I think that these CD players probably had a lot of dust get into them at some point, which is causing these intermittent problems.
What this does is to help limit the dynamic range, which keeps the soft parts of music from getting too low to hear well.
If so, try playing some songs that have a nice drum kick at the very beginning.
I have a CD or two with several songs like this, and those initial drum kicks will care the daylights out of you when the audio compression is turned on.
With compression turned OFF, there's no problem, as the audio level is low enough not to make you jump. But the level's low enough that the compression routine raises it's audio level when compression is ON, and it gets VERY loud for that second. Yikes!
I wish it had more controllable compression settings so I could probably tweak them to avoid that one peculiar aspect of the compressor.
BY Ford doing this, it adds positive "credit" to C.A.F.E. credits. For every F-150, Excursion, Expedition, and other heavy truck it sells, it requires a few Focus' (or hybrids) to help improve it's average C.A.F.E. credits. Therefore, by classifying this vehicle as a "truck" (under the criteria of the federal government), it allows Ford to place those fuel efficiency credits towards the truck sector of the company and improve it's "truck economy" fuel average.
Some other vehicles are classified as trucks to take advantage of this, such as PT Cruiser, and Dodge Magnum.
I didn't read the manual, but looked under the hood (somewhat quickly, I'll admit).
I didn't see a place to check it, either.