New to the Freestyle - How do I?

jwgasner

It has been quite some time since I've had a Ford - the Freestyle just connected with me and I've made the switch - 2007 AWD Limited, but there are some things that annoy me and I'm wondering if there is a setting that will change how mine is setup. I've looked in the manual but do not find the following:

AutoLock - works as expected - soon as I hit about 6 mph the doors lock. What doesn't happen is when I put the car in park the doors don't unlock. And when I do get out on the drivers side anyone in the back seat is waiting for me to let them out. No I'm not talking about the child locks - just to rehit the unlock to pop their door lock.

One thing I really miss from my '05 Malibu Maxx is the delayed lock. I'm so used to hitting my lock and closing the front door, and opening the back door to get my laptop out and once all doors are closed for 10 seconds then it locks all doors. Does this exist in the Ford?

Are there any recommendations as to how to get the most out of my CVT? How best to accelerate and such.

Thanks for taking the time to read through this and maybe others have some questions and can add things into this topic.

jwgasner

So I discovered this link:
http://www.gemsen.com/Ford/Pdf/Fall_Asleep_door_lock_tip_2006_Ford.pdf

It looks like Ford started putting in the auto-unlock feature in vehicles in 06. The Perimeter lighting and the auto-lock ones work on my 07 Freestyle, but the auto-unlock one doesn't honk so I'm assuming it just isn't there. Not exactly sure what the lock inhibit is so I never tried that.

saabturboid

>Are there any recommendations as to how to get the most out of my CVT? How best to accelerate and such.

That depends on your priorities. Do you wish to have the best fuel economy or the fastest acceleration times? If speed is your goal just mash the pedal to the floor. The CVT will do the rest.

If you are looking to get the most fuel economy out of your Freestyle then practice keeping the RPMs at about 2,000. By consistently doing this when accelerating you can increase your fuel economy quite a bit. My wife was getting lower economy when driving our Freestyle than I was. I taught her how to modulate the gas pedal to keep the RPMs around 2,000 at all times and now she is getting the good gas mileage too. The Freestyle still accelerates acceptably at this level but you obviously won't win any traffic light drag races.

- Chad

mschmal

just keep hitting the setup button on the steering wheel. If you have auto unlock, it will be there.

Mark.

bruneau1

As you know, the Freestyle is no jet off-the-line, but very responsive after that. For rapid passing, I take it to 4500 rpms and that is just enough. I never floor it since I find that is not required and produces a lot of roar. You will find that the rpms are constantly changing even if you are not pushing more on the accelerator. This is normal and is a feature of the transmission. I especially like the feel in curves and going up hills- it's always doing the right thing. Since the transmission holds the ratio longer than a regular type, it is easy to go too fast.

jwgasner

Thanks for the responses - love this forum! Still can't believe Ford sells the FS without crossbars on the roof rack. Is this a Ford exclusive system - what have others discovered?

One other question - is there a trick to getting the Forum's search speed up? That would be my only complaint here - most of the time it acts like it is non-functional?

stever

Crossbars cost money and not everyone uses them I guess. So Ford gets to save bucks not making them standard and they they get to make some extra change selling the bars.

Which search are you using? The Search This Discussion box above each discussion is usually faster - the Search Forums and Advanced Search tools on the left sidebar search ~3 million posts or so, and that tends to take a little longer. But it shouldn't take too long or act like it's not working at all.

You can also do a whole site search with a search engine using the "site" modifier and you may find that helpful, even though it will pick up pricing info and reviews that don't live in the forum. Here's an example of the syntax to put into the search box at Windows Live, Yahoo or Google, etc.:

ford freestyle site:edmunds.com

chris01945

Anyone know the easiest way to entirely remove the third 3rd row seat? It appears that the mounting brackets are behind the plastic interior trim. I don't want to destroy the trim, just remove the third row seat to maximize my storage room for transporting my daughter's rock band gear.