I leased the Freestyle LTD loaded with almost every option offered in Detroit. I drove it to Fl. and it drove like a dream! I am disappointed in its low towing cap. However, I saw somewhere that a package could be obtained the boosts it from 2K lbs to 3.5K lbs. Does anyone have any info on this (I have the AWD model of the LTD)
Unaware of anything on beyond 2k on the towing front. Towing ability is a matter of driveline, engine, chassis etc. Its quite possible that Ford is being conservative on the tow rating.
By the time the lease is up, there will be a larger more powerful engine and a different gearbox and so the rating is bound to rise.
I got a good laugh at my local dealers expense the yesterday. At 5pm the customer service manager call my house to let me know there will be a letter coming in the mail about incentives on the Freestyle and Five Hundred. Because I test drove a Freestyle liked it. My wife told her that we are not going to purchase a vehicle right away, maybe 2-3 months down the road. Wee the CSM told her if we would come in in the next week, the Sales manager would be able to get me into a Freestyle at a less monthly payment than what I'm paying now on my Escape. Now my wife just laughed her head off at the lady on the phone, and when the CSM asked her what was so funny, my wife then told her that my Escape was paid off at time of purchase and guess that means they will just hand over the keys to us. This really flustered the CSM and said she didn't know the Escape was paid-off at time of purchase, they wouldn't be able to just GIVE a Freestyle away.
I wish that I could have got a recording of that phone call, I would have gone in today and taken it with me, and told the sales manager, "She said it, where's my new car?"
Has anybody been able to find the subwoofer on the LTD's yet? Just wondering where it is.
Also, does anybody know if the stock speakers in the LTD are just standard paper cones with foam surround that will wear out in a few short years? Or has Ford put in some better-constructed speakers in the LTDs?
I wonder why they didn't put any tweeters in the dash or on the windows like they did in the Taurus?
Since I'm a bit strange, I like to check the linearity (or non-linearity) of the gas gages on cars. Here's what I've found on the Freestyle:
From a very well topped-off tank.
From fill up to where it reads "Full" = 2 gallons
From Full to 3/4 = 3 more gallons (5 total)
From 3/4 to 1/2 = 4 more gallons (9 total)
From 1/2 to 1/4 = 5 more gallons (14 total)
I didn't take it all the way to Empty. Since the tank holds 19 gallons, that last 1/4 to E should probably be another 5 gallons . . though at the pace I was going, I'm not sure it would've made it that far. Also, a tank completely topped off often holds an extra gallon, from what I've experienced in the past.
Not really linear, but better than my '96 Taurus. That took 5 gallons before it finally read "full" instead of "more than full".
"I do have a stereo q - anyone getting feedback sqwalks on the radio? Also, a lot of static - whatsup?"
Not really, but then I don't play the radio much. I've mainly played CD's. This CD player "skips" far more frequently than the ones in my Tauri do. In fact, those rarely skip at all.
The Freestyle is a great vehicle for carrying a few passengers at a time, but not for towing. To do so would be a disappointing and "roaring" experience. I love it, but it can't really function well as a typical suv. It's a tall roomy car and should be used as such.
I purchased my freestyle (loaded Limited) on 17-Nov, and to date I've only been able to drive for ~24 days! The rest of the time it’s been either in for repairs or waiting for parts to be "pulled off the line". So far I've had the front wheel bearings replaced (@600 miles) leak in AC repaired (@ 650 miles), transmission replaced (@900 miles), and the car still makes horrible grinding and/or clicking noises when cornering and breaking. Worst yet, when breaking in turns this car occasionally pulls wildly to the RT. Great job on styling, terrible job on reliability and ability to diagnose and fix problems. Not what I expected for $35K, Ford can keep my Freestyle. I will not under any circumstance take it back if they are able to repair it this time!
How do you know what is the correct source for rebates? Edmunds shows multiple rebates but when you go to Ford they show nothing. I believe there is a X-Plan rebate of 750 yet the ford site doesn't mention it. So if you have something like edmunds showing this rebate is it binding or not?
Question 2: Looking at the ford accessories does a rear wind deflector really do anything or does it just "look cool"?
Question 3: For those rebates that are available and are applicable can they be combined in the X-Plan offer even though the "public rebate" description says it can't? I thought I was told that under the X-Plan that all applicable rebates can be combined.
Statement 1: I ordered a SEL FWD about three weeks ago via the X-Plan and I kept checking for a build date and none was showing up. Today I get a call from the dealer saying my car showed up. Surprise.
Oh dear--so sorry this is happening to you, nofreefan. I had the same experience with a 2002 Explorer. It happens--it's just one of those things with mass-produced products; it makes it so we can afford them but there is an "acceptable" level of mess-ups. Of course, it isn't acceptable when it's happening to you. Thank heavens for the Lemon Law and it's exactly for people like you. My Freestyle has been pretty near perfect, but I had a couple little fit and finish things and I'm still waiting for 2 parts for almost a month now. Fortunately, it isn't affecting the performance or safety of the car. I hope the dealer is taking good care of you and I hope you get into a car soon that you can feel good about.
Why not ask Ford to take it back and give you another one. I've gained the impression here that Ford is trying very hard to make sure things go right on this vehicle.
Good advice. Funny though, ever notice how the few big problem complaints have been posted by a user with a brand new userid, no email address visible, and we don't hear from them again? They aren't asking for advice, just bashing the car and disappearing. In one case I posted a reply asking for details, and never got a reply. I think Ford would try to make something like this right, but nofreefan would probably have to go higher than the dealer. If anyone has details about the problems, I'm sure we would all appreciate the info. so we could watch for a similar problem. I found that to be true with some problems I had on another vehicle. Let's do all we can to help one another.
Yes, nofreefan's post seems suspicious to me especially since I did find another Freestyle forum with nothing but insulting rants about what an ugly, underpowered vehicle it is, blah, blah....altho not a single Freestyle owner in the bunch at that forum. Kinda weird.
New car problems are a total headache. I'm at 800 miles on my Limited and absolutely love this vehicle. I had reservations about buying a first year model, but my previuos experiences with Ford trucks has been so positive that I did not hesitate when purchasing the Freestyle. Great car (so far)--the feel, ride, finish, creature comforts all outstanding. Guess I got a good one? Mine seems to be one of the early ones off the line (#A00887) too.
If nofreefan's experience is really legit, I do hope Ford makes right on this.
The sales person called yesterday to say the material hold was lifted from my ordered LTD FWD and a build date was expected next week. I'll take anything as good news. Been waiting since Thanksgiving.
I went to the Ford site and discovered the great financing rates are no longer posted. Am I sunk on low APR?
Rebates - I don't think you can 100% rely on either. Edmunds has some Ford doesn't list and visa versa.
The best way to tell is when you take delivery the dealer will input your VIN # and the rebates that are good on that day will be applied. There was an additional x plan incentive but don't know the expiration of that.
If you recvd the Ford Direct email take that to the dealer w/you. (Mine expired the end of Dec and we couldn't use it)
Some rebates you do take off the x plan price - military for instance. Others you can not - the Quarter Horse one, for example. I think they disclose which ones you can't use for x plan.
Also, if there is one in place and you don't know about it, they might mail you the rebate check. Think this happened to barnstormer. (Did you ever get it?)
We purchased our Freestyle w/the Z plan discount from my Dad who retired from FMC in ATL.
We gave the dealer our code and had absolutely the best car buying experience ever.
Got a call from my Dad yesterday. He got a letter from Ford that basically said "they purchased a car under your Z plan and if this is not a relative of yours - notify us immediately" - I got tickled at this.
We have had the car 2 weeks - if we weren't who we were suppose to be....would they come knocking on our door? What is up with that?
"Also, if there is one in place and you don't know about it, they might mail you the rebate check. Think this happened to barnstormer. (Did you ever get it?)"
Yep, I got the check from Ford for the $750 X-plan rebate. The dealer hadn't noticed it the day I bought it, but found it the next business day.
I wasn't able to get the $768 Customer Loyalty rebate, though, that I received a few days later in the mail. They said that if they had re-done the contract to show a later purchase date (so I could get the $768 rebate), then the $750 rebate would have expired.
Not 100% sure I buy that, though, given that you got your $750 Z-plan rebate after that. Do these X-plan and Z-plan rebates have on-again off-again lifespans that are that short?
"Got a call from my Dad yesterday. He got a letter from Ford that basically said "they purchased a car under your Z plan and if this is not a relative of yours - notify us immediately" - I got tickled at this. "
That's it? That's how they check the validity?
Hey, your dad could've adopted me just for the day I got my vehicle.
I could've even paid him a few bucks for the privilege of being my dad.
I tried it the other day and it works great. Took a little bit to load initially but after that it played smoothly. However, I am getting some bad disc errors when I switch from one disc to another. It kicks it out but when I put it back in it reads OK.
I've had "bad disc" errors even on a regular CD . . actually, now that I think about it, this may be a CD-R. It came straight from the songwriter himself, so I doubt it's a "normal CD" and is probably CD-R.
You might try using a better (read: more expensive) brand of CD-R, or even burning at a lower rate.
Right now my mp3's (on the PC) are sorted by folder. The first folder is the artist name, then the second folder is the album name. The mp3 track names are <track number - track title).mp3 If you "shuffle" a disc with several mp3 albums loaded in this manner, do you know if it shuffles the entire CD, or will it just shuffle the songs in a given folder?
"Do these X-plan and Z-plan rebates have on-again off-again lifespans that are that short?"
I'm really not sure, we weren't told of an expiration - it just showed up on their system. It wasn't listed on any of the rebate sites. We were to have it!
One of our clients (ad sales rep for a paper) is a Ford dealer and they are still promoting the great rates - said they were extended.
Also, I've noticed the Ford site is a little slow to update once something is extended. For example, the Military incentive expired early Jan and then they renewed it again for another period of time but it took 2 or 3 weeks for it to show back up on the site after the original expiration.
Hoping you are good to go! Cool on the build date - Congrats.
Hey - quick question - I noticed some people making comments about being able to tell when their vehicle was manufactured based on the Vin #. How can you determine this?
It has something to do with the last few digits in the VIN number for number built. I'm not sure how you associate those numbers to build time frames....
The dealer is telling me that a x-plan rebate of $750 is showing up. They say none of the other rebates that are on edmunds shows up. I am afraid that maybe these people(salesman) don't know the computer system that well or could it be because the x-plan overides other rebates? Just seems odd that these rebates were on edmunds, they came off for about 3-4 days in early February and then showed up again.
I haven't looked at the freestyle, but there are stickers on the drivers door where the latch is on all our other cars that indicates the Vin number and month/year of manufacture.
If ford started freestyle production at 000001 then next one will be 000002 etc. Lowest I've seen was in the 5000 range.
Just past 10000 miles & going strong with my Merlot LTD AWD. Still perfect (knock on wood)! BTW my VIN is 08255 (last 5 digits). MPG is running 21.9! Best performance in snow and/or bad weather ever! I have said this before and I will say it again...this may be the best car I have ever owned!!! BTW I have owned a lot of nice vehicles in my 40 years of driving. IMO we need the "good" posts with the bad ones. I hope the problems get better.
I'm almost certainly going to get the second row windows tinted to "privacy glass" darkness.
I'm wondering how many have had cars with the front windows tined to the full legal amount. Did you find this to cause issues with using the side-view mirrors, or any other safety concern?
I could just leave those alone, or tint them even lighter than legal.
I got an estimate of about $150 to do all four windows, from a place that offers a lifetime guarantee.
My feeling exactly. I have noticed a decline in advertised prices for freestyles in my area. Even the Edmund's pricing is down over 1K from when I placed my order and I based my accepted offer on than information. A lot of dealers are offering discounts. I wonder if I can go back to the bargaining or if I am locked into my original offer?
Yeah, I'm surprised, too. Did the person who asked about he FWD in snow stump everyone? Well, it's been 5 weeks and 4,500 miles since I bought my Freestyle and still haven't seen another one; feeling kinda lonely!
I am out looking for a Freestyle. I am in SE Pennsylvania, and I have to agree with Freestyle Gal. Other than those sitting on the dealer's lots, I have only seen one on the road. (Maybe it was you). I have to say, some of the configurations I have seen on the dealers' lots, its no wonder they are not moving. I am trying to find either a Ltd or SEL with Safety Pkg, Aux Climate controls for the 2nd row passengers and no DVD(all musts), and second row split bench (want) and I have yet to find one with that combo. On top of it, what the dealers want to give me on a trade gets me so annoyed I just feel like walking out. I do have x-plan, so I guess they are trying to make a killing on the trade, since they wont get it on the sale... They are nice vehicles, but they are not too anxious to sell them yet. Does anyone know how long the $750 xplan rebate lasts. I haven't seen anything on the ford website about it.
I hate to tell you this, but I have a silver SEL like the one you describe plus the comfort package (dual front seat climate control) with shale leather. It was sitting on a lot, the only one like it. The only other ones they had were a black AWD LTD and a FWD SE, so I feel pretty lucky. I haven't seen any of our local dealers (San Francisco Bay Area) advertising them in the paper--you can sure snap up some nice deals on Explorers and Expeditions, though. Gas is going up about a nickel a day here (the cheapest I can find right now is 1.99/gal.--by tomorrow, that will look like a bargain!). Well, good luck! I got mine for $28,500 plus they paid off my 2003 Expedition and gave me 2.9% rate on the car loan. I don't have relatives in the car biz so I don't qualify for any discounts or rebates from that quarter. My grandfather was a distant, poor, shirt-tail relative of the Ford family, though; his first name was even Ford and my brother's middle name is Ford. My grandfather always drove Chryslers...
"4,500 miles since I bought my Freestyle and still haven't seen another one; feeling kinda lonely! "
Don't give up yet fsg. One of these days you're going to look in the rear view mirror and there we will be! I guess we will have to cruise over to HMB...maybe Barbara's Fish Trap.
We are at 2100 miles and only down 1/4 of a quart of oil. Maybe we will make it to the first oil change without adding any. That would be something.
I have read about others buying the extended warranty. We did not, but we did buy the maintenance plan (75K/6 years). That covers wear items and the periodic maintenance. Did any one else do that? As one who has always done my own maintenance, I hope that was the right decision.
Anotherwagon and jjay send vin# to me at my email address and i will tell you the day your car was built as well as the day your engine was built and if it had any problems going down the assembly line.
Comments
By the time the lease is up, there will be a larger more powerful engine and a different gearbox and so the rating is bound to rise.
I wish that I could have got a recording of that phone call, I would have gone in today and taken it with me, and told the sales manager, "She said it, where's my new car?"
Odie
I just got a call from the dealer saying that my Freestyle was built and on the train. I ordered it
Jan 7, and they are now saying it will be available for pick up sometime between Feb 14th and 21st. This is an AWD SEL.
Also, does anybody know if the stock speakers in the LTD are just standard paper cones with foam surround that will wear out in a few short years? Or has Ford put in some better-constructed speakers in the LTDs?
I wonder why they didn't put any tweeters in the dash or on the windows like they did in the Taurus?
Open the rear hatch and look on the passenger side, there is a "grilled" panel and the sub is behind that."
from another site, not sure....not my area..but just maybe...
I do have a stereo q - anyone getting feedback sqwalks on the radio? Also, a lot of static - whatsup?
Do you have a link to that info? I googled it, but couldn't find it.
Since I'm a bit strange, I like to check the linearity (or non-linearity) of the gas gages on cars. Here's what I've found on the Freestyle:
From a very well topped-off tank.
From fill up to where it reads "Full" = 2 gallons
From Full to 3/4 = 3 more gallons (5 total)
From 3/4 to 1/2 = 4 more gallons (9 total)
From 1/2 to 1/4 = 5 more gallons (14 total)
I didn't take it all the way to Empty. Since the tank holds 19 gallons, that last 1/4 to E should probably be another 5 gallons . . though at the pace I was going, I'm not sure it would've made it that far. Also, a tank completely topped off often holds an extra gallon, from what I've experienced in the past.
Not really linear, but better than my '96 Taurus. That took 5 gallons before it finally read "full" instead of "more than full".
Not really, but then I don't play the radio much. I've mainly played CD's. This CD player "skips" far more frequently than the ones in my Tauri do. In fact, those rarely skip at all.
I still need to try out the mp3 capabilities.
That's better than me. I am hovering at 14.5 mpg - a little over 300 miles. Then again, I have only went on the highway once.
Question 2: Looking at the ford accessories does a rear wind deflector really do anything or does it just "look cool"?
Question 3: For those rebates that are available and are applicable can they be combined in the X-Plan offer even though the "public rebate" description says it can't? I thought I was told that under the X-Plan that all applicable rebates can be combined.
Statement 1: I ordered a SEL FWD about three weeks ago via the X-Plan and I kept checking for a build date and none was showing up. Today I get a call from the dealer saying my car showed up. Surprise.
New car problems are a total headache. I'm at 800 miles on my Limited and absolutely love this vehicle. I had reservations about buying a first year model, but my previuos experiences with Ford trucks has been so positive that I did not hesitate when purchasing the Freestyle. Great car (so far)--the feel, ride, finish, creature comforts all outstanding. Guess I got a good one? Mine seems to be one of the early ones off the line (#A00887) too.
If nofreefan's experience is really legit, I do hope Ford makes right on this.
I went to the Ford site and discovered the great financing rates are no longer posted. Am I sunk on low APR?
I too hope Ford comes thru for nofreefan if warranted.
The best way to tell is when you take delivery the dealer will input your VIN # and the rebates that are good on that day will be applied. There was an additional x plan incentive but don't know the expiration of that.
If you recvd the Ford Direct email take that to the dealer w/you. (Mine expired the end of Dec and we couldn't use it)
Some rebates you do take off the x plan price - military for instance. Others you can not - the Quarter Horse one, for example. I think they disclose which ones you can't use for x plan.
Also, if there is one in place and you don't know about it, they might mail you the rebate check. Think this happened to barnstormer. (Did you ever get it?)
Good Luck!
We purchased our Freestyle w/the Z plan discount from my Dad who retired from FMC in ATL.
We gave the dealer our code and had absolutely the best car buying experience ever.
Got a call from my Dad yesterday. He got a letter from Ford that basically said "they purchased a car under your Z plan and if this is not a relative of yours - notify us immediately" - I got tickled at this.
We have had the car 2 weeks - if we weren't who we were suppose to be....would they come knocking on our door? What is up with that?
Hubby lobbying for a truck now....
Now lets return to our regularly scheduled programming
Yep, I got the check from Ford for the $750 X-plan rebate. The dealer hadn't noticed it the day I bought it, but found it the next business day.
I wasn't able to get the $768 Customer Loyalty rebate, though, that I received a few days later in the mail. They said that if they had re-done the contract to show a later purchase date (so I could get the $768 rebate), then the $750 rebate would have expired.
Not 100% sure I buy that, though, given that you got your $750 Z-plan rebate after that. Do these X-plan and Z-plan rebates have on-again off-again lifespans that are that short?
That's it? That's how they check the validity?
Hey, your dad could've adopted me just for the day I got my vehicle.
I could've even paid him a few bucks for the privilege of being my dad.
I tried it the other day and it works great. Took a little bit to load initially but after that it played smoothly. However, I am getting some bad disc errors when I switch from one disc to another. It kicks it out but when I put it back in it reads OK.
You might try using a better (read: more expensive) brand of CD-R, or even burning at a lower rate.
Right now my mp3's (on the PC) are sorted by folder. The first folder is the artist name, then the second folder is the album name. The mp3 track names are <track number - track title).mp3 If you "shuffle" a disc with several mp3 albums loaded in this manner, do you know if it shuffles the entire CD, or will it just shuffle the songs in a given folder?
I'm really not sure, we weren't told of an expiration - it just showed up on their system. It wasn't listed on any of the rebate sites. We were
One of our clients (ad sales rep for a paper) is a Ford dealer and they are still promoting the great rates - said they were extended.
Also, I've noticed the Ford site is a little slow to update once something is extended. For example, the Military incentive expired early Jan and then they renewed it again for another period of time but it took 2 or 3 weeks for it to show back up on the site after the original expiration.
Hoping you are good to go! Cool on the build date - Congrats.
Yep and it seems that SHOULD have done that at the time we ordered not 2 weeks past delivery. Still wonder what the punishment would be?
I see my family getting bigger all of a sudden!
Good luck!
BTW, we only got Z plan 750 and military 500. The other rebates at that time were for the SE. Be sure the models match up.
If ford started freestyle production at 000001 then next one will be 000002 etc. Lowest I've seen was in the 5000 range.
Chuck
I'm wondering how many have had cars with the front windows tined to the full legal amount. Did you find this to cause issues with using the side-view mirrors, or any other safety concern?
I could just leave those alone, or tint them even lighter than legal.
I got an estimate of about $150 to do all four windows, from a place that offers a lifetime guarantee.
1)How does the FWD SEL or SE handle in the snow?
2)Is the FWD traction control active at all speeds or just from a standing start?
Any insight would be appreciated as its a bit tough to justify AWD when you receive less than 20" of snow a season. -Thanks in advance-
Yeah, I'm surprised, too. Did the person who asked about he FWD in snow stump everyone? Well, it's been 5 weeks and 4,500 miles since I bought my Freestyle and still haven't seen another one; feeling kinda lonely!
Don't give up yet fsg. One of these days you're going to look in the rear view mirror and there we will be! I guess we will have to cruise over to HMB...maybe Barbara's Fish Trap.
We are at 2100 miles and only down 1/4 of a quart of oil. Maybe we will make it to the first oil change without adding any. That would be something.
I have read about others buying the extended warranty. We did not, but we did buy the maintenance plan (75K/6 years). That covers wear items and the periodic maintenance. Did any one else do that? As one who has always done my own maintenance, I hope that was the right decision.