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I agree with scooter...the Freestyle is bland. It looks like an Explorer/car. But it is a station wagon. It is a family vehicle. I don't need to impress the neighbors with my family mover.
Sure, it won't leave tire marks when I'm ripping out of Dairy Queen after getting my kids their douple dip. :-) No, it won't smoke the Mustang GT on the highway during our trip to Six Flags. :-)
I'm tired of people trying to get everything out of one vehicle. It never happens no matter how hard you try. Cry about gas mileage or cry about performance. Cry about better visibility or cry about handling...which is it? :-)
As far as the CVT. I like it...but only in my family car.
If I wanted driving excitement, I'll get a car with a manual or a DSG.
Now that I've purged. I like my Freestyle. It's a fun family car to drive. Very comfortable, smooth and sure footed.
Your posts on this board have long since become both tiring and laughable. Your points (if indeed you really have any) were made a long time ago. Give it a rest and move on with your life. We are obviously not worthy of your wisdom and knowledge anyway.
I've barely seen them advertised. The only reason I thought to look at one is that I have a famly member who has Ford as a client. He thought I'd like it and I sure do. I drove the 500 (AWD) and the Tribeca (a terrible car) and felt like Goldilocks when I sat in the Freestlyle and felt just right.
Actually, the Freestyle is selling pretty well despite the lack of advertising and criticisms of the powertrain by some. You exaggerate. And as for style? Are the Pilot and Highlander stylish? The Tribeca not weird? The Rendezvous?? The Pacifica is probably more stylish than the Freestyle, but not as desirable in many ways. The goofy looking Murano? What else? Where's all this style? And is one's perception of style not subjective? Your remarks are not credible.
We are all well aware of Ford's marketing mistakes. We know what you think about the styling of the Freestyle. And frankly, I'm getting tired of you term Free-of-Style. We know your opinion of the power plant. We're well aware that you think the CVT is a one hit wonder. If you're so passionate about these issues why not take it up with Ford. It seems that some of the folks on this post are getting a little tired of your opinions. You can only taunt the tiger so much before it attacks back. You want to know what else, we're not just talking station wagons. We're talking about a major investment that was made by owners who feel they made an intelligent and worthy choice. I haven't gone back to look at your previous posts, but your current rant doesn't seem to have too much support. Move on man, your opinions have been noted, and I'm still glad I bought one.
We had seven or so inches of snow in St. Paul this morning. I saw a number of Freestyles on the road driving as poised a ever. Snow? No problem. They seem to have an affinity for it. :shades:
Page 84 starts the Info center listing of errors displayed. I don't see "Engine in Fail-Safe Mode" listed.
Are you saying that your 2005 owner's manual lists "Engine in Fail-Safe Mode" as an error? If so, could you please post what the manual says this error means?
No. It's a message center "System Warning", not an error. It can be cancelled by hitting the reset button, but will re-appear after 10 minutes unless presumably the condition causing it has cleared up.
My pg. 84 (at the bottom of the page) states: "ETC-Engine Failsafe Mode. Displayed when engine has defaulted to a "limp-home" operation."
I believe that "limp-home" operation means that the engine is trying to protect itself by shutting down half (in this case three) of it's cylinders. I suspect that the vehicle in question may have had a seriously overheated engine.
By the way, I once owned a '00 Focus with the Zetec engine. It had this same protective feature.
"My pg. 84 (at the bottom of the page) states: "ETC-Engine Failsafe Mode. Displayed when engine has defaulted to a "limp-home" operation." "
I downloaded the 3rd printing of the 2005 ownwers manual and saw what you are referring to. However, this text is only listed in the 2005 model owners manual, but is not listed in the 2006 owner's manual. Makes me wonder if they took out the feature for the 2006 MY.
As if things aren't confusing enough, now we see differences in the engineering features of the FS from 2005 to 2006???!! :confuse:
I don't get the style comments. I took a buddy to the Ford dealer three weeks ago to pick up his F-150 from the shop and went looking for a Freestyle. There was one sitting in a circle with 5 or 6 Escape Hybrids. I thought they were all Escapes until I made a second pass through.
They sure look like close relations, if not fraternal twins, to me.
I can't remember the last time I heard someone complaining about the style (or lack thereof) of the Escape.
"We had seven or so inches of snow in St. Paul this morning. I saw a number of Freestyles on the road driving as poised a ever. Snow? No problem. They seem to have an affinity for it."
I also live in the Twin Cities and enjoyed an 1:20 in the Freestyle to work this morning on a commute that normally takes about 25 minutes. I agree that our AWD Freebie does great in the snow. Just push the gas pedal and it goes. I only saw the traction control engage a couple of times.
I do however want to comment on the Conti Touring Contact (or whatever the stock tires are called) on the Freestyle. Although it was easy to go due to the Haldex AWD system, turning and stopping were another matter. AWD doesn't help in these areas and this is where your tire choice really helps. These Contis are terrible as I slid each time I tried to stop or turn. It is a dangerous situation since with AWD the vehicle goes so well that one is lulled into a false sense of confidence which can easily come back to bite when you need to stop or turn.
Personally, I can't wait to get these tires off of the vehicle. I think Ford can and should do better in their stock tire choice. Ford also cheeped out in a couple of other areas that are annoying. No gas door release, and no hood struts to hold the hood up. I think it was the 1970s the last time I had a vehicle that I had to use a manual hood support.
Lastly, I wanted to comment on the recent discussions of the Freestyle's looks. There is nothing wrong with the looks, in fact almost everyone who has seen our new Freestyle has commented on how nice it looks. The REAL problem is very few people know these vehicles exist. Not one of the 12 people that work in my office had ever heard of a Freestyle before we bought one, and some thought I was talking about the Freestar. Ford's BIG mistake is lack of marketing AND using a name so similar to the minivan. Don't get me wrong, Freestyle is a great name, but they should have left the minivan called the Windstar. Did they really think by changing the minivan's name people were going to thing it was completely different?
Regarding awareness of the Freestyle, a guy down the hall from me at work just bought a Black Limited. He also did not know they existed until he saw one at a dealer. He filled out a short survey after his purchase and told Ford what he thought of the lack of marketing. He only has 600 miles on it so far, but loves it. We will begin sharing experiences about the Freebie once the weather clears. :shades:
name so similar to the minivan I agree! I think Ford is stuck with their "F"s and "E"s to the point that people can't even remember the name of the vehicle that they own. Took me a while to get it straight that I was looking at a FreeSTYLE and not a FreeSTAR. Not to mention their line up of Expeditions, Explorers, Escapes, ETC (Focus, Five hundred). I would think that people can remember that they bought a Ford without having to keep all the names so close to each other. All the other car manufacturers have new names for each vehicle, rather than altering (playing off of) a name of an existing one in their lineup. Pet peeve of mine, others may like the way Ford names their vehicles, but it reminds me of a family I know where all 8 kids name's started with an L.
Personally, I can't wait to get these tires off of the vehicle. I think Ford can and should do better in their stock tire choice. Ford also cheeped out in a couple of other areas that are annoying. No gas door release, and no hood struts to hold the hood up. I think it was the 1970s the last time I had a vehicle that I had to use a manual hood support.
Totally agree. Quite disappointed that there is a very small selection for replacement tires and would have been happier to have had good tires on the Freestyle that I would have been content to leave on for a good long time. Does anyone know how many miles these Conti's are rated for? I live in Virginia, but travel to Canada every winter for a couple of weeks. Need to have good tires on for the trip.
names are easier to remember than alpha-numeric I agree with you there! It is just that GM and Chrysler do seem to be able to come up with either a good new name, or a re-invention of a classic car from their past and use that name. I just don't get the F and E fettish, but I'm sure for some people, they really like how Ford names their vehicles. Its much like the debate over styling. Names are very much a personal preference issue, otherwise everyone would name their children John and Jane and everyone would be happy. But, names are better than numbers. No matter how much you may hate your own name, I think everyone would be happier being called by their name rather than a number.
saabturboid said "Personally, I can't wait to get these [ stock Conti ] tires off of the vehicle." Not too much choice in aftermarket tires. The Goodyear Fortera TripleTred is probably the best, in a 225/65-17 size that will still fit the Freestyle nicely. (It will only raise the vehicle up by 1/4 inch.)
How to drive for better fuel economy on a Freebie?
When driving shift/automatic I typically used several tricks, including accelerating and breaking slowly, cruising / shifting to N if I saw a red light ahead, most of the times not having to stop, and on highway driving at the lowest comfortable speed of the highest gear (lets say 60 mph, mantaining between 1.5k-2k rpm). I confirmed that driving at 60mph saves gas over driving at 70mph.
However, with the CVT, it looks like a whole new game.
Specially on that last part: If the CVT is always mantaining the same rpm (about 1.5k) once you get to a certain speed, it will mean that to obtain the best mileage you would simply have to drive as fast as possible (provided you get to that speed on an smoothly fashion).
Am I right? I haven't had the chance to drive my freebie in a highway yet, so haven't confirmed the rpms at 70mph, or further beyond legal limits.
Well, in any case, what tips can you give me for fuel efficiency on the freebie?
The RPM tachometer is almost like a fuel economy gauge, really. Anytime you need more power, you force it to go above 1500 rpm, and gas mileage gets worse. If you could keep it at 1500, moderately loaded (45 to 55 mph), then thats your top gas mileage. Keep the tires aired up to 34 psi to help. Aerodynamics produce a lot more drag as you go faster, eating gas. Notice it takes 2000 rpm to do 70 mph speed due to high aerodynamic drag. Drop it down to 55 mph and the drag is far less, and you run at 1500 rpm there.
I also was in the mess in my Hudson to St. Paul commute this morning. I have a FWD Freebie (because I wanted better gas mileage) and had minimal problems in the snow, until I got home and the cul-de-sac had 12 inches of snow - no plows had come thru yet. You could tell a number of people had tried driving into the street and gotten stuck. I drove to my driveway, decided not to push my luck. The car was moving fine, but it does not have that kind of ground clearance. I think a 4WD truck (including my trade-in Tahoe) would not have gotten further. I totally agree with the tires, and have written a number of times in this forum that I believe the stock Conti tires are dangerous. They seem to lose all traction and grip at lower temperatures. Also they tend to get "hard" in cold weather and the handling gets terrible. I will be replacing these sooner than later. Did you notice that the Auto Show is in town, and all the Ford ads have NO mention of the Freestyle. The 2-Page spread in the special section in the weekend paper listed and had pictures of all the cars and SUV's, EXCEPT the Freestyle. Ford Marketing and common sense is the problem. They have a winner, if they would advertise it. And if they would put a Hybrid drivetrain under the Freebie with the CVT, you would have people lined up to buy a "Full-Size" SUV/Crossover with these kind of features and room. Problem is, Ford can't figure that out on their own. Not everyone wants a 4 passenger small hybrid.
All season tires are always going to stink in the snow compared to a snow tire.
All season tires are going to have a harder rubber compound so they can perform well in hot temperatures where as snow tire will practically melt when the temps get above 80 degrees. (I'm exagerating here)
If you find an all-season tire that performs well in the snow and cold then you will also find that the same tire will have a lower life expectancy than a typical all -season.
Do yourself a favor...Equip your $25,000+ vehicle with $400 worth of snow tires and you will be amazed at how much more secure your car will handle the snow. Better yet, buy a spare set of rims and you'll save yourself an extra ~$80 per year for the changeover that a typical garage charges.
Now if they could only make a snow tire that fits the Freestyle. LOL
I'm betting that we'll be able to get snow tires for next winter.
Well those of us on the west side of MSP got a bit more snow (of course I have to compete with st. Paul)--and the Freestyle AWD is pretty amazing--our town snow plowers were weak--they must be running out of energy, salt and money--but the freestyle did well in unplowed conditions--there is that very stable non jittery feeling--my jeep liberty did well in snow but always felt jittery
the tires--I agree completely--given the quality of the rest of the vehicle they cut corners and it shows--high quality michelin or goodyears would have made a difference
By the way 21, 000 miles, never in shop except oil change and no I have not received a recall notice (was an early one)
Yes, don't make the mistake that AWD is a good substitute for winter tires in the snow and ice. And the Pirelli P6 (which the FS also comes with) I doubt are any better. Okay in a straight line but not so good in braking or turning.
This is my first winter with the FS and when I planned trips skiiing this winter I always checked the conditions and then decide whether to take the AWD FS with the P6 tires or our 7 yr old FWD Volvo with snow tires. The Volvo is by far better handling and sure footed with the snow tires - just lower clearances.
I'm guessing Continental (with some exceptions) replaced Firestone as the as the contract tire supplier for a lot of Ford vehicles. Since the tire on the Freestyle says "EcoContact", Ford may have chosen a tire that gave better driving mileage (save gas - eco...). Of course, tires with less rolling resistance tend to have harder tread.
By the way, there do seem to be a number of Twin Citians on this Forum. It would have been nice to see some mention of the Freestyle in the ads for the Auto Show. It seem like there is a good market for the Freebie here. :shades:
I'm currently driving my FS normally rather than for max economy, to establish a baseline for what it does under "normal" driving. Then I will drive a thousand miles or so while trying to save gas, and see what the difference comes out to. Therefore I haven't yet come up with FS specific tips that I have tested out. Here are my current thoughts.
If you want to see how your driving is affecting the MPG, RESET the MPG display in the info center after the car is up to speed. Then the MPG will directly reflect your driving. Try and maximize the MPG display, resetting occasionally. This provides an "instantaneous MPG" - the current MPG the engine is getting. You'd be surprised how it looks when reset on a highway down hill - over 40 MPG. Exact opposite when climbing the hills.
The CVT does not always maintain the same RPM. Mine settles into about 1250 RPM at 35 MPH, and goes up to about 2100 at 80 MPH. The CVT will sometimes surge at any speed, but this is generally because there is a subtle incline or dip to the road that you don't notice. But in any case, don't switch into neutral with the CVT. At highway speeds, the CVT will rev up on the downhill slope, but if you check the instant MPG in the info center, you will see that the engine is getting great mileage none the less.
Always try and maintain a constant speed in town. Try and time the lights so that you don't have to stop - getting that 2 tons of steel (the Freestyle) up to 35 MPH takes a lot of gas, while cruising takes less gas.
You want to get the FS up to speed as quickly as possible while burning the least gas. I am thinking that the best way is to give it a fair amount of gas (around 2500 RPM), and then as you feel the CVT bite into higher gears, decrease the accelerator as the speed goes up past 20 MPH. This is the method I intend to try.
Keep the tires properly inflated, which according to the book means 32 front / 34 rear. I keep mine at about 33 / 35. In any case, put two extra pounds in the rear to be in accordance with the owners manual - the engineers must have designed the car that way.
In addition to the other tips, use the cruise control as much as possible. It does a much better job than most drivers of maximizing efficient transfer of engine power to the transmission.
This seems to be true of most cars. My 2002 4-cylinder Camry XLE gets 3-4 mpg better milage with the cruise control on than without it. I've averaged 30.8 mpg on the Camry over 77,000 miles.
I found on a trip last summer, on the freeway with the cruise on, I increased my mileage by nearly 5 mpg by keeping the RPM's below 2000 (65-68 mph) vs 2100+ RPM's (70+ mpg). The best mpg I got was 29 crossing No Dakota, very flat and straight. Around town, mostly city, I accelerate slowly, trying to keep the RPM's again at or below 2000 from a stop and I consistently get 18+ mpg. This winter (I'm also in Mpls., sorry Mpls folks I didn't have to leave the house yesterday) It's dropped to as low as 16 mpg during the coldest days. In other words I find a slow even acceleration in town and keeping it below 70 mph on the freeway gets me the best mileage.
Just wanted to post a comment on how much we enjoy our 2005 Limited seven passenger front drive. Ford undermarkets this vehicle, and it still sells! More practical and better priced than a Pacifica, this car seems to be a sleeper that I see ever more frequently. Ford should take a page from Pacifica history, it was marketed improperly at first (as a luxury vehicle, instead of a family vehicle) and took a while to catch on. C'mon Ford, give your vehicles a chance, and they will come!
I agree on the use of cruise control. It worked great coming down the mountains in West Virginia to keep a constant 70mph without touching the brakes once. The main key is start gradually...don't stomp on the gas after stoplights.
Your comment about keeping the cruise control set for under 70 mph might explain some of the major difference in mpg between my only two long trips in the Freestyle. My wife drove half the distance on our first trip, while I drove all of our second trip. She prefers freeway speeds of 65-70 mph and I prefer 70-75 mph.
Our 2006 Freestyle SE goes about 1900 rpm on flat freeways at 65-70 mph, and about 2050 at 70-75 mph.
It may well be that the Freebie's gas consumption goes way up at over 2000 rpm. This is worth a deliberate test.
A Mercedes E350 parked in front of my Freestyle today. After all of our discussion about tires, I thought I would see what tread was on the Mercedes. Continental EcoTrac. Hmmm. Perhaps they are saving money on luxury cars with big aluminum rims too. :shades:
Those Continental tires are actually pretty good. That company has an excellent reputation for quality. I don't think the bashing of Conti tires is based on sound evidence. There seems to be an expectation of cheapness, and thats what people think they see.
I have Michelin Pilots on my RSX and if you hop on any RSX discussion boards you will find out that they are hated by most RSX owners. I guess the grass is always greener ay? :-)
I'll take my lack of struts for the hood in my Freestyle. Seriously, whats the percentage of time that you'll be propping your hood up? Compare that to the percentage of time that you'll be glad that you had the extra engineering that went into crash testing.
As far as warranties go. Just because a car comes with a standard 10/100 year warranty doesn't mean that it won't be in the shop any less.
And an extended warranty only costs about $1500 to get up to the 10/100 time frame as the Hyundai. Again, most people won't keep their car that long, and for those that do....they can extend their warranties any time before the original expires.
Gas struts for the hood & locking gas cap...if Ford can save some money there, that's fine with me, but I'd rather have Ford spend a little extra on the interior. I'm glad that Hyundai has the long warranty because hopefully that will force other manufactures to increase theirs as well.
If Ford raised the price of the Freestyle from $25000 to $27000 and offered a 10 year/100,000 mile warranty would you be more or less likely to buy the car? :-)
Many thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately, my dealer updated me yesterday with a new estimated delivery date into late April - looks like when it is all said and done, about a 12 week waiting period....and all I wanted was an AWD SEL in the state of TX (not easy to find says my new friends at the dealership)
I'd be more likely to buy if the price remained at $25K and had a 10yr warranty!
Even though I know you can buy an extended warranty for the $2K right now, I think that if every Ford went up by $1500-2500 based on the vehicle and came with a 10y/100K warranty they'd sell more cars.
"I think that if every Ford went up by $1500-2500 based on the vehicle and came with a 10y/100K warranty they'd sell more cars."
Huh? Very doubtful. Do you know what that would do to the average Joe's (or Jane's) monthly car payment? Besides.. few people buying a new car plan on keeping it anywhere near 10 years. A ten year warranty is largely a sales gimmick, one that apparently is needed to move Hyundai's off the lot.
One of the reasons I purchased a Plymouth Voyager in '89 was because they offered a 7/70 powertrain warranty. It didn't cost any more though. The gimmick worked for me!
VW had some grumpy consumers for a while because they had a 2/24 warranty on some parts.
Having to fund longer warranties supposedly makes the manufacturer pay closer attention to quality as well, which has paybacks for those who don't drive them forever.
Ford brings in more than a billion dollars a year through the sale of extended warranties, fwiw. (Warranty Week)
The Continentals have received low ratings from Tire Rack customers, and there aren't too many good replacements. I want to replace the 215/65/17 with 225/65/17 with the goal of maintaining the softer ride but gaining a little width. Snow is not a factor for me. The Integrity is no super tire, but is soft and quiet, they put them on Pilots and Highlanders, so they can't be too terrible. The other choice for me seems to be the Alenza. I do not want stiff, noisy truck type tires.
Those types of warranties (non bumper-to-bumper, and/or "power train warranties") are largely gimmicks simply because they don't warranty very much, or things that will typically go wrong.
I have yet to own a vehicle that needed a new engine or transmission (or anything else covered by a power-train warranty) in 7 yrs / 70,000 miles.
I believe Hyundai's 10 yr powertrain warranty is only 10 yrs for the origional owner. Secondary onwers only benefit from a 5 yr powertrain warranty, or at least what is left of 5 yrs.
I believe it's because it simply wasn't necessary. And besides.. everything comes at a price. If it were offered as an option, I wouldn't have wanted it. Taller profile vehicles (like the XC90) are much more in need of ESC.
Besides.. few people buying a new car plan on keeping it anywhere near 10 years. A ten year warranty is largely a sales gimmick, one that apparently is needed to move Hyundai's off the lot.
Exactly how I feel.
I bought an extended warranty on a used 1997 Explorer (33,000 miles) and that cost about $800 to extend up to 70,000....saved me thousands because the engine blew on it at 60,000 miles.
I didn't bother with the extended on the Freestyle because my wife drives it and works about 4 miles from home. I'll assess it's history near the end of the standard warranty term and decide then whether or not I'll fork over another $1000 for an extended.
Volvo is 30% +/- more likely to roll over according to NHSTA testing despite being based on the same platform hence it being equipped with an ESP, ironic huh. I'd argue it not necessary and would just add expense and complexity to a very well conceived vehicle.
And as far as replacement tires go, go up a size or two and your options expand as opposed to staying with the stock size. With the exception of snow conditions more quality tire on the road is a good thing for safety and control. While the Conti's may not be the best tire in the world, I do not understand the rap they get here. At 8500 miles mine do not make excessive noise, they have dealt very well with a Chicago winter that has been admittedly mild but snow did not reveal anything untoward, gripped in rain, etc., etc., I'm not sure what people expect of all season tires but these have been competent and in my estimate not deserving of the rap they are getting. If you live in snow country it's not fair to expect these to perform like dedicated snows with AWD plain and simple, buy snows for winter if snow is extensive in your area. Maybe I got the only good set they made for our FWD FS...
As for the extended warranty Geico offers on its policy and extended service contract that takes our FS to 7ys/100k miles with a $250 deduct. We pay for it with our monthly payments, it works out very well. Once we knew that we signed the papers for our FS.
"And as far as replacement tires go, go up a size or two and your options expand as opposed to staying with the stock size. "
The owners manual carries a warning to Limited users (18" wheels) not to put snow cables on the car. I think this has to do with wheel well clearance issues. One might also have problems with a larger tire size. I get the feeling the FS was originally designed for 16" wheels and the marketing folks decided on 17" and 18" after the vehicle was designed.
Comments
But it is a station wagon. It is a family vehicle. I don't need to impress the neighbors with my family mover.
Sure, it won't leave tire marks when I'm ripping out of Dairy Queen after getting my kids their douple dip.
:-)
No, it won't smoke the Mustang GT on the highway during our trip to Six Flags.
:-)
I'm tired of people trying to get everything out of one vehicle. It never happens no matter how hard you try.
Cry about gas mileage or cry about performance. Cry about better visibility or cry about handling...which is it?
:-)
As far as the CVT. I like it...but only in my family car.
If I wanted driving excitement, I'll get a car with a manual or a DSG.
Now that I've purged. I like my Freestyle. It's a fun family car to drive. Very comfortable, smooth and sure footed.
Your posts on this board have long since become both tiring and laughable. Your points (if indeed you really have any) were made a long time ago. Give it a rest and move on with your life. We are obviously not worthy of your wisdom and knowledge anyway.
Why aren't they selling?
tidester, host
Page 84 starts the Info center listing of errors displayed. I don't see "Engine in Fail-Safe Mode" listed.
Are you saying that your 2005 owner's manual lists "Engine in Fail-Safe Mode" as an error? If so, could you please post what the manual says this error means?
My pg. 84 (at the bottom of the page) states:
"ETC-Engine Failsafe Mode. Displayed when engine has defaulted to a "limp-home" operation."
I believe that "limp-home" operation means that the engine is trying to protect itself by shutting down half (in this case three) of it's cylinders. I suspect that the vehicle in question may have had a seriously overheated engine.
By the way, I once owned a '00 Focus with the Zetec engine. It had this same protective feature.
"ETC-Engine Failsafe Mode. Displayed when engine has defaulted to a "limp-home" operation." "
I downloaded the 3rd printing of the 2005 ownwers manual and saw what you are referring to. However, this text is only listed in the 2005 model owners manual, but is not listed in the 2006 owner's manual. Makes me wonder if they took out the feature for the 2006 MY.
As if things aren't confusing enough, now we see differences in the engineering features of the FS from 2005 to 2006???!! :confuse:
They sure look like close relations, if not fraternal twins, to me.
I can't remember the last time I heard someone complaining about the style (or lack thereof) of the Escape.
Steve, Host
"We had seven or so inches of snow in St. Paul this morning. I saw a number of Freestyles on the road driving as poised a ever. Snow? No problem. They seem to have an affinity for it."
I also live in the Twin Cities and enjoyed an 1:20 in the Freestyle to work this morning on a commute that normally takes about 25 minutes. I agree that our AWD Freebie does great in the snow. Just push the gas pedal and it goes. I only saw the traction control engage a couple of times.
I do however want to comment on the Conti Touring Contact (or whatever the stock tires are called) on the Freestyle. Although it was easy to go due to the Haldex AWD system, turning and stopping were another matter. AWD doesn't help in these areas and this is where your tire choice really helps. These Contis are terrible as I slid each time I tried to stop or turn. It is a dangerous situation since with AWD the vehicle goes so well that one is lulled into a false sense of confidence which can easily come back to bite when you need to stop or turn.
Personally, I can't wait to get these tires off of the vehicle. I think Ford can and should do better in their stock tire choice. Ford also cheeped out in a couple of other areas that are annoying. No gas door release, and no hood struts to hold the hood up. I think it was the 1970s the last time I had a vehicle that I had to use a manual hood support.
Lastly, I wanted to comment on the recent discussions of the Freestyle's looks. There is nothing wrong with the looks, in fact almost everyone who has seen our new Freestyle has commented on how nice it looks. The REAL problem is very few people know these vehicles exist. Not one of the 12 people that work in my office had ever heard of a Freestyle before we bought one, and some thought I was talking about the Freestar. Ford's BIG mistake is lack of marketing AND using a name so similar to the minivan. Don't get me wrong, Freestyle is a great name, but they should have left the minivan called the Windstar. Did they really think by changing the minivan's name people were going to thing it was completely different?
- Chad
Regarding awareness of the Freestyle, a guy down the hall from me at work just bought a Black Limited. He also did not know they existed until he saw one at a dealer. He filled out a short survey after his purchase and told Ford what he thought of the lack of marketing. He only has 600 miles on it so far, but loves it. We will begin sharing experiences about the Freebie once the weather clears. :shades:
I agree! I think Ford is stuck with their "F"s and "E"s to the point that people can't even remember the name of the vehicle that they own. Took me a while to get it straight that I was looking at a FreeSTYLE and not a FreeSTAR. Not to mention their line up of Expeditions, Explorers, Escapes, ETC (Focus, Five hundred). I would think that people can remember that they bought a Ford without having to keep all the names so close to each other. All the other car manufacturers have new names for each vehicle, rather than altering (playing off of) a name of an existing one in their lineup. Pet peeve of mine, others may like the way Ford names their vehicles, but it reminds me of a family I know where all 8 kids name's started with an L.
Personally, I can't wait to get these tires off of the vehicle. I think Ford can and should do better in their stock tire choice. Ford also cheeped out in a couple of other areas that are annoying. No gas door release, and no hood struts to hold the hood up. I think it was the 1970s the last time I had a vehicle that I had to use a manual hood support.
Totally agree. Quite disappointed that there is a very small selection for replacement tires and would have been happier to have had good tires on the Freestyle that I would have been content to leave on for a good long time. Does anyone know how many miles these Conti's are rated for?
I live in Virginia, but travel to Canada every winter for a couple of weeks. Need to have good tires on for the trip.
Steve, Host
I agree with you there! It is just that GM and Chrysler do seem to be able to come up with either a good new name, or a re-invention of a classic car from their past and use that name. I just don't get the F and E fettish, but I'm sure for some people, they really like how Ford names their vehicles. Its much like the debate over styling. Names are very much a personal preference issue, otherwise everyone would name their children John and Jane and everyone would be happy.
But, names are better than numbers. No matter how much you may hate your own name, I think everyone would be happier being called by their name rather than a number.
How to drive for better fuel economy on a Freebie?
When driving shift/automatic I typically used several tricks, including accelerating and breaking slowly, cruising / shifting to N if I saw a red light ahead, most of the times not having to stop, and on highway driving at the lowest comfortable speed of the highest gear (lets say 60 mph, mantaining between 1.5k-2k rpm). I confirmed that driving at 60mph saves gas over driving at 70mph.
However, with the CVT, it looks like a whole new game.
Specially on that last part: If the CVT is always mantaining the same rpm (about 1.5k) once you get to a certain speed, it will mean that to obtain the best mileage you would simply have to drive as fast as possible (provided you get to that speed on an smoothly fashion).
Am I right? I haven't had the chance to drive my freebie in a highway yet, so haven't confirmed the rpms at 70mph, or further beyond legal limits.
Well, in any case, what tips can you give me for fuel efficiency on the freebie?
All season tires are going to have a harder rubber compound so they can perform well in hot temperatures where as snow tire will practically melt when the temps get above 80 degrees. (I'm exagerating here)
If you find an all-season tire that performs well in the snow and cold then you will also find that the same tire will have a lower life expectancy than a typical all -season.
Do yourself a favor...Equip your $25,000+ vehicle with $400 worth of snow tires and you will be amazed at how much more secure your car will handle the snow. Better yet, buy a spare set of rims and you'll save yourself an extra ~$80 per year for the changeover that a typical garage charges.
Now if they could only make a snow tire that fits the Freestyle.
LOL
I'm betting that we'll be able to get snow tires for next winter.
is pretty amazing--our town snow plowers were weak--they must be running out of energy, salt and money--but the freestyle did well in unplowed conditions--there is that very stable non jittery feeling--my jeep liberty did well in snow but always felt jittery
the tires--I agree completely--given the quality of the rest of the vehicle they cut corners and it shows--high quality michelin or goodyears would have made a difference
By the way 21, 000 miles, never in shop except oil change and no I have not received a recall notice (was an early one)
This is my first winter with the FS and when I planned trips skiiing this winter I always checked the conditions and then decide whether to take the AWD FS with the P6 tires or our 7 yr old FWD Volvo with snow tires. The Volvo is by far better handling and sure footed with the snow tires - just lower clearances.
By the way, there do seem to be a number of Twin Citians on this Forum. It would have been nice to see some mention of the Freestyle in the ads for the Auto Show. It seem like there is a good market for the Freebie here. :shades:
If you want to see how your driving is affecting the MPG, RESET the MPG display in the info center after the car is up to speed. Then the MPG will directly reflect your driving. Try and maximize the MPG display, resetting occasionally. This provides an "instantaneous MPG" - the current MPG the engine is getting. You'd be surprised how it looks when reset on a highway down hill - over 40 MPG. Exact opposite when climbing the hills.
The CVT does not always maintain the same RPM. Mine settles into about 1250 RPM at 35 MPH, and goes up to about 2100 at 80 MPH. The CVT will sometimes surge at any speed, but this is generally because there is a subtle incline or dip to the road that you don't notice. But in any case, don't switch into neutral with the CVT. At highway speeds, the CVT will rev up on the downhill slope, but if you check the instant MPG in the info center, you will see that the engine is getting great mileage none the less.
Always try and maintain a constant speed in town. Try and time the lights so that you don't have to stop - getting that 2 tons of steel (the Freestyle) up to 35 MPH takes a lot of gas, while cruising takes less gas.
You want to get the FS up to speed as quickly as possible while burning the least gas. I am thinking that the best way is to give it a fair amount of gas (around 2500 RPM), and then as you feel the CVT bite into higher gears, decrease the accelerator as the speed goes up past 20 MPH. This is the method I intend to try.
Keep the tires properly inflated, which according to the book means 32 front / 34 rear. I keep mine at about 33 / 35. In any case, put two extra pounds in the rear to be in accordance with the owners manual - the engineers must have designed the car that way.
This seems to be true of most cars. My 2002 4-cylinder Camry XLE gets 3-4 mpg better milage with the cruise control on than without it. I've averaged 30.8 mpg on the Camry over 77,000 miles.
Our 2006 Freestyle SE goes about 1900 rpm on flat freeways at 65-70 mph, and about 2050 at 70-75 mph.
It may well be that the Freebie's gas consumption goes way up at over 2000 rpm. This is worth a deliberate test.
Does Hyundai use a Volvo AWD system? A newly engineered CVT system?
Did Hyundai spend the time to engineer their car to withstand crashes as best they could?
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/ncap/cars/3341.html
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/ncap/cars/3089.html
I have Michelin Pilots on my RSX and if you hop on any RSX discussion boards you will find out that they are hated by most RSX owners. I guess the grass is always greener ay?
:-)
I'll take my lack of struts for the hood in my Freestyle. Seriously, whats the percentage of time that you'll be propping your hood up?
Compare that to the percentage of time that you'll be glad that you had the extra engineering that went into crash testing.
As far as warranties go. Just because a car comes with a standard 10/100 year warranty doesn't mean that it won't be in the shop any less.
And an extended warranty only costs about $1500 to get up to the 10/100 time frame as the Hyundai.
Again, most people won't keep their car that long, and for those that do....they can extend their warranties any time before the original expires.
:-)
Even though I know you can buy an extended warranty for the $2K right now, I think that if every Ford went up by $1500-2500 based on the vehicle and came with a 10y/100K warranty they'd sell more cars.
Huh? Very doubtful. Do you know what that would do to the average Joe's (or Jane's) monthly car payment? Besides.. few people buying a new car plan on keeping it anywhere near 10 years. A ten year warranty is largely a sales gimmick, one that apparently is needed to move Hyundai's off the lot.
VW had some grumpy consumers for a while because they had a 2/24 warranty on some parts.
Having to fund longer warranties supposedly makes the manufacturer pay closer attention to quality as well, which has paybacks for those who don't drive them forever.
Ford brings in more than a billion dollars a year through the sale of extended warranties, fwiw. (Warranty Week)
Steve, Host
I have yet to own a vehicle that needed a new engine or transmission (or anything else covered by a power-train warranty) in 7 yrs / 70,000 miles.
Not even in the second year of production.
Just CHEAP...??
Exactly how I feel.
I bought an extended warranty on a used 1997 Explorer (33,000 miles) and that cost about $800 to extend up to 70,000....saved me thousands because the engine blew on it at 60,000 miles.
I didn't bother with the extended on the Freestyle because my wife drives it and works about 4 miles from home.
I'll assess it's history near the end of the standard warranty term and decide then whether or not I'll fork over another $1000 for an extended.
And as far as replacement tires go, go up a size or two and your options expand as opposed to staying with the stock size. With the exception of snow conditions more quality tire on the road is a good thing for safety and control. While the Conti's may not be the best tire in the world, I do not understand the rap they get here. At 8500 miles mine do not make excessive noise, they have dealt very well with a Chicago winter that has been admittedly mild but snow did not reveal anything untoward, gripped in rain, etc., etc., I'm not sure what people expect of all season tires but these have been competent and in my estimate not deserving of the rap they are getting. If you live in snow country it's not fair to expect these to perform like dedicated snows with AWD plain and simple, buy snows for winter if snow is extensive in your area. Maybe I got the only good set they made for our FWD FS...
As for the extended warranty Geico offers on its policy and extended service contract that takes our FS to 7ys/100k miles with a $250 deduct. We pay for it with our monthly payments, it works out very well. Once we knew that we signed the papers for our FS.
The owners manual carries a warning to Limited users (18" wheels) not to put snow cables on the car. I think this has to do with wheel well clearance issues. One might also have problems with a larger tire size. I get the feeling the FS was originally designed for 16" wheels and the marketing folks decided on 17" and 18" after the vehicle was designed.