2012 Ford Flex Limited Review

"Justin Hughes" (justinhughes54)
10/26/2015 at 11:58 • Filed to: ford flex

We’ve been reviewing a lot of press cars at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! lately. This isn’t one of them. Out of the various choices on the market, this is the one my fiancee, Elana, plunked down her own cold hard cash to buy. I advised her on the options for what she wants and needs, but ultimately the choice was hers, and this is it. I approve.

You don’t get a Flex as a sporty crossover. The !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! that Josh reviewed is good for that. The Flex is the same length as a Chevy Tahoe, and seven inches shorter. Most of that is the Flex’s lower ride height, while the Tahoe towers over traffic like the truck based body-on-frame SUV it is. But the Flex doesn’t drive like a truck at all – it drives like a Tahoe sized car. It’ll lean in the turns some, but not as much as my !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which weighs literally a ton less. Thanks to its 3.5 liter V6 EcoBoost motor, it has no problem getting up to speed, and the all wheel drive means there’s no drama, just motivation. Yet it still swallows the family and belongings, too. Could the Flex be an enthusiast’s car after all?

Specifications

Trim : Limited
Transmission : 6-Speed Auto
Engine : 355-hp 3.5 Liter, V6 EcoBoost (twin turbo)
Drive : All Wheel Drive

Exterior : Ingot Silver
Interior : Dune

Purchase Price : $28,500

Hauling People

My media contact with Ford called the Flex “a living room on wheels,” and she’s absolutely right. There’s leather everywhere. The front seats are heated and provide support in all the right places. They’re not particularly bolstered, but in this the kind of car you expect comfort, not Recaro sport seats. As Elana says, “They’re designed to be comfortable while you run all over God’s half acre getting shit done.”

The best part is the enormous second row, which has even more room than the front. It is the most roomy, comfortable back seat I have ever sat in, including a Chevy Tahoe. Elana has two boys who will be growing a lot over the next few years, so this was an important consideration. They were already getting cramped in the back seat of the Focus. We don’t want that happening in the Flex. Fortunately, it won’t. The second row gets its own independent climate controls. These can be managed by the back seat passengers, controlled from the front, or shut off completely if the kids twiddle the knobs too much.

The third row seats aren’t nearly as roomy, but that’s OK. I fit, but I wouldn’t be comfortable back there for a long trip. It’s still a whole lot more usable than my BRZ’s back seat, and barely smaller than the back seat of the Focus. More often than not the third row will remain stowed away, but it can be deployed to separate the boys if they can’t occupy the second row together without starting World War III.

I do have to ding the comfort rating a little bit for the driving position. A tilt/telescoping wheel and pedals that move back and forth let me find pretty much any driving position I want, which is great. But the wheelwell intrudes into the driver’s footwell enough to give me trouble finding a comfortable place to put my left foot.

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Hauling Stuff

There is a seemingly endless variety of storage areas, large and small, scattered throughout the Flex. We’re still finding them all. Elana’s sons play all of the sportsball ever, and there’s plenty of room for all of the assorted gear and equipment that go with it. I generally pack and travel very light, because my motorcycle and BRZ don’t have a lot of space. But when we took the Flex to New Hampshire Motor Speedway this past weekend to check out the 24 Hours of LeMons race, we never even opened the pod bay door, Hal power liftgate. I just tossed a suitcase and my camera bag in the footwell behind the passenger seat, and we were good.

Speaking of LeMons, I spotted this sister ship in the paddock, which had clearly towed up one of the competitors’ cars. One reason Elana chose the Flex is because unlike many large crossovers, this one is rated to tow up to 4,500lbs. That could be a rally car or LeMons car of our own. The Subaru Outback can only tow a maximum of 3,000lbs, and as much as I like Subarus, the Outback fell out of contention on this point alone. After seeing the Flex in action as a tow vehicle, I have no doubt that the Flex is more than capable of hauling our future race car.

Hauling Ass

I enjoyed the 310hp four-cylinder 2.3 liter EcoBoost motor in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Though I’m surprised they don’t squeeze more than 355 ponies out of the larger 3.5 liter V6 (365hp in the new ones), I’m amazed at how quickly this two ton brick takes off when I put my right foot down. It has more power than my BRZ and Focus combined, and there’s no hesitation when I ask to unleash it. The turbos spool up faster than the accompanying downshift that launches me to warp speed. That’s not a criticism of the transmission, which shifts smoothly and intelligently, never hunting for gears. It’s just how fast the boost builds. With some practice and planning, a tap or two of the paddle shifters could fix that. Traction control, when it kicks in, is unobtrusive, and the all wheel drive sends the power to wherever it needs to go. No drama. No mad skids. Just a whole lot of quick, efficient get up and go.

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This is no BRZ, so I’m not expecting handling that’ll hold off Porsches on the track. With that in mind, it’s rather good, especially considering the size, weight, and especially the height of the Flex. It doesn’t like to be chucked around corners, but when driven reasonably smoothly it can handle the twisty bits quite well for what it is. It’s perfectly good for emergency maneuvers, and can even hustle down a country back road if your control inputs are smooth, but you can tell it doesn’t want to do it all the time, while a sports car begs you for more. Ford says the Flex has anti-rollover protection as part of its traction and stability control system. I don’t comprehend how a braking system, designed to limit two-dimensional movement, can affect the third dimension of height, but I certainly don’t claim to know everything. It certainly doesn’t feel likely to go Suzuki Samurai on me (should they have called it the Suzuki Seppuku?) so whatever they’re doing, it’s working.

At a weight of 4,781lbs you don’t expect the Flex to stop on a dime, but it still does quite well. Its 255/45/20 tires help, as do the large four wheel disc brakes. This particular Flex came to us with warped front rotors, despite its Certified Pre-Owned status and our request for it to be checked out, but braking power isn’t affected. We’ll likely replace them in the spring if they don’t get any worse.

The Return of the Station Wagon

The Flex is made to carry up to seven people and their stuff in comfort, and it excels at that job. The Flex handles better than any two ton living room on wheels has any right to, and with the EcoBoost motor it accelerates better, too. It’s worth pointing out that while the Flex is rather uncommon on the east coast, I saw no less than four of them at NHMS. I’d never seen that many of them in the same place in my life, including dealer lots. It may say something about the type of car the Flex is that multiple people who will go to a race track drive them.

The SUV craze started when people didn’t want to be seen in station wagons and minivans, but a big tough truck instead. The Flex has aspects of SUVs like all wheel drive and a tall seating position that people like about them, but it comes full circle back to being a full sized wagon again. Yet it’s so much better than the last full sized American station wagons, like the Ford Crown Victoria and the Chevy Caprice. Instead of floating down the road, it makes its way assertively. It has many more luxuries, like an automatic hatch (useful when your hands are full), third row seats that stow and deploy themselves at the touch of a button, and automatic parallel parking. And it does it with a sleek, tough, modern appearance instead of the cheesy fake wood paneling of the old LTD Country Squire.

Bang For The Buck

This particular example scored much higher on this scale as a Ford Certified Pre-Owned car than it would have as a new car. Though a basic 2015 Flex SE starts at $29,100, getting all wheel drive requires a step up to an SEL, starting at $34,050 so equipped. As I described in !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , I couldn’t build a new Flex Limited on Ford’s web site for under $42,000. The $13,500 savings is almost enough to buy a Fiesta to bring along as an escape pod. By giving up on buying a brand new car, she gained a gently used, well equipped car in excellent condition for slightly less than a brand new model with no options.

And despite its age, the car is in excellent condition. With the exception of the older style front end and a bit of weathering on the tailgate’s blue oval logo, it’s difficult to tell this isn’t a new car without looking at the odometer. I can certainly recommend Ford’s CPO program as a good way to save a lot of money if you’re willing to settle for a not quite new car. That’s how Elana got a whole lot more car for only slightly more money than I paid for my new BRZ. I have no regrets about buying the BRZ, but I’ll strongly consider the CPO route myself once it’s time to buy a new daily driver for myself.

DISCUSSION (10)

Jcarr > Justin Hughes
10/26/2015 at 12:02

This is on my very shortlist for next car when it comes time to part with our Jetta. Love the way they look.

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > Justin Hughes
10/26/2015 at 12:03

One point I would like to make, though this is a personal thing since obviously not everone’s bodies are the same:

I find the front passenger seat (and probably drivers as well, dunno) to be awful. Nowhere near enough lumbar. My back starts to hurt within 15 minutes.

TheRealBicycleBuck > Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer
10/26/2015 at 12:14

The Flex is essentially a short, boxy version of the Explorer. The interiors are nearly identical.

I say that to say this - my wife also has issues with the seats in her Explorer. She is considerably shorter than I, but has to recline the seat much further than I do to keep it from hurting her back. It’s always strange to adjust the seat recline up when I drive her car.

ElanaR > Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer
10/26/2015 at 12:16

This is my car and for me the seats are perfect. I am much more comfortable in it than I am in most cars. If you have a bad back then that is an important consideration when purchasing. Just because I like it doesn’t make it perfect for everyone.

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > ElanaR
10/26/2015 at 12:22

Correct. Funny thing is, my back isn't usually a troublemaker for me, but those seats really set it off.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > Justin Hughes
10/26/2015 at 12:28

Love the Flex, and unlike most people I like it’s sibling the MKT even more.

Ash78, voting early and often > Justin Hughes
10/26/2015 at 13:52

This made my personal shortlist before the Odyssey , but since we collectively valued interior space over performance, the Ody won the battle. Further, the rear doors on the Flex were huge, and having sliders was a big selling point for us right now. The giant, squared-off hood didn’t help forward visibility (eg parking lots), but that’s more of an issue for my 5’2” wife — it’s still tons better than an SUV.

I did like the Ecoboost’s always-on power, the low and commanding seating position, and the lack of float from the suspension. It truly was like driving a long car.

I’d call the Flex a very practical alternative to the Mercedes R-Class, and definitely comparable to (and better than) the Buick Enclave or GMC Acadia. If it were my personal decision, it would be Flex vs Durango for the final test.

Justin Hughes > Ash78, voting early and often
10/26/2015 at 14:37

She refused to consider minivans, so the Odyssey was out. I’d also want to do some research and see if their transmissions are no longer made of glass. I had a friend who made an excellent living as a Honda service tech, particularly because of Odyssey transmissions.

And you’re absolutely right about the back doors. They’re long and swing out pretty far.

ElanaR > TheRealBicycleBuck
10/26/2015 at 17:15

I beleive it has more interior space than the current Explorer. It is less than an inch shorter than a Tahoe and that would have been my first pick, had it not been for a much higher price.

TheRealBicycleBuck > ElanaR
10/26/2015 at 19:39

I tried to get my wife to try the Flex. She wouldn't even consider a wagon. I pointed out that an SUV is just a wagon on stilts. It didn't work.