2011 Ford Flex Titanium Sport Utility Awd Ecoboost Review
The Machine Connection Expert Review
Editorial Director
July 8, 2010
Likes
- EcoBoost turbo oomph
- Foxy, boxy, clone-free torso
- Supremely cozy bucket seats
- More features than a 12-plex theater
Dislikes
- Taller adults might get squished in third-row seat
- Front headrests tilt too far forward in search of five-star safe
- Elevation model'southward in Range Rover Sport price territory
Ownership tip
features & specs
4-Door Limited AWD
four-Door Express AWD west/Ecoboost
4-Door Express FWD
A singular await, along with tiptop-shelf turbo power and features, earns the 2011 Ford Flex our top score among utility vehicles.
The 2011 Ford Flex has angled its fashion into a rare phenomenon. Sales are increasing as it enters its third model year and equally more SUV and wagon shoppers realize the foursquare-jawed crossover is one of the best-riding, quickest vehicles available.
If the Flex's collection of rectangles took you a while to warm to, y'all're forgiven. It honestly doesn't wait similar annihilation else on the showroom floor, salve for a passing resemblance to a Range Rover. The cues are concept-motorcar pure outside, with a rich-looking cabin standard on fifty-fifty the base of operations $29,000 Flex. Borrowing from the MINI playbook, Ford lets yous choose the roof color, mirror finishes, bigger wheels, and even a houndstooth-plaid interior. It's equally American equally an onetime Ford Fairline, but Chanel-smart.
It's just every bit pleasant to drive, a step up from the GM crossovers (Enclave, Acadia, Traverse) and even the winning Acura MDX. The Flex has a superior ride; a turbocharged 5-6 engine whistles out more 350 horsepower; and optional all-wheel drive has your dorsum when wintertime'due south at its worst. It's maybe more comfy than your living-room furniture, too, with soft merely supportive front- and second-row buckets and a third-row seat that even adults will find
roomy.
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The Flex is among the safest vehicles you lot can buy—and once it's loaded with the new Titanium package, it's every bit as luxurious as a Lincoln MKT, which shares all its running gear. It outpaces fifty-fifty the Range Rover with e-gear like real-time traffic and flick times, an in-car fridge, and second-row footrests for your near of import passengers. Information technology may sticker at an oxygen-free $55,000, only the Flex Platinum is missing only exotica like dark vision and in-machine satellite Idiot box in its quest to out-characteristic every family car on the route.
The 2011 Ford Flex tees upwards a square-jawed, all-American manner straight out of a high-end catalogue.
Looking for a styling statement in your side by side family unit vehicle? Nothing on the road looks like the 2011 Ford Flex. Period. Borrowing cues from concept vehicles to the State Rover Range Rover and even the MINI Cooper, the Flex has but grown improve-looking to us. The details stamped into its tailgate and doors, the hereditary wagon charm, and the slab-sidedness all knit together in a shape that's decidedly anti-minivan. Adding to the charm are touches and frills lifted from the MINI playbook; you tin gild a brushed-metal tailgate, a white roof and mirrors, chrome trim, or a new Titanium packet that darkens the chrome and wears a distinct front bumper, forth with blackout handling for side pillars.
Substance hangs with style inside the Flex, too. The instrument panel sits low and the gauges glow with a blue tint—and the cup holders in soft red. The controls are grouped easily and logically. Like the outside, the interior comes in a wide range of choices, so you tin opt for a handsome houndstooth check on the seats or rich leather to go with wood grain or metallic trim on the dash. A round analog clock on the dash of the navigation-equipped Flex clearly pays homage to the MINI—downward to the stamped-in ribs that flank it.
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The base Flex gives you a taste of handling goodness; the turbo V-6 version tosses in all that horsepower and a tight, composed experience.
Given the choice and the banking company residue, we'd opt for the turbocharged Flex. Yet, if you've driven a minivan or fifty-fifty i of GM'southward crossovers, yous won't exist bereaved with the unremarkably aspirated V-6 in this crossover.
The base engine is a 262-horsepower, 3.5-liter 5-six that's besides found in other Ford products, from the Taurus to the Lincoln MKS and MKT. While it'due south not awesomely fast, it's more capable of striking freeway speeds with a total load of passengers without causing business concern. It'south also a flake smoother than the powertrains in GM's crossovers, on a par with the Honda Pilot's warmly received V-vi. This base engine pairs with a six-speed automated and tin be ordered with all-wheel bulldoze, which adds to the Flex's already hefty iv,600-pound curb weight.
The clear winner—in power and in high price—is the turbocharged version of the aforementioned engine, which belongs to Ford'due south EcoBoost family of powerplants. Teamed to the same six-speed automated, here with paddle shifters, the turbo 5-6 is powerful enough to overcome standard all-bicycle drive and six other passengers to give the driver a existent operation rush. With 355 horsepower, the EcoBoost Flex delivers more horsepower than any straight competitor and puts out nearly as much grunt as a V-8 Mercedes-Benz Thousand-Class. Ford promises V-viii power with V-6 displacement and it delivers—and the turbo engine may price substantially more (at to the lowest degree $37,000), just it doesn't exact a huge fuel-economy penalty. It'south EPA-rated at 16/22 mpg, with the base engine a tick or two higher at 17/24 mpg.
The Flex'south delightful ride quality and expert steering encourage full use of all that power. Even in the base of operations version, the Flex comports itself like a smaller station wagon, with fairly well-baked steering experience and a compliant ride that but gets boundy if you hustle the Flex into deep, tight corners. It's a big vehicle, merely has more enticing moves than any RAV4 or Traverse we've driven.
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The 2011 Ford Flex puts adult comfort alee of best-on-newspaper numbers—and its attention to particular shows.
The 2010 Ford Flex has crisp styling and a stiff powertrain, but its killer application is its ability to haul seven passengers in comfort.
While the Honda Pilot seems configured to seat eight passengers, and the Chevy Traverse packaged to concur the most stuff, the Ford Flex is clearly organized to deport adults in maximum comfort, with a bit less room for kids and cargo. The Flex is 5 inches shorter than the 205-inch-long Traverse and x inches longer than the Honda Airplane pilot—only its wheelbase is only about as long as that of the Traverse.
That wheelbase translates into lots of legroom for the front two rows of passengers—more than in the Pilot, more than than in the Traverse. Up front end, wide and cozy chairs are nearly perfect, with only Ford's obtrusive active headrests spoiling perfect posture. (Ford'south working on a better solution, but shifts the headrests slightly frontward to preserve crash-test scores.) The 2nd-row seats are the existent thrones here, with so much legroom and headroom, you could knight a peasant at your anxiety—or just flip out some handy footrests for an aircraft-style seating position.
In the third-row seat, the Flex'southward passengers will be a little less comfortable. It outpoints other 3-row crossovers on legroom, just the Flex is much narrower than either the Pilot or the Traverse here. All the same, two adults volition find enough room to sit in the wayback for surprising amounts of time.
As for cargo, the Flex isn't quite the hauler the Traverse is—its 83 cubic feet of space backside the forepart-row seats are four fewer than the Pilot, and 20 fewer than the Traverse. Information technology does take more room backside its third-row seat than the Pilot, though—and the Flex'south 2nd- and tertiary-row seats are offered with ability-folding controls.
Bucket seats are its forte, only the Flex'south fit and end are its secret trump card. The materials, and the manner they work together, are a step up for Ford—the door panels have faux-wood trim, metallic bands, leather, and plastic all next to each other, and they come up off as high-quality pieces, rather than cheesy imitations. There is some difficult gray plastic, banished to places where hands don't usually touch, but the Flex's cabin is so much richer than either the Traverse or Airplane pilot, you'll probably want to compare information technology against a Range Rover Sport to spot its few flaws.
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The IIHS and NHTSA agree: The 2011 Ford Flex is amidst the safest vehicles on the road.
You can't find a vehicle safer than the Ford Flex, according to the regime and the insurance industry.
The 2011 Flex has been called as a Top Safety Pick past the Insurance Found for Highway Safety (IIHS), receiving the top ratings of "good" for both frontal starting time and side bear on collisions. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) gives the Flex equally strong scores, rating it at five stars for both commuter and passenger protection, and at four stars for rollover protection.
The Flex's comprehensive prepare of safety features includes 6 airbags, anti-lock brakes, and stability control with anti-rollover technology. A rearview camera and parking sensors are available, as are a bullheaded-spot warning system and adaptive cruise control.
Ford added its MyKey system to the Flex in the 2010 model twelvemonth, and information technology's back for 2011. MyKey allows parents of teenage drivers to set limits on the Flex'southward elevation speed, stereo book, and other entertainment features, while keeping systems like traction and stability control enabled.
The 2011 Ford Flex was built-in to entertain—only even base versions will keep multitasking families happy.
The 2011 Ford Flex's full array of common-sense standard features and gee-whiz options has put other crossovers on signal. No other seven-passenger crossover comes close to its available features; only the five-passenger 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee is in the running, with its in-motorcar satellite Television receiver.
Even the basic Flex has an ample standard-features list. On it are third-row seating; an AM/FM/CD player; power windows, locks, and mirrors; a capless fuel-filler system, which means no more misplaced gas caps; and Ford'southward MyKey system. The upmarket versions add the turbocharged engine, all-wheel bulldoze and other niceties similar a leather interior; a panoramic sunroof; and Ford's SYNC entertainment/phone controller.
Among the more engaging options are Sirius TravelLink, with real-time traffic, atmospheric condition, sports, and movie listings; pricey Sony sound systems; a DVD entertainment organization; twenty-inch wheels; a second-row refrigerator; a hidden keyless entry pad that responds to a swipe of a finger like the Apple iPhone; a ability tailgate; xenon headlamps; and HD radio.
New for the 2011 model year is a Titanium parcel with distinct styling pieces and colors. Information technology too includes a 2-tone roof, blackness-chrome trim, 20-inch wheels, suede and leather seats, and HD Radio.
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Fuel economy isn't the best in class on the EcoBoost models, but for a seven-person vehicle, the Flex does well enough.
With EPA fuel economy ratings of 16 or 17 in the urban center and 21 to 24 on the highway, the 2011 Ford Flex isn't very fuel-efficient--even when compared to some hefty body-on-frame SUVs.
Those numbers do wait a bit improve, yet, when you lot effigy that this vehicle can carry 6 adults comfortably.
The bachelor EcoBoost doesn't brand the Flex any more than economic or ecological compared to the base engine, but information technology does permit faster acceleration without the demand to offer (or option up to) a thirstier V-8.
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Continue Reading
The Car Connectedness Consumer Review
September xiv, 2015
2011 Ford Flex 4-Door SEL FWD
Maybe information technology's my heavy human foot for fuel economic system, fake leather checking ( cracking ) for quality ssues.
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May 13, 2015
2011 Ford Flex 4-Door Limited FWD
great car for middle to large family unit
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Apr thirteen, 2015
For 2011 Ford Flex
Super well designed utility vehicle.
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Source: https://www.thecarconnection.com/overview/ford_flex_2011
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