still boring, still ****ty, still a five-hundred wagon.

still-born as well.

Does Bold Moves = everybody gets three bars? Dull and now duller.

What the hell is this supposed to be? Why kill the freestar if you’re gonna make a car just as boring and plain as the freestar. Its like a half wagon half mini van. The worst of both worlds.

Anybody who buys this has a complete lack of style.

“Freestyle” = “Style-free”. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
Let’s see if Ford does something good with the engine/trans combo. The increased displacement should be good for some HP and make it competive with the other V6’s in this class. If Ford can add some paddle-shifters to the gearbox, they may have a sweet package.

what a stupid group of executives..

Least its a original design unlike the intercepter.

one word thumbs it up! boring!! sorry, but j mays needs to be replaced…

It looks like it will end up with the same front end as the new 500…joy….

AWESOME

hell of a motor but rivals imports in terms of being a bland appliance.

——>BOLD MOVES………moving boldly right to the grave……….

Ford is on its way out.

The sad part is that this is not a bad car, just one in a desperate search for a personality. Giving it the identical front end to the 500 isn’t going to help matters at all.

barf.

———>good point autonutt……….

i guess fords will be ugly and boring until the end of 2012 then

Ah, haters…like the diet sodas of the internet. Read as many of their posts as you want, you still won’t gain a single bit of actual knowledge!

Let’s see…260 hp, awd, CAVERNOUS interior, vaultlike safety, borrows sweet ride and handling from the Volvo S80.

I’m trying to find what everyone’s hacking on, see, but I’m thinking a lot of people need Lasik…now.

It ain’t exciting, but it’s an ideal family car that’s had killer safety and quality scores. Gosh, what a bummer.

You can name features all you want. But the fact remains, it looks like a bland wannabe cross over/wagoneer. Its completely bland looking and has a horrible profile. Nobody in their right mind would want to look at that box in their driveway for more than 1 hour.

I’m far from a ford hater. Infact I’m a mustang/fusion/euroFocus fan. But this is just a horrible looking project. And I can almost guarantee it will loose ford money.

when will the mustang get the 3 bar treatment?

Why waist money on changing the front fascia?
It will continue to be a modern time Edsel.

^^^ You shouldn’t *waist* your time posting here, but should WASTE it reading a book.

I agree, the car sucks, but now it’t got a spiffy three bar grill you could grate cheese on!

^^it’s

Sorry my mistake in the spelling department prevented you from understanding my comment.

It just gets better!

Do haters get past 6th grade? Did they all “waist” (har!) their time and not graduate? Did they “loose” their chance at using English decently?

Some will also chuckle when haters try to use “their”, “there”, and/or “they’re”…hilarious stuff, if you’ve got the right sense of humor!

The Freestyle’s profile is based on a long-lost concept called the “wagon”. These vehicles used to take whole large families on trips and vacations while have load capacities that rivaled SUVs…while keeping a much lower roll center and thus were less likely to be found inverted around sharp corners.

You want an ungodly profile? Ridgeline is in first, uncontested.

In short, it’s what the “soccer moms” and others with constant people/stuff responsibilities could be driving instead of SUVs that never see dirt or minivans that are the most boring vehicles on the road today. As a musician, the idea of getting myself, my gear, and a few people to the show (even in the kind of whacked-out weather that’s smacked NM and Colorado around lately) is pretty attractive.

The nose job…we’ll see. Making serious judgement on a camo’d mule in a spy pic is hardly showing brilliance.

while i think it’s repetative it’s understandable that ford wishes all their cars to share a comon face. Look at bmw the kidney gril is a 30 year old trademrk that distingushes them from anything else. on the other hand this 3 bar grill doesnt seem to have the adaptability if the kidney gril so maybe its not such a good idea.

Stop ur crying…. can’t u see that the headlights are clearly not the same as the new updated 500’s headlights?? The new 500’s turn signals are located on top of the unit. This Freestyle’s turn signals are at the bottom!!

The current Freestyle lacks some bling-bling in the front. This updated verison will show a lotta bling, especially with chrome foglight surroundings. Just wait till it unveils at Chicago Auto Show in Feburary.

I guess all those families are pissed the new face doesnt make it look like a sport sedan with a low profile and swoopy lines Darn!….I guess theyll have to stick with a powerful engine, spacious interior and 5 star crashing rating….they lose again.

Seriously does anyone who’ve posted a comment here ever driven one or have the need for one (kids,dog, safety)if not dont comment on a vehicle that obviously accomplishes everything its supposed to. FAMILY CAR!!

And I suppose Accords and Camrys and Altimas arent family cars? Yeah those cars are not the best looking either but they’re a million times better looking than this generic econo waggon piece of garbage that Ford designed. Who the hell said you need a wagon to haul around your family? You basically just gain vertical space in the trunk I mean you can haul plenty of groceries in a regular sedan.

Dont even pretend like this is some godsend family car that every family will be after, cuz they’re not. Its plain ugly and awkwardly shaped. Theres plenty of “FAMILY CARS!!!” that look better. Its not all about function. I’m sure a Pontiac Aztec is functional and great for a family but it looks like $hit therefore it flopped. Just like this will.

You have to critique the car based on what it is designed to do. It’s really hard to make a sexy all purpose 7 passenger crossover. The Murano is nice – but it’s cramped compared to this.

The Freestyle makes a nice vehicle for someone who needs a mini-van but doesn’t want the stigma.

It might be hard to make a sexy 7 passenger crossover, but that doesnt mean you should just give up and make an average vehicle. Thats why American companies have been loosing ground to Japanese cars for years. They just make something that meets the needs without considering style and quality of materials. The Mazda cx-7 looks like its 10 years ahead of this car.

Ford is done, GM is next

the days of safe, boring design sells the most is getting faded. yes, the quality and reliability are important, but everybody is leveling up on that department. features? everybody is leveling up on that as well. price? well…some has edge on it. performace? not everyone are enthusiast and everyone is leveling up on that as well…. so the key is design design design!!! inside and out. quality materials…. the DESIRABILITY! that is what ford lacks from most of their line up, exclude maybe mustang and fusion.

Completely agree.

It would be a gigantic tragedy if Ford went under. But if they put out boring **** like this much longer they will. And I don’t have much hope they are going to stop. They had two sharp vehicles at the auto show, one of which was the Interceptor. But they have said they are not going to build it. What the hell is wrong with them??!! I agree that it is similar to the DCX 300, but it looks great nonetheless. But they won’t build that, and give us this instead?

Another Ford issue I cannot forget about – the 2005 Bronco. Did anyone see that a pic of the concept is on Mulally’s wall? (it’s in the last Bold Moves video). Either him or Bill Jr. apparently love the thing, and so do many of us. But the morons didn’t build that either! And these guys make millions. Incredible.

Ha Ha! How long you stuck with that, Ricardo?

It’s like Ford is closer and closer to closing the door behind them. For good. With all the success that GM has had over the past 5 -10 years, I can understand it is a tough road for Ford to compete. They just don’t have the engineering prowess, the QC, or the desire to be competitive with the likes of say, GM.

Everything I have ever read about the Freestyle and the 500 say that they are pathetically slow, have poor quality, CVT transmissions are prematurely imploding and worse, Ford service is denying warranty claims.

Look at stuff like the Buick Lacrosse and the new Lambdas and you’ll see that Ford is closer and closer to being wiped off the map. This pathetic revision is living proof.

It should be called the Ford No-style.

LOL! GMnumberone, your are a true “brand fanboi!”

The Freestyle/Five Hundred/Montego have won awards for safety, the Five Hundred was rated above the Avalon in customer satisfaction, and the Freestyle beat the Pacifica in comparos even with the power deficit!

I’d like to add that it wasn’t a rental-lot queen like most larger GMs (Impalas 54% fleet, Malibus 60% circa June of last year, according to R.L.Polk). So that whole “competing with GM” thing…were you meaning for low-profit Avis sales?

Thanks for playing.

Was everbody this hateful when the Malibu Maxx came out? That was truly ugly with that stupid grille and weird hood / body proportions. This ford when viewed as just product is still WAY ahead of that other american midsize wagon benchmark. And really Its still sorta nice to know america is still trying to make a midsize wagon.

How do you define “trying”? They cobled together pieces from old Volvo’s and slapped the boringest most miss shaped shell they could come up with on top of it. Thats hardly trying.

Wow this blows….only thing more boring than a Ford 500 is an overweight, bloated Ford 500. BOLD MOVES…FORD : please explain how this, this atrocity qualifies as a so called “Bold Move”

Wow…”boringest”…time to fire some English teachers….

yes its got the ugly three bars that everybody hates!

not everybody hates it. can’t say much on this car. the headlights kind of do look like the edge with all that camo.

GMNumber one LOL.. The CVT tranny is actually bullet proof. One of the issues Ford is concerned with, which is so freakin’ backward, is that the tranny does not brake, thus no service repair in the future. On top of that, it is more expensive than the six-speed tranny, so from what I understand, they are goign to drop the tranny, as one of the reasons….it works so well. Go figure!! I have put some seat time on this car, driving 3 of them as demonstrators. It is really a good overall vehicle for it’s intended purpose. Most describe it as bland looking, and I would have to agree. Beyond that, it works great for my situation. @ kids, and 2 other cousins to cart to school everyday, fold down all of the seats when I need to add cargo, AWD for the winter time driving in Upper Michigan, and pretty decent fuel mileage, 20 city average, 29 hey average, real world figures from my driving. If you are 18-25, single, with no clue what you are doing 2-hours from now,(oh those days), this car is not for you…you are not going to pick up any women inthis thing. If you are a newly married family man whose lifestyle has changed, this car will fit your bill for a number of reasons. The new motor will be a bonus.

Well bigjob, as I fall into your little descriptive youthful age range, hopefully you won’t critique me for disliking this car, as you do my disliking other bland cars. For reference, some of us not only don’t know what we’re doing 2 hours from now, but also can’t remember what we were doing 2 hours ago, and that my friend, is called living

All I can hope is that enough people buy one of these that the used car market will be saturated with them in a few years, and with Ford’s traditional resale values I can get one as a second car CHEEEP!

Yeah, dean, lots of 325 and Infiniti FX crossovers can be had for the Freestyle’s roughly $28K.

Back AWAY from the medicine cabinet.

Both of them will also have less interior space, and after the freshening, the Freestyle will certainly have the power to run with either.

Maybe that’s why several car magazines recognized its potential (Automobile called it “right on”), but haters flop in their own drool while hating out on a safe, spacious, good-driving car. Someday, they’ll move out of mom’s basement and wisdom may come to them.

Thats funny because I figured the **ONLY** people to even consider buying this contraption would be living in a basement somewhere. Somebody with a complete lack and disregard for style at all.

Zanary, $28,000 isn’t dirt cheap, the reality is there are plenty of more fun, interesting, higher quality haulers out there for similar prices and maybe even a little more, but if you’re willing to spend $30,000, the fact is you aren’t poor, and depending on where your priorities lie with money you could potentially afford to spend more.

Ardio, I agree with your basement comment.

1234: There are minivans out there cooler than this, there are other crossovers cooler also, and more reliable, and more fun to drive, and better looking, and….