After an exhausting day of writing papers, sitting in class, and playing the piano with cramped fingers, I came across this on my drive home last week:
A Ford Flex! I hadn’t seen one of these in forever. Look at that plate! The fact that this person managed to buy a Flex and keep it all these years is indeed, well, a “PHLEX.” I then went home and opened up my computer and went on a Ford Flex spiral, remembering just how cool and unique this thing really was.
When I think of the Ford Flex, I remember its extremely imposing presence in the film Daddy’s Home starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg. Ford clearly paid a lot of money to market the Flex as Ferrell really milks all of its features and packaging. Genius, Ford. You had 13-year-olds at the time, like me, really interested in a normal family hauler. The Blue Oval brand works its magic once again.
Normal family hauler? Oh no, no. The Ford Flex is certainly not normal. Just look at it. Does it look normal? It’s the unwanted result of a one-night stand between a Ford Taurus and a Land Rover LR4.
It looks fantastic. Those boxy, blocky, large windows make it look like some sort of weird retro-station-wagon-minivan thing. I love it. You could even get them in two-tone colored paint, with my favorite being navy blue and a white roof. Besides its beauty, my favorite feature offered on the Flex would have to be the EcoBoost engine option.
Source: Ford
Ford stuck its turbocharged 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 in the Flex to make 365 horsepower. That’s a pretty damn high figure for a mid-sized family SUV, certainly for a three-row. Inside, Ford offered seating for six, with leather heated captain chairs, both first and second row, and their infamous Multipanel Vista Roof that provided not one, not two, not three, but four total sunroofs!
Source: Ford
How cool is that! Look at all that space in the third row; I wouldn’t mind being forced to sit back there. I envy all the kids sitting in the back whose heads went flying backward as mom floored their Flex merging onto the expressway. At least they had pretty views to stare out at as they nearly experienced whiplash.
When Ford discontinued the Flex back in 2019, I was devastated. I might have cried. It’s in my top three of the most upsetting automotive discontinuations.
Would you also “flex” on all of the other local neighborhood moms in your Ecoboost Flex? If you buy one and are in New York, the “PHLEX” license plate is already taken. If I were you, I’d try “FLEXY.”
I’m calling it, this is one of those cars that isn’t appreciated in its day but ages to be a cult classic.
Also, you’ve got me daydreaming of a lowered, tuned flex destroying the quarter mile. That would be fun.
I swear modern Land Rover traced the Flex when they designed the new “Defender”.
(It’s not a Defender. It could pass as a new-generation Disco. But it has actually styled body panels and you can’t get a pickup configuration. It’s not a “real” Defender and I’ll die on this hill.)
Aside from the horrible gas mileage it seems like a decent car. IIRC folks who liked them really liked them and kept them for forever.
I always heard that the Flex sold well in California, where buyers got an MCM-surf-wagon vibe … and it sold well to Ford execs in Michigan.
I’d love to have one. Did they make them in dark green?
Yeah, it was said that it did well on the west coast with buyers that usually weren’t Ford shoppers, a bit of a conquest play. I think that’s why they kept it around as long as they did, since they already planned to not update it and just drop it after a certain point.
They did make it in green in the early models, but it was more of a medium metallic.
Well that would explain why–living on the East Coast–I’ve seen maybe 3 Ford Flexes in my entire life.
The problem was the water pump on these. The water pump is internal and if it falls the coolant dinos into the engine and not the ground.
I always thought this was one of the best dad wagons, I still do, this confirms it.
Ford never marketed this thing, and that’s a shame. When I was shopping for a new car in 2014, I was super interested in a Flex, but not a SINGLE Ford dealer within like 50 miles had even one Flex on the lot for me to look at.
The Flex never sold well because most people didn’t even know it existed.
But FiveOhNo, I think you would be much happier in an Escape. Let’s go look at one and take it for a test drive.
I have a 2012 Flex Limited with the Ecoboost and agree with all the above. It’s a first gen so I think I’m only tuned for 355hp.
Doesn’t matter, still is faster than it has any right to be considering its shaped like a brick. It’s built on the same gen platform Taurus and Explorer, but has a longer wheelbase, making its natural habitat the American highway system. I just used it to move my family of four from Seattle to upstate New York via the Grand Canyon and Atlanta Ga. Thank god or whatever that gas stations are usually easy to find because our mileage (with two rooftop boxes) was atrocious. Couldn’t have asked for a more comfortable car to do that kind of drive though.
I’m six feet tall and can sit in the third row comfortably. With that folded down I have a cavernous cargo area and the most spacious cockpit for four known to fifteen year old design. The only thing holding it back is the lack of sliding doors. It could even pull it off pretty easily with the super straight body lines. Ford really missed the mark not keeping it around and electrifying/plug in hybridizing it.
It’s not all sunshine though, I had to do the internal water pump and timing chain last year about six weeks before a turbo ate itself. So with basically a new top end I plan on driving it into the ground.
Then finding the best one I can find to replace it.
Unquestionably the best highway vehicle I have ever owned or driven.
I love Flexes. I think they are genuinely good-looking cars (fight me) and the shape is super practical. They’re boxy, but unashamedly so. The designers of the Flex understood the assignment, and they managed to make a damn classy-looking brick IMO. I’d love to have one if not for the atrocious gas mileage, especially in Ecoboost form.
I hope a decade from now to find an unloved Fusion Sport with this powertrain in the classifieds.
Well, considering the Fusion Sport never had the 3.5 Ecoboost that the Flex had, that hope will likely never pan out for you.
The Fusion Sport had the smaller 2.7 Eco.
Doh. I have finally aged to the point where I’ve started to get car things wrong. Curse thee, middle age.
I always loved this refrigerators. I bet with a tune and some bolt-on mods it would embarrass a lot of sports cars.
I always thought that if I needed a people hauler, that the Flex was what I was going to buy. Pretty much the coolest/only not-SUV and not-minivan there is.
In retrospect, almost looks like a proto-Rivian. What a gem.
We ended up with a standard rental spec Flex (in white, so it immediately got nicknamed the Fridge) during a 10 day stay on Hawai’i, specifically the Big Island, after specifying “full size sedan”. Such are the vagaries of hire car lotto.
It ended up being one of our most fondly remembered rentals. Absurdly huge for a childless middle aged couple from Australia, it was quiet, comfortable, relaxed, nice and airy with great visibility (perfect for site seeing), easy to drive with straightforward handling and steering and enough power to get the thing moving along okau. Pretty much ideal for touring the Big Island and its poor roads.
I like the Flex because it isn’t posing. It’s a reasonably large people-hauler with no pretense of being able to climb a cliff. Also understand that, in the right trim, it can serve as a realistic towpig for a fairly light car & trailer. 5000lbs, maybe?
I bought a 2010 Flex SEL EcoBoost with 26k miles on it in Aug 2012. I LOVED that thing. Just traded it in last December (2022) with around 108k miles on it.
It wasn’t the most reliable car I have ever owned, but it never left me stranded. It went through a timing chain at 73k miles (had the water pump done then as well) and the PTU at 63k miles. Blend doors for the climate control (a known issue) and at least 2 sets of wheel bearings. A few other minor things, but overall, it was fantastic. And all the repairs above were covered by service contracts that more than paid for themselves.
I loved the speed. Gas mileage was decent, but not great. I considered a low miles used 2019 as an upgrade but ultimately went in a different direction with a new 2023 Hyundai Santa Cruz, which is nearly as quick with a lot less power. And it’s a nice trucklet, but it’s not as nice as the Flex was. I’d welcome another one in my garage some day.
Ford should have entered it as its candidate in the NYC taxi cab competition, would have done better than the Transit Connect did I think.
this person managed to buy a Flex and keep it all these years
That’s definitely not much of a flex. Not around here.
What are your other two upsetting disappointments?
We owned a 2013 Limited Ecoboost for a few years. Super fun car to drive. Reasonably good mileage (on par with a Toyota Sienna of the same vintage), but much, much faster. Only car I’ve owned with the flappy-paddles for manual shifting, and I essentially used that feature for every shift. Still miss that car, but it didn’t fit our growing family.
Highly recommend!
Wow, where do you go when you need more vehicle than a Flex?
A minivan.
My wife and I test drove a Flex Ecoboost a couple times before we bought our first van. While it was fun to drive, it felt cramped inside in a way that vans don’t. Remember, this is a common complaint with Ford’s large cars on this platform (eg Taurus is big outside and small inside) Add the functionality of the sliding doors and the decision was easy, even if regretful.
The original Five Hundred-turned-Taurus was huge inside. It was really when they tried to style it with anything that wasn’t just aping the VW/Audi shape of the time that it shrunk inside. But by then if you wanted a sedan the Fusion had about the same interior space for less coin.
The Freestyle was good for its time and better than the first Pacifica, but not as big as the GM Lambda crossovers which pretty much dwarfed the Ford being taller and wider with a longer wheelbase. And dwarfing most midsize crossovers for that matter. Not meant for any of that to take away from your comment, more emphasizing going full-send on space with the van from that point.
Liked everything about the Flex except the fuel mileage. Still wouldn’t mind having one, though.
I love mine. I bought a 2017 Limited in 2019 in Ruby Red Metallic that had been a rental car.
It does have a lifted wagon vibe to it and feels more car like than the explorer of the same age does.
It has a pretty good get up and go, has a lot of storage with just the third row seats put down, even with the third row up it has more room usable space than my buddies 2017 Tahoe with the third row up. Since I only have one teenager, I always leave the third row down.
I love it and with it just at 51k miles, I have a lot of use still to get out of it.
I effectively own the shrunken cousin to the Ford Flex (’12 MINI Clubman). If somehow I found myself in need of […checks notes…] 4 FEET of extra vehicle length and nearly a foot of extra width, then the Ford Flex would be top of the list. Alas…
I’m glad you said that. I always thought the Flex looked like it came from the MINI Big & Tall department. I mean that as a compliment.
I see these around all over and 1) the styling looks better now than it did when it came out and 2) hate to say it but sliding doors would have been a hell of a flex on the normally staid minivan segment.
It’s a shame Ferd left it to wither and didn’t keep it as a RWD hoonivan on the exploder chassis or make it a PHEV/EV family hauling ass mobile. I get why they discontinued it but a little bit of creative thinking and it could have lived on as the choice for discerning wago-van enthusiasts.
>make it a PHEV/EV family hauling ass mobile
Bingo! I always thought it was a shame they never offered it with a beefed-up version of the Energi drivetrain (from the Fusion/Cmax).
I rented one to drive people to Tahoe in the winter one year, it did really well and the interior reminded me of the Volvo 740 wagons, lots of open space and slabby seats. I don’t need anything that big but it was a lot better than I expected.