nibyak

I have an 08 automatic and drive about 170 miles per day. Mostly highway with a little city and sometimes massive DC traffic jams. I’ve had the car for a little over a year and have about 50K miles on it. A good average for me is in the 33 MPG range. I’ve seen as high as 42 when I hit DC in the morning and have never seen it lower than 31 on the mega traffic jam 2.5 hour drive home days.

I don’t know of any way to disable the extra wipe permanently, but you can do what I do. After you squirt it, turn the knob (all the way up) so it wipes 2 or three times, then turn it off. That way you won’t get the extra smearing wipe.

You need to look at the Focus. I have an 08 Focus with the Sync and it has a seperate 2 or 3 line display in an eyebrow like pod on top of the dash. It displays the songs and phone info. It's not as fancy as the big car with the LCD display, but it works well.

To each his own. I have never liked the look of the dark grey wheels. To me they look like silver wheels that are dirty. It reminds me of all of the Beemers and Mercedes I see driving around DC with filthy wheels.

I got an 08 SES back in July. I drive about 170 miles per weekday and I’m not too fond of the steering wheel either. The buttons on my 06 Freestyle are mounted on the pod in the center of the wheel and the spokes are above and below them. The wheel on the Freestyle is much larger than the Focus though. The hole on the bottom center of the Focus wheel is rather sharp if you get you finger stuck in there. My one problem with the buttons though is that there are a few too many. Some times I’m trying to turn up the volume of the stereo and I’m increasing the speed of the cruise control or vice versa (maybe I’m just getting old). A few weeks ago I had an 08 Ford Edge loaner while the tranny in my Focus was getting a new valve body and the Edge had both the fan speed and temperature control buttons added to the cruise and audio controls. I’m just about at 10,000 miles on the new Focus and other than the transmission problem (covered under warranty) I haven’t had any major complaints. My steering wheel complaint is a minor one and I haven’t noticed any interference problems with the head restraints. I beats the crap out of my old 2000 Focus which had a cup holder sticking out and digging into my right leg no matter how I tried to position it.

To most of us older folks (I’m 47) the Focus is my commuter car. I drive about 170 miles a day and My Freestyle was getting a little expensive to drive everyday. So we started driving my old 2000 Focus. It had 100,000 miles on it and it was a manual tranny LX no frills car. After about a month of the old Focus we decided to get a new one. Went to the dealer last month and they had four 08s on the lot. Only one was an SES so we got it. Didn’t care what color it was (Silver Frost, just like my old 00 Focus and my old 03 Ranger). I didn’t care about the wheels or the handling. As long as it had wheels and didn’t fly off of the road, I knew that I would be able to put 150,000 miles on it in the next three years then sell it to some kid for $1000.00 like we did the old one. I did care about the ABS and all of the crap inside (Cruise control, SYNC . . .) because when you spend 3 to 4 hours a day in your car you need to be comfortable. I really didn’t care about the stupid ambient lighting option that was in the car. It’s a $295.00 option that lights up your cup holders and foot wells in a variety of different colors. Three dollars worth of parts turns into a $300.00 dollar option that serves absolutely no purpose. I’ve only got a little over 5000 miles on the 08 and it rides and handles like most of the small cars I’ve driven. It’s no way near as comfortable as my Freestyle, but I didn’t expect it to be. I’ve been getting between 32 and 37 MPG depending on the traffic. Depending on fuel prices in 2011 I’ll probably get another one But I will always have something a little bigger in the garage for the weekends.

I agree. My Freestyle has the seperate stalk and I didn't really think too much about it. For the last four months my Freestyle has been having CVT problems and I have driven numerious loaner cars. Currently I'm in an 06 Taurus with the one stick does all controls. My only problem with it is more than once I've turned on the high beams when using the turn signal. I know that it's totally unrelated to the wipers, but it's just easier to push it front for the brights. Last week I was in an 07 Mustang loaner and it had the seperate stick just like my Freestyle minus the dial for the rear wiper. On the Escape loaner I believe the head light controls were on the turn signal also. It's funny some days when I just want to do a quick wipe to clear the windshield and I end up turning something else on or off. Can't wait till my Freestyle is fixed.

I currently own a 2006 Freestyle. The Fusion was on my short list to replace my old Focus. The other car on the list is the new Taurus. A few weeks ago the CVT in Freestyle went on the fritz and the car was in the shop for a few weeks. For the first week the Freestyle was in the shop I had a brand new 07 Fusion for a loaner. I put close to 1300 miles on in the time that I had it so it wasn't just a quick test drive. The Fusion was an I4 SE. The Fusion has since been removed from my list. I'm sure that the V6 car is much better than the I4 but it wasn't a lack of power that turned me off to the Fusion. I believe that the "big car" feel of the Freestyle has spoiled me. The transmission in the I4 Fusion was "in my opinion" a piece of crap. I drive in heavy traffic around Washington DC everyday and just couldn't get it accelerate quickly when I needed to change lanes or merge "quickly" in relatively slow traffic. I'm sure that the Tranny in the V6 is much better. I also had a 2006 Taurus loaner for the rest of the time the car was in the shop and had no complaints about the transmission in it. In the Fusion, when rolling along at 5 to 10 MPH then stomping the gas, the car would make a lot of noise but wouldn't accelerate for 3 or 4 seconds. My only other complaint is that the Fusion doesn't have much headroom. I'm 5'11" so I'm not overly tall, but when I had the seat adjusted high enough, my head was skimming the ceiling. My Focus seems to have more headroom than the Fusion. The interior looked fine but seems a bit cramped to me. Like I said above, the "big car" feel of the Freestyle has spoiled me. My 15-year-old son wanted us to keep the Fusion, but every time my wife got out of it she smacked her head on the doorframe and cursed a lot. So sometime this fall it looks like we'll be getting a new Taurus to park next to the Freestyle. P.S. I'm 47 years old so I don't know if that makes me an old man or not. I do know that at 45,000 miles per year driving, that comfort is way more important than how the car looks.

Heres a link Taurus?

The towing on the Freestyle with the CVT is next to nothing, 1000 - 1200 Lbs. I think. Current CVTs are torque limited. You would be able to tow your Buell on a small trailer. But the Buell should be on the road and not a trailer anyway. In my Humble opinion, if you want to tow buy a nice Ford truck.

I got a Freestyle with the CVT on 21 January 2006. I now have just less than 35,000 miles on it. I think the CVT is great. I drive over 160 miles each weekday. The first 40 odd miles of my drive is open highway in the small hills coming out of the Shenandoah Valley in Northern Virginia. The RPMs are constantly changing going up and down the hills with the cruise set just under 80 mph but it is buttery smooth and I don’t notice the RPM change at all. On my 2003 Ranger (traded-in on the Freestyle) the Transmission was always shifting out of OD near the top of the hills when the cruise was set, then shifting back on the way down (not buttery smooth). After the first 40 odd miles of my commute, I hit a 4 to 5 mile traffic jam (every day at 530 AM). The CVT is good in the heavy traffic also; no jerks or shifts, you just speed up and slow down. I want to trade my Focus in on a 500 so I can get another car with the CVT before Ford does away with them. I'm sure that Ford has a good reason to drop the CVT, but it does seem like the transmission of the future to me. After driving the CVT for a while, you can sort of control how it works by how far you mash on the accelerator. If you floor it (all the way to the floor) the RPMs will jump right up to about 5400. If you are not in that much of a hurry don't press it as far and will jump up to 4200. I know you can make any automatic transmission shift by stomping the gas but the CVT changes instantly. The first scheduled service on the CVT is 60,000 miles so I guess I'll see how well it's holding up in the Spring.

If the TSB you are talking about is (TSB 05-4-7) it's only for Freestyles and 500s manufactured between 5/17/2004 and 2/9/2005. It was to replace the pads with new part number 5F9Z-2200-B and came out in February 2005. That TSB was to replace the pads that reacted/corroded with the rear disks and caused a lot of noise and vibration. I'm not 100% certain, but I believe the current problem of premature wear is with the new revised pads. My 2006 Freestyle had its rear pads replaced at 25,000 miles. The replacement was covered by my extended warranty. I purchased the extended warranty because I wasn't sure about the CVT, not the brakes. My pads were replaced two weeks ago and my small rural dealership had no problem getting the pads.

I can understand why the delay in the launch of newer bigger engine is not good for Ford, but I don't understand the need for it in the 500/Freestyle. I bought a 2006 Freestyle in late January 2006. I drive over 180 miles each weekday and this car is not lacking in power. I understand that more power is better but I have never felt like I was in danger of being run over because I didn't have enough umph to get out of the way. I also own a 2000 Focus and know what not enough power feels like. I have the AWD Freestyle with the CVT and it hauls ass. I drive every mile of I-66 in Virginia from the hills near West Virginia until I cross over the bride into DC. I've never understood why the Freestyle wasn't and still isn't really advertised by Ford but I think it needs better PR way more than it needs a better engine. The 3 liter does rev pretty high and makes a good amount of noise when you're on the gas and I'm sure thats a big negative with a lot of people. After 25,000 miles I'm used to it revving up when you floor it. I also want to get another car with the CVT, probably a 500. All of the other manufacturers (Imports) are really pushing their CVTs as the transmission of the future, but Ford has plans to close down their only plant that manufactures them. I just don't understand. I know that you can't tow anything with the current Freestyle, but if I wanted to tow I would have bought an SUV or a Truck not a Station Wagon (traded the 2003 Ranger in on the Freestyle). My Freestyle is the nicest Car I've ever owned and thanks for building it.

On my old 2003 with the 3-liter it was the idler pulley. The one up on top. You could push it back and forth about a half inch on the spindle. It only lasted about 2 years. It was cheap and took about 10 minutes to replace.

You have the Freestyle on your list but don't seem to mention it in your post. I've had my Freestyle since January 2006 and really like it. I drive it about 180 miles a day so comfort and ride are very important to me. I had a 2006 Escape XLT loaner for a day and after the ride to and from work (over an hour and a half each way) I never wanted to sit in another Escape again. I just never got comfortable in the seat and the ride was a bit bouncer than I would have liked. The Freestyle rides like a car. I have the AWD Freestyle with the CVT. The CVT takes a bit of getting used to but I've grown to really like the feel of it. Also if you want to tow, the Freestyle is no-go. The CVT will not do torque so the towing limit is next to nothing. I've been averaging around 21 MPG during the week commuting, but have seen as high as 24 MPG when there isn't as much traffic. The lowest I've seen was about 19.0 MPG. The FWD does a mile or two better than the AWD. I'm considering an Edge to replace my aging Focus (never been very comfortable in it either) but not sure I want to get a first year car. I waited a year for the Freestyle, but there weren't many changes/fixes between 05 and 06.