sim

Not seen anything to the claims made by the rags given that i have owned this CUV for 4 months now, they do seem to pick the most inconsequential stuff to talk about that isnt an issue for any actual driver except the anal testers.

Oh i also just saw an ad locally where they were offering $6k in rebates, quite an incentive!

Well i have finally seen my first one in use by someone i know. One of my coworkers swapped in his GMC Yukon (which he has had at least the 6 years i have worked with him) for a new Tundra, i am sure there was a good offer on the plate to tempt him. I am surprised he didnt buy American as he is a bit of a good ol'boy, but i guess money talks and the price/rebates brought it down to somewhere he felt he could buy. He seems happy enough, but personally i wasnt too impressed when i checked it out this time, nor when i was car shopping 4 months ago and got the Edge. the only reason i looked at the Tundra was my old roommate had one and it seemed to run ok with a bit of power from its V8 that was a bit more impressive than our V6 F-150's at work, no surprise on that really, apples to oranges - however he did say that gas mileage sucked on it.

Looks like an adult stroller, just motorized!

Not a term i am used to, what is dogtracking? Quick out of the gate, always chasing rabbits, only makes left turns (although that could be NASCARing)????

If we are going to get all scientific about it, lets talk environmental conditions: Are we going up or down slope, on flat ground, or around bends? Are we on asphaltic concrete, bituminous concrete or some other material? What is the weather and road condition, hot, cold, dry, or wet? Is there oil on the road? Which way is the wind blowing? How many times have we done an emergency stop in a series? Are we getting fade? How much warning or how much attention are we paying when we first notice something to brake for? I could probably go on, to tell the truth there are so many variables in the mix and that are around during each time that you might want to brake on any given day of driving that these numbers are just like a pissing contest. On the day any of these cars could take longer or shorter to stop than the "official numbers" from the rags. Its like the EPA numbers, its a guideline to what you might expect, however i dont know how scientific the actual tests are when comparing different cars on different occasions throughout the year in uncontrolled circumstances, it certainly wouldnt face the rigour of a real scientific test. Personally i am very happy and confident in my Edge's brakes, my wife even complains they are a bit too aggressive when i stamp down some, however i have yet to do an emergency stop for real in the car as i havent needed to, i did on the test drive, but that was on my own time not a reactionary stop. Maybe some people think its a problem, maybe some rags measured some pseudo-scientific numbers to base their conclusions on, but even under the best of braking ability in a car, its not going to stop you hitting things in every situation, particularly in these scenarios where you have less than 100ft to stop before hitting something that jumps out when you are doing 60mph - it just isnt going to happen! 100ft is just over 1 second of travel at 60 mph, first you have to spot it, then react, then decide on action and follow through - oh look i hit that thing at 30-40mph as that is all i could stop to in practically any car/truck given those conditions - what a flawed arguement.

Well that little car could work i guess. Who knows how close anyone will ever get to 157mpg (or even 88mpg for the GT), but that is a tiny engine! I guess there are a few things to give up to have that kind of mileage - acceleration and any ability to carry more than 1-2 people, definately a commuter car!

Of the previous colour schemes, i was quite happy with carbon and pewter, they were my 2nd and 3rd choices behind the copper. I might have snagged a dark blue though - not the purple, didnt quite look right. Be interesting to see what changes they do make though and hopefully there will be some stuff in the pipeline as accessories that arent currently available. I have a few accessories already, but there doesnt seem to be much out there at the moment.

Is the text available online? If so, any link?

I thought the cops would have been using the Trotter-style reliant robin?

Dont know about Pompey traffic, but Soton next door was a breeze on a bike or with the extensive bus network when i was a student at the university one end of the town and working at the other end of the town by the port area as well - easy to bike those few miles in very little time through the large parks. I would say i easily beat 20mph on my bike though! Driving was a bit more of a pain and riding past standing traffic was easy. Personally traffic around here in Orlando generally only goes about 20mph at most during rush hours on city roads, so what difference would it make? Probably only slow those of us driving down during off-peak times.

We got a $500 rebate in March from a graduate rebate program with Ford, that was back in March. The other rebates shown for military and quarterhorse assoc were also in effect at that time. We got ours with the 1.9% 48 month financing. Personally i would go with the financing to save more than $500 over the lifetime of a car loan, unless you are paying cash and get that rebate off the top.

I would call myself a seasoned pro at online message boards having frequented and moderated a few so i check a few things as i can as a regular user here and see a few stats sticking out about your posting: 42 total posts of which: 24 Edge braking related - in different threads 38 Edge related 26 in the last month (38 since 1/1/07) So obviously something has you hot under the collar, it might be this braking issue, however for over half your posts you are talking about this issue - strikes most people on here you have agenda or some kind of complex about braking as you previously mentioned it with regards to the 500 and Freestyle for various reasons. Having 56 posts/month is only about 2/day, seeing as a post takes less than 5 mins or so usually, that isnt much time out of your day. You might spend some time reading around other posts as well. I have 107 posts which works out to about 1/day, i spend maybe a combined 30 mins on here in a couple of time periods each day, maybe 2 @ 15 mins or 3 @ 10 mins or so, not a big part of my day. As for the weight of the Edge and otehr vehicles in this test, 200# difference on a 4k car is only 5% difference in terms of weight, which would be about the same ratio as 7ft compared to 140ft that one rag measured. The points made are certainly skewed towards one POV with an agenda!

Dont recall ever (in 15 years of driving) doing 0-60 or 60-0, i do variations between those numbers and above those numbers to somewhere in that range. I think i posted elsewhere about how much a fraction of a second of delay in starting the "emergency braking" could easily make up the difference between these one-time test "scores". If the drive is 0.1 seconds later at starting the car stopping compared to the others it would travel 8.8 feet at a speed of 88 fps (60mph), thus the 20 feet difference between top scorer, Trailblazer, and the lowest, Edge, according to some rag's review is about 0.26 seconds, not long compared to the average reaction time of 0.3 seconds, plenty of room for error there. As for the Trailblazer being the top-rating of that list, makes me laugh, while our work SUV's are a little battered, there is no way in hell it stops quickly from my couple of 1000 miles driving one in various road and climate conditions around here!

You already know about the 2/3 row thing - otherwise why would you be comparing them? If you use the 3rd row in the Freestyle be prepared to get a roofrack mounted luggage hauler or trailer - there is no room back there, and certainly not enough for the amount of stuff 7 people might bring along wherever you go. I was not impressed with the CVT, it seemed quite slow to accelerate - other than that i am sure its great on gas and at speed, but getting there could take some time. We only took it on a test drive, so cant say with the same insight as those who own. I sat in the back with my wife on the 3rd row and found it bearable, almost spacious for a 6'3" guy. It certainly is a stationwagon, the very fringe of a CUV IMO. Its less expensive and depending on what you are using it for might be a better or worse option. The question is quite open ended, no real example of what you want to use it for apart from hauling family - from where to where, on what type of road, with how much stuff, etc? The trunk space with only 2 rows up is larger than the Edge and the platform is a little lower which might make for easier loading. I bought the Edge after test driving both and a variety of others. It fit my situation more than the Freestyle. I dont have kids yet, but do have two dogs and the kids are going to start coming in the next couple of years - but i probably wont have too many for the back row for quite some time, probably as long as i intend owning this car or we replace our other car. I found the acceleration better, ride smoother and quieter, trunk was more boxy, even if not as large in length (but the fold down seats are helpful). Its a very comfortable ride that is quite good on highway mileage, only slightly shy of the Freestyle estimates. It is also capable of going around campgrounds and such with relative ease which some more sedan like cars might be a little harder to work with (and probably was the death of my previous one). All in all it fit our requirements, but it may/may not fit yours.