DMA_Indy

Random Flex Thoughts - First off, we love the car. Rides smooth/quiet, lots of leg room for the kids and adults, has a real feel of quality inside. Wife likes the Sirrius radio, but I can't get her to listen to Playboy radio when we're out without the kids though. So we finally got the car about three weeks ago and drove it for a week before taking it up to Michigan for a little vacation. We were around the Holland and Saugautuck areas and the Flex was great for carting our stuff to the beaches - I did everything I could to keep sand out of it but some still got in of course. Saugatuck is a artsy-fartsy little village with a nice downtown area full of shops and restaurants. I would parallel park along the street and would sometimes go back to the Flex to get stuff or drop off my wife's purchases. It was sort of fun to be walking up and watch people walking around the car to better look at it or turning their heads and staring ("what is it?" "a Flex, huh!?!?") as they strolled by. One woman even crossed the street one day while I was parking it and came up to my open window and said "I just have to tell you that's the most beautiful color on your car - I love it!" If I were to embellish this point I would say she was about 19 year old blonde wearing a tight tank top and short shorts, but I won't since she was actually about 55 and went about 3 bills. Oh well. Back home, I haven't seen any others on the road yet here around Indy and we get looks and stares and the occasional thumbs up from people everywhere we go. Just last night I was getting gas (getting 19.1 mpg so far) and this big guy (shaved head, tats, piercings, etc.) came over from where he and his biker buds were talking and said "That is sweet - that's cool as sheeeit! What is that? I gotta look at one of those - I got three kids and my Tahoe's only gettin' 12 miles per gallon. I love that!" So, for all my complaining about how long it took to get the Flex it was worth the wait.

Sales manager says it is finally expected in the week of July 7th. That's longer than I expected based on what I was told and/or read over the winter but at least I won't have to wait until the end of summer either. Also, in talking about his car to folks I know, I'm finding out that people in general think "Flex" means hybrid. Given gas prices now I wish they were correct.

Ford rep told the general manager that the Flex would be out in the spring over the winter, so everyone (including the manager) was under the impression that an early March order would be delivered mid-late May. Just because the cars will be in some lots in June doesn't mean I'll get mine and from what I've seen online it could be late summer. This is very small dealership in my wife's family, so I can't just buy the car elsewhere. They only order about 1 car per model and bunch of pickups for the farmers on the lot so custom ordering is the way to go for anything out of the ordinary. I feel like I ordered in good faith with the understanding of a spring delivery but Ford changed the rules. I hope they don't revoke my D-plan pricing.

I don't expect a custom vehicle within a few weeks - but I do expect Ford not to string me along either. I ordered March 4th expecting a typical 6-8 week window, not 16-20 weeks. My frustration is based on several factors - mostly that early consumer orders may be pushed back. Was it here on another board that someone in the know said cosumers may not get their cars that were already ordered until July or August? That's not spring. And from a family/vacation perspective summer starts when school is out and ends when school starts up again - so May 31st is summer in my book. Also, my dealer isn't getting much information from Ford - granted he's a small town shop but I believe that he's in the dark with regard to dates.

Talked to him a couple days ago but he hadn't heard anything yet. I'll update here when I hear.

Just spoke to the sales manager at the dealership - the factory still hasn't scheduled my Flex. From what he's been told Ford isn't scheduling/building pre-orders from customers until all the dealers get at least one Flex in the showroom, starting sometime in June at the earliest. If it wasn't for a family connection I don't think I'd be willing to wait this long - it was spring '07 when Ford started talking about this car and said at the time that it would be out in the spring of this year, not mid or late-summer.

Almost ordered a another Freestyle/TaurusX last spring, but then we kept the Freestyle a year longer than planned when we saw the Flex was coming out early in 2008. It has about 45K miles and we didn't want to pass 50K because of trade-in value. Wife was somewhat worried that the Flex would be bigger than she's used to but the specs list it as only an inch or son longer, wider, taller than her Freestyle. She used to drive an Expedition five-six years ago (when gas was cheap!) so she shouldn't worrry about seeing out of the Flex you'd think. I'm thinking the Flex will be a "love it or hate it" thing with people - I mentioned/linked it to a group of buddies via Gmail and they were split 50-50 on the looks of the thing "cool ride" "sweet, I want one too" "looks fugly" "WTF are you thinking buying that POS?" - these guys don't hold back and insults are expected.

for the Flex for my wife to replace our Freestyle. AWD Limited - Cinnamon, Med Lt Stone Leather Only needed to add a few options: Two-Tone White Roof 2nd Row Console DVD Rear Ent System Floor Mats PowerCode Remote Start Considered the Vista Roof but figured the kids would just close the shades anyway. Navigation system is way overpriced when compared to a Garmin or even my cell phone that has GPS. Drink refrigerator is good concept but not for ~$600 compared to a Igloo cooler for $10. Dealer says they can submit orders to Ford now; expects production to start in April although he hasn't been able to confirm a Job One date as of yesterday.

Thanks for the guide - we held on to our 2005 Freestyle an extra year waiting for the Flex to come out instead of trading in last year for the TaurusX. I don't see any dates in the guide - did they mention when they can be ordered and when they will be delivered?