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I joined the Flex club


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The year of change continues... after a divorce, a job change, and a new relationship, I took delivery of a new-to-me Mineral Gray Flex SE yesterday afternoon.

 

I don't know that I've ever appreciated a car as much as I do this one so far. I surprised the kids with it at the bus stop yesterday afternoon and they're totally taken by it. After months of sitting 3 across in the back of the Fusion (bonus kid came with the GF), they love all the space.

 

It drives smooth as glass, has plenty of power, and it handles like a dream. We have trips to Cleveland, Indy, Hilton Head, Savannah, and Orlando all between now and the end of the year and I'm glad to have this truckster ready to roll.

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Edited by PREMiERdrum
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Thanks all! Not to get too personal, but I'm happier than I've ever been.

 

 

Congrats! More pics!

 

PS. We will be at Hilton Head in July at the Disney Resort.

Nice! Love the DVC resort there. We'll be at The Beach House resort for a wedding July 29 - August 4.

 

 

More pics attached.

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My folks bought a '17 Flex last year, and I got a lot of seat time in it shuttling my handicapped brother around while they were on the road. I'm not ready to give up my truck, but that Flex is a heck of a nice car. I got to drive it home from Bryan, TX, and it proved to be a very comfortable long-hauler. It doesn't have the EB mill, but that 3.5 has plenty of get up and go.

 

I hope it gives you many years of trouble-free service, and here's hoping that life starts treating you better, too!

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Hard to tell in photos - two tone roof?

Unfortunately not.

 

This one isn't equipped the way I would have preferred, *but*...

 

My cousin in the Group Manager for the Coughlin family... they own a regional chain of dealerships (mainly Ford, GM, and Toyota) as well as a racing outfit and Jeg's performance outlet. My cousin works out of their Ford store that's close by out of convenience. He knew I had been looking around and he got this one in on trade and texted me about it. I went to see it on Friday afternoon, drove it for about a half hour, and when I got back to the dealership he told me what he was into it for and I cut him a check. I was in and out in less than an hour, including a half hour test drive.

 

This weekend, it experienced auditions for the drumline that I teach, my daughter's softball tournament, 2 of my son's baseball games, and a few Mother's Day excursions. Everyone absolutely loves it.

Edited by PREMiERdrum
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Congrats on joining the club, cookies and punch on the back table!

I have to say that my Flex has been the best, most usable, most overall-satisfying vehicle that I've ever owned. Yes, I'll always have some performance-oriented Ford product getting my attention (and money), but my Flex hauls my musical gear, hauls fellow musicians/family members, is very nearly as commodious as my Expedition while returning far better MPG, and has been a joy to own.

Given how distinctive it is while surrounded by the modern "melted soap bar" CUVs everywhere, I'd be overjoyed if Ford found the capacity for a new Flex to be one of the "white space" models coming in the future. The West Coast really does seem to love the Flex, I see them constantly.

Edited by ZanatWork
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Well that reminds me when the Flex was first introduced as a concept. Supposedly it was a new take on "minivans", so yes, consider it a white space vehicle. As much as I like it,consumers didn't take it that way. So when Ford is talking about "White Space" vehicle, there's been a few in the past that didn't provide as they had hoped.

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Well that reminds me when the Flex was first introduced as a concept. Supposedly it was a new take on "minivans", so yes, consider it a white space vehicle. As much as I like it,consumers didn't take it that way. So when Ford is talking about "White Space" vehicle, there's been a few in the past that didn't provide as they had hoped.

The Flex could have been so much more but they didnt really do a lot of marketing for it (still dont), and the introduction of the D3 Explorer dramatically lowered the ceiling for the Flex.
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The Flex could have been so much more but they didnt really do a lot of marketing for it (still dont), and the introduction of the D3 Explorer dramatically lowered the ceiling for the Flex.

 

Agreed. And then they let it rot on the vine, so any hope it had left has been lost.

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The Flex also had a bad start because it arrived during the Great Recession (it's that freaking old). I think Ford generally had a hard time nailing the 3-row crossover segment early on, treating it mostly like a minivan successor and less like an SUV. The Flex was born from the Freestyle/Taurus X bones and still had that low slung wagon-like packaging which is ultimately much less popular than the similarly priced tall 3-Row crossover (Explorer/Traverse/Pilot/Highlander/et.al). It's also a product that was born to be something of a hard to categorize icon, it started life as a Concept design study with no foundation in their product cycle...which is something that never happens at Ford today...the concepts are born from the production car now. So essentially, Flex was always something of a pet project (Mark Fields) and wasn't born as a response to market forces or trends. As a result, Ford has always had a hard time finding a place for it. We definitely will not see a successor which is a shame, but understandable.

Edited by Assimilator
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The biggest thing against the Flex's position in the marketplace is the same issue that plagued the Freestyle and Taurus X before it: Ford's internal column structure for marketing.

 

Freestyle literally came out of the gate as a bastard child that was pushed into the truck division's marketing structure, even though their own marketing folks had fought the very development of Freestyle as it was thought to compete directly against Explorer, which was then in its heyday.

 

When Flex came online they still had no mechanism to effectively market what was essentially an alternative to some of their own successful products.

 

Remmy said he still gets people asking him about his... inquiring about what it is, etc.. and I've had a few people already ask me about mine. There was just never enough awareness as to what it is and where it fits.

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