2007 FORD Freestyle

Gawd I'm so glad to be rid of that thing

Comfort Rating: 1 Performance Rating: 2 Interior Rating: 3 Reliability Rating: 2 Safety Rating: 2 Technology Rating: 2 Value Rating: 3

The Freestyle MIGHT be ok for some place like southern California where the weather is mostly 65-75 degrees and gets no real 'weather'. In rain it hydroplanes badly, in snow--best of luck to you. I've driven a number of 2WD Fords and they were all at least good if not great in snow. This one spent an awful lot of time in the ditch. I've been soured completely on front wheel drive vehicles as a result of this one. Second, it has no getup. It sounds fairly impressive when you hit the gas but then when you look at the speedometer....not so impressive. The pulling power was non-existent. We tried pulling medium sized trailer and if I thought it really had no getup before, it really had no getup then. It was not purchased as a pulling vehicle though and was rarely asked to. We went through tires like crazy despite buying a mid-range tire. We tried different brands, same result--flats and bulges at a rate of more than 4x our Ranger or our F150, both of which were more than 10 years older than the Freestyle and all driving the same conditions. We eventually had to buy high end tires and then at least when they went, they were pro-rated. The braking wasn't good, either. It took longer to stop and the ABS were not like any other I have experienced before or since. A lot of the instrumentation was fairly consistent with other Fords except for the hazards. They were down in the middle of the center column just in front of the gear shifter and they were forever becoming engaged. We do at least one trip annually of 10+ hours one way and I felt the seats were uncomfortable after only a couple hours driving. I know this is largely a part of having leather seats but in summer they would burn you and in winter you'd freeze your butt off. I spent about 10 months of the year having to sit on 'something' because the seats were unbearable. The flat being inside under the cargo area was also a disappointment and a giant inconvenience because every time we needed to change a tire (not an uncommon occurrence), we had to unload whatever was in the back. Given this was to go to dog shows and we otherwise travel a lot with our large dogs and gear, this was not a good thing. We had a number of major repairs on it in a short period of time. More recently, the heat went out on it over a year ago, it blew a head gasket about 6 months ago, and at this point we're just waiting for it to be hauled off. I expect my vehicles to last longer than 10 years, usually they make almost 20 and sometimes more. The dealership repair guys got to know us on a first name basis which is never a good thing. While it has fairly high miles on it, the last 30 or 40K were limping it along and our other Fords have done much better than this. My husband had some sort of attachment to it or it would have been gone long ago. It finally seized up and lit up like a Christmas tree so it's blessedly dead. The only things to like about it in my opinion are the IMPRESSIVE amount of passenger and cargo room inside, there aren't many blind spots making it a very safe car to drive, the rear A/C (I have dogs), the fuel economy was pretty good for what it was, the door keypad is terribly convenient, and the seats folded down flat to make it really convenient for those quick runs to the home improvement stores or hauling gear to dog shows. We've replaced it with our second Explorer.