Autoblog

Click above for a high-res gallery of the Ford Flex.

The SUV exodus means Ford's Flex has the potential to be a hit and it's gearing up for an onslaught of orders when sales begin this summer. Ford's group veep of marketing and communications, Jim Farley, told Automotive News that consumers leaving the full-size SUV fold and others who haven't considered putting a Blue Oval badge in their garage might be ready to give something like the Flex a chance. CUV sales have been strong over the last year, and Ford and Farley believe that the Flex could rack up 100,000 sales annually if the trend continues.


[Source: Automotive News – Sub. Req.]

In Dallas, a businessman has spent half a million dollars to install nine pumps that dispense E85, E10, and biodiesel. The catch: the businessman is a HUMMER dealer, and the pumps are next to his dealership. The station is called Classic Clean Fuels, and it is intended to make a statement for next year's H2 and H2 SUT, which will be the first production models to be Flex-fuel capable.

You won't need to drive a HUMMER to get E85 at the station. The pumps are open to the public, a first for a dealer-owned gas station. By 2010, GM has said all HUMMERs will be biofuel-capable. GM plans to market 15 Flexfuel models next year, but only one percent of the country's service stations sell E85. GM is using that as an opportunity to open the public's (and dealers') minds to putting alternative fuel stations in alternative places.

Said GM's Larry Burns, "Down the road we may even want to consider hydrogen dispensers at dealerships."

[Source: Auto News, sub req'd]

Certain automotive fashions are better left in the grave. To wit: faux wood paneling. It looks good on the old Woody, but it's an absolute atrocity on everything else (see: Griswold, PT Cruiser). However, spies have caught the new Ford Flex donning some woodgrain shelf paper paneling, and as much as FoMoCo is trying to redefine the people-mover/minivan segment with the Flex, this would seem to be a seriously counterintuitive move. We're hoping it's a joke, and for our money, it is.

[Source: The Car Connection]

Towards the end of 2003, Ford unveiled the Freestar. It was a lousy minivan, and its name wasn't much better. From there the f-bombs started pouring in with the Freestyle, Five Hundred, and Fusion. Ford had a Shakespearean stranglehold on alliteration, but outside of the decent success of the Fusion, Ford's effed-up naming convention brought little name recognition to the Blue Oval's car lineup. When Allan Mulally came to town, he scrubbed the Freestyle and Five Hundred names for the much more recognizable and respected Taurus and Taurus X, but unfortunately the basic shape of the family haulers didn't change enough for customers to want them.

Detroit News Columnist Daniel Howes accurately points out that Ford is back to effing up the names of its vehicles. The Flex arrives this summer, and the Fiesta arrives in 2010. The News says Ford marketing head Jim Farley questioned why the Flex name would adorn Ford's full-size crossover, but even the ex-Toyota wunderkind is unable or unwilling to lose the F. We don't understand the fixation Ford has with the sixth letter of the alphabet. The Dearborn automaker's two most successful cars of the past 40 years are the Taurus and Mustang, both of which are decidedly sans F. As a matter of fact, the Camry, Civic, Accord, Impala, and Malibu are all alliteration-free. Sure, if the Flex and Fiesta are great products they'll sell no matter what they're called, but we'd like for Ford to give us an effing break.

[Source: Detroit News]

Click image for a gallery of the suspected Lincoln MKT mule

According to an LA Times piece on the silliness that is modern vehicle naming, the paper appears to have flubbed a little bit revealing that Ford will introduce the 2009 Lincoln MKT at the Detroit Auto Show next week. What's the MKT? Well, the conventional wisdom suggests that it's a large 3-row crossover based on the Ford Flex architecture. We expect to see it wearing Lincoln's new, more dramatic styling language as introduced on the MKS along with a more upmarket interior in terms of look and feel. Looks like the spy shots that came out last week were timelier than we thought. While the mule pictured is disguised with Taurus X bodywork, not even that black mask can hide the new-look baleen whale grille that Lincoln has adopted. We won't need to wait much longer to see how this ultimately plays out, so as soon as we know the full skinny, you'll know, too.

[Source: Los Angeles Times via Inside Line]

FoMoCo never chromed out the Freestar and sent it to the Town Car division, but a version of Ford's new large wagon crossover called the Flex is reportedly headed to Lincoln. It would seem at first blush to be a better match for Mercury's product mix, but Ford wants Lincoln to become the volume seller under the L-M umbrella. What will power the Lincoln version is not yet known, but a variety of powertrains have been used in variants of the platform. Ford could snatch the 4.4-liter V8 from Volvo, but it's more likely to use some iteration of the new Duratec 3.5 or 3.7. The Lincoln badge is certainly befitting of some extra kick from the engine room for differentiation, and we'd expect a more luxe interior, too.

The Ford Flex will bow first, of course, and be allowed to hold court for about a year. The other version could be held back a full year, allowing Lincoln's seven-passenger alternative to vandom to get a solid footing. We're not sure what to think. A Lincoln version would definitely absorb some production capacity, but will it sell, or will Lincoln have a taste of the R-Class mystique? We think a better way to share the Flex would be to go retro and create a modern-day Volvo 245 GLT. A blacked out egg-crate grille, some different lights, throw in that force-fed V6 and there you go.

[Source: Car and Driver via Winding Road, Photo: Winding Road]

UPDATE: Woops. We switched the Foose Flex with the Funkmaster Flex2. The post has been updated to show the correct vehicle.

click above image for high-res pics of the FF Flex2

Funkmaster Flex made his debut last year at SEMA with a customized Expedition, and he's bringing what Ford calls "urban luxury" to the show again with the Flex2. In an awkward mix of hip hop culture and pr market lingo, the Master of Funk states that "I know what this vehicle is going to be in the urban market: It's going to be killer! Whether you're flossin' with your friends, going to the club or riding around with your girl, the Ford Flex is the next urban street vehicle, and Flex2 is my interpretation of the ultimate in street luxury."

The Flex actually has a pretty clean design, with a two-tone paint scheme and faux-brushed aluminum roof. Fender vents, grilles and a spoiler that comes from 3d Carbon. The Flex2 is lowered one inch from the standard car's height and rides on 22-inch forged rims. Inside are custom seats with Katzkin seat covers and stainless steel color stitching. DVD systems are also mounted in the headrests in the first and second rows. Click on the photo or the thumbnails below to view live shots from the show.

click above image to build and price your own 2009 Ford Flex

An astute Autoblog reader tipped us off to a new link on Ford's main product website. The link takes you to a page where you can build your own 2009 Ford Flex. It appears Ford wants to know what you'd like on your Flex, so they're allowing the public to build their own and will analyze what's hot and what's not before the final production version appears.

Pricing information is included when building your Flex, and while preliminary and far from official dogma, it gives us a general idea of where Ford's head is at concerning the cost of its Flex. According to the site, the base SE model that comes standard with Ford's corporate 3.5L V6 and six-speed transmission, foglamps and 18-inch painted aluminum wheels will start at $28,700 for front-wheel drive and $30,620 for all-wheel drive.

Follow the jump for pricing info on other Flex trim levels, including the SEL and Limited for both FWD and AWD.

Thanks for the tip, Tagg!

Click for gallery of additional spy shots

A reader Brandon sent in the shots you see here, which show that the Ford Flex is coming along fine. Parked curbside, this particular Flex is fully undisguised, but for reasons known only to Ford, it's not sporting its Flex badges. Yes, it's not scheduled to show up until next year as an '09 model, but still, we don't understand why automakers play coy like this with stuff they've already revealed. After all, the Flex was officially introduced in April at the New York Auto Show. Just badge these development rides all the way and get people on the street talking, already.

Anyway, the Flex snagged on the street looks just like what we eyeballed in NY. This one appears to be a model below the "Limited" trim, as it's got regular-looking wheels and a body-color rear gate and roof. The big Ford crossover will do battle with high-capacity people movers like the GMC Acadia, Saturn Outlook, and Buick Enclave from GM when it finally shows up at dealerships.

Thanks for the heads-up and the photos, Brandon!

The Ford Flex is an important vehicle for ford, as it is basically the automaker's replacement for its dead (and not missed) minivans. Absent the Flex, which doesn't arrive until MY2009, the only 7-passenger vehicles the Oval offers are the fuel-thirsty Expedition, the slow-selling Explorer, and the lame-duck Freestyle, which gets reincarnated as the Taurus X later this year.

Popular Mechanics was able to get some shots of the Flex while it was testing on public roads. Since the car is a known commodity, having been shown in new York last month, the prototype seen here is refreshingly devoid of the bras and cladding most development mules wear in public. Ford does the bare minimum, giving it black bumpers and a white Gilette grille, but it's all production bodywork.

Looking over the spy shots reminds us just how big the Flex is. It's as long as a Tahoe, and its lower stance seems to exaggerate the length when viewed in profile. Of course, that size is what's supposed to make it such a comfortable way to haul you, a bunch of friends, and a fair amount of stuff, too. Hopefully, the 3.5L V6 is up to the task, because while its perfectly good in the smaller Edge and Lincoln MKX, we wonder how spunky it'll be pulling around the sizeable Flex. Time will tell -- and there's time enough between now and when the big crossover arrives in showrooms for Ford to make sure everything's as it needs to be to make it successful.

[Source: Popular Mechanics]