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Bold Design Inside
and Out:
New Ford Flex full-size crossover is the first vehicle of its kind with a
bold design, striking interior and seven-passenger seating for families.
·
Cool Features:
Interior refrigerator, second-row footrests, Ford Sync™ in-car
communications and entertainment system, capless fueling, a 2,300-song
personal juke box, programmable ambient interior “mood lighting” and a
Multi-Panel Vista Roof™ are among the many customer-inspired innovations.
·
Safe and Secure:
An
available rear back-up camera, s tandard f ront-and-side-seat mounted air
bags, three-row Safety Canopy ® side curtain and AdvanceTrac ® with RSC ®
(Roll Stability Control) offer the safety and security customers demand
for their families.
·
Powerful and
Confident:
An award-winning
3.5-liter V-6 engine, fuel-efficient 6-speed transmission and available
intelligent all-wheel-drive provide powerful and confident road manners.
·
On Sale Next Year:
The 2009 Ford Flex goes on sale in the summer of 2008, joining the Edge
and Taurus X in Ford’s popular crossover lineup.
NEW YORK, April,
2007 –
Ford Motor Company redefines the modern American family journey with the
introduction of the 2009 Ford Flex, a full-size crossover that sets a new
standard for style, features, functionality and comfort in the U.S.
industry’s hottest segment.
“The new Ford Flex
crossover is a game-changer. It’s the first vehicle of its kind that
combines seating for seven, interior spaciousness and surprising features
with a striking design that looks great on the road and at home for
today’s modern American families,” said Mark Fields, Ford’s president of
The Americas, as he revealed the new vehicle at the 2007 New York
International Auto Show. “The Flex builds on Ford’s leadership in
crossover vehicles, which is the fastest-growing part of the auto market
today.”
On sale in the
summer of 2008, the Flex is arriving as crossovers continue to outpace
even the remarkable growth of SUVs during the 1990s and minivans of the
1980s.
Last year,
crossovers surpassed traditional SUV sales for the first time, and they
are trending toward annual crossover sales of 3 million units by the end
of the decade. Such growth likely will make crossovers the first or second
largest vehicle segment in the U.S.
“Flex is another
example of Ford creating more of the products that our customers really
want,” Fields said. “Ford intends to define crossover vehicles this decade
just as we did SUVs in the 1990s.”
The Flex joins the
Edge and Taurus X in Ford’s expanding crossover lineup. Ford’s success
with crossover utility vehicles is substantial. In March alone, the
company’s U.S. crossover
sales were up more than 40 percent over last year – led by the success of
the new Edge.
Redefining the
Family Journey
Bold, expressive
design and exclusive innovations define the new Flex.
“The Ford Flex has
the power to move people emotionally as well as physically,” said J Mays,
Ford’s group vice president of Design and chief creative officer.
“This crossover has
been created for people who know it’s the journey – not the destination –
that matters most,” Mays added. “Its upright, upscale design, versatility
and clever touches allow Ford Flex to stand out in an increasingly crowded
sea of crossovers.”
The Ford Flex brings
to production the Ford Fairlane concept vehicle that turned heads at the
2005 North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
“Flex is following
in the tire tracks, so to speak, of Ford vehicles like the Taurus,
Explorer and Mustang. It’s the next iconic Ford,” said Peter Horbury,
Ford’s executive director of Design for The Americas. “It shatters today’s
image of people movers.”
Flex’s signature
exterior design includes:
·
Ford’s
signature chrome horizontal three-bar grille, which builds on the family
“face” that defines the Ford Edge and Taurus X crossovers, as well as the
Ford Fusion sedan.
·
A unique,
all black “greenhouse” – defined as the windshield, rear and side windows,
and the pillars separating and connecting them to the roof. The design
brings together seamlessly the body with the available multi-panel roof.
Customers can pair a White Suede or Silver roof option with one of Flex’s
10 available exterior colors or choose a body-color roof.
·
Standard
18-inch or available 19-inch bright aluminum wheels, which plant the new
crossover firmly on the road.
·
Flex’s
integrated rocker panel design, which eliminates the need for customers to
step over the rocker panel when getting in and out of the vehicle.
·
Edge-inspired taillamps, which are outlined in chrome. Flex Limited models
have LED taillamps and a brushed satin finish metal appliqué spanning the
center of the liftgate.
·
Interior Quality
Inside, Ford Flex
delivers textures, features and functionality – including segment
exclusives – that create an ideal atmosphere for discerning customers and
their families.
“More than 90
percent of crossover customers make their vehicle purchases based in part
on
the overall quality of interiors,” said Kate Pearce, Flex marketing
manager. “When they see
the Flex’s exterior, they’ll be intrigued. When they see its interior,
they’ll fall in love.”
Flex’s interior
provides a level of craftsmanship inspired by fashion and furniture
design,
with modern materials and soft touch points.
Details include
tweed-like fabric for the base-level Flex SE’s seats, with inserts in a
miniature houndstooth. Meanwhile, the Flex SEL features a soft insert with
a more pronounced grain on the seat bolsters, while the Flex Limited
features unique diamond-pattern perforations on the leather seat inserts.
Contrast stitching also is available on leather seats and the center
console.
Cool Features Built
Right In
Flex is set apart
from other vehicles thanks to a long list of surprising features. They
include:
·
Class-exclusive
refrigerator, mounted between the second-row captain’s chairs.
Unlike competitors’ systems that merely keep cold beverages cool, the
Flex’s available compressor-driven refrigerator can cool up to seven
12-ounce cans, four half-liter bottles or two 20-ounce bottles from room
temperature to 41 degrees in just more than two-and-one-half hours. That’s
40 percent faster than a standard home refrigerator.
·
Multi-Panel Vista
Roof™.
It not only
brightens the interior, it gives Flex occupants seated in each row their
own special skylight.
·
Second-row,
best-in-class legroom, including class-exclusive adjustable and removable
footrests.
The Flex’s second-row seats fold and tumble to provide access to the
third-row and fold flat into the floor for added cargo space. An available
one-touch system folds and tumbles the second row.
·
Seven-color
programmable ambient lighting.
Flex owners can
choose interior lighting to fit their mood. With this feature – which also
is being introduced on the 2008 Ford Focus – customers use a dashboard
switch to change the lighting on two LEDs mounted on the front console,
two on the footwells and two around the cupholders.
·
Capless fuel filler
system.
This exclusive feature eliminates the likelihood of forgetting to put the
gas cap back on after fueling. It also saves time by doing away with
unscrewing and replacing a fuel-filler cap and provides a better seal,
cutting down
the emissions of smog-forming vapors.
·
Ford Sync™, Ford’s
industry-exclusive, voice-activated hands-free in-car communications and
entertainment system.
This available system fully integrates mobile phones and digital media
players into the vehicle. The Sync in-car communications system was
developed in collaboration with Microsoft and will be offered exclusively
on Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles later this year.
·
Ford’s
next-generation navigation system, featuring voice recognition technology
and more than 150 hours of music storage.
Users can browse the music jukebox via touch-screen or by using voice
recognition. They can also create custom play lists and burn CDs for
storage on the system’s hard drive. The system also integrates the climate
control and SIRIUS Satellite Radio into one easy-to-use, smudge-resistant,
8-inch touch-screen display. Premium AM/FM/MP3 audio systems also are
available with a six-CD changer, auxiliary jack to accommodate MP3 players
and the latest generation DVD entertainment system with a large 8-inch,
drop-down screen.
·
Ford’s exclusive
second-generation door-entry keypad
. Housed within the vehicle’s black B pillars, the flat-panel, backlit
keypad eliminates the need for door-mounted buttons and gives customers
the ability to unlock doors, disarm the alarm system and disable the
auto-lock function by entering a five-digit code.
Quiet, Confident
Ride
The Ford Flex’s
chassis was designed to be capable, including more than 4,000 pounds of
towing capacity, while still delivering the quiet, confident ride that
crossover customers demand.
“A quiet ride is no
longer a luxury,” said Gary Boes, Flex chief engineer. “It’s something
that customers have come to expect from their vehicles and equate with
quality. Flex has
been engineered from the onset with reduced noise, vibration and harshness
in mind.”
Engineering
advancements include a new independent rear suspension system (IRS) with
unique geometry that allows for better tuning to deliver a broad range of
capabilities without compromising the interior package. Interior noise was
minimized by using sound-deadening materials in the dash panel, headliner
and under the carpeting.
In addition, a
6-millimeter thick windshield helps reduce wind and powertrain noise,
while specially selected tires make road noise nearly unnoticeable.
Powerful V-6 with
AWD
Flex is powered by
Ford’s award-winning 3.5-liter V-6 engine and is mated to a fuel-efficient
6-speed transmission. The powertrain is expected to deliver more than 260
horsepower,
245 lb.-ft. of torque and good fuel economy.
Flex’s available
intelligent all-wheel-drive system is tuned to provide confident driving
in all weather conditions. Intelligent AWD uses an active, on-demand
electronic center coupler to allocate a precise amount of torque from
front to rear – up to 100 percent to either axle. The system also can
anticipate wheel slip before it happens.
Safety Families
Demand
Flex comes equipped
with features that reflect Ford’s commitment to keeping customers and
their families safe and secure. The new crossover’s body structure has
been optimized with side intrusion beams in the doors, strategic use of
high-strength boron steel and specially designed, energy-absorbing
interior door trims.
Other safety
advancements include:
·
Rear back-up camera.
Mounted in the bottom of Flex’s liftgate badge, the available camera is
activated when the vehicle is shifted into reverse, giving the driver a
view of what’s behind the vehicle. The system works in conjunction with
the vehicle’s reverse sensing system and uses the navigation screen as a
display.
·
AdvanceTrac
® with RSC ® (Roll Stability Control). This system can
predict a vehicle’s path, using a sensor to measure oversteer and yaw by
monitoring the vehicle’s speed, throttle position and steering wheel
angle. When the system senses wheel slip or the loss of traction, it
applies braking where needed to keep the vehicle safely on its intended
path.
·
Ford’s Personal
Safety System.
This suite of safety
features includes dual-stage driver and front passenger air bags, thorax
side air bags for front seat occupants, safety belt pretensioners, seat
weight sensing system for the passenger seat and crash severity sensing.
·
Ford’s exclusive
Safety Canopy
® side curtain air bag. Designed for all three rows, this feature
utilizes roll-fold technology to efficiently deploy the air bag when an
occupant’s head is resting against the side glass. In the event of a
crash, the roll-fold bag will deploy between the occupant's head and the
side of the vehicle.
Ford’s
BeltMinder™ safety belt reminder for driver and front passenger.
Flex also comes
equipped with such standard features as child safety locks on the rear
doors, the LATCH child safety restraint system and Ford’s tire pressure
monitoring system
  
2009 Ford Flex:
New Ford Flex full-size crossover is the first vehicle of its kind with a
bold design, striking interior and seven-passenger seating for families.
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