The 2013 @FordCanada Flex AWD Limited is family-focused {review}

At First Glance 

The 2013 Ford Flex is amazingly spacious and nicely organized.

I’m not a huge fan of the silver roof. Personally, I’d prefer the vehicle to be one complete colour.

Getting around

I really enjoyed driving it.  It handled very well and was fun to drive on the highway or on city streets.

The Ecoboost engine is a great feature for me to have on a vehicle. It “[improves] fuel economy for drivers, without sacrificing power or performance”.  To learn more about this engine, read “Ecoboost: Efficiency without Compromise” from Ford Blue.

It has lots of great safely features, but I especially loved the blind spot indicator, collision warning and adaptable cruise control. The vehicle has sensors around the outside that can tell how close you are to other vehicles or if one is your blind spot. If you’re using cruise control, the speed will automatically be adjusted if you get too close to the vehicle in front of you. This is an amazing feature!

Like with the 2013 Edge, if I was to purchase this vehicle, I’d choose the front wheel drive (FWD) option instead of all-wheel drive (AWD). Unfortunately, this means that I could not get Ecoboost Engine as that is only available with the AWD model.

One thing I noticed is how much the rear headrests block the rear window. If there were passengers in the 3rd row, the headrests would be blocking the back window if they were up. Since we are a family of 4 and the 3rd row seats won’t be used that frequently, I can keep the headrests down when there aren’t any passengers using them. With the headrests down, the rear window is not obstructed.

Let’s check out the back seat!

When the girls first climbed in the back seat, they was so thrilled with all of the neat features. “Oh, Mommy, there’s a DVD player! Mommy, there are cup holders. Mommy, the thing opens, and we can put stuff in it!” They were talking about the center console between the two seats.

They really have put a lot of thought into all of the passengers in the vehicle. Usually in vehicles all of the fun stuff is only in the front for the driver and front passenger, but in the Flex, the rear passengers have lots of extra features to increase the passenger experience. There are lots of storage compartments and cup holders. A place to charge your phone or game system. The DVD player has individual screens on the back of the front seats with head phone jacks for each person.

And there are storage compartments in the rear seats! I show photos of this a bit further down.

I like the addition of the inflatable seat belts for the rear passengers. In a collision, the airbag will deploy to help support the head and neck. You can see a video, on Ford Canada’s website. Because the tongue is different than on a standard seat belt, it took the girls a little while to get the hang of buckling it properly.

And look at the legroom! I’m not that tall so legroom usually isn’t an issue, but I could stretch out!

The power folding 3rd row seat is very convenient!  It has 3 positions: normal, stow and tailgate.

Child Seat Installation

Installing Lauren’s forward-facing car seat was very easy, even easier than it was in the 2013 Edge.  The UAS anchors were very easy to locate.

Ford does a great job in their owner’s manual with the instruction for the use of car seats.