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 Bells and whistles are great. I love having a fridge in the back seat of my Flex.   I love speaking to the nice woman in my dash board who tells me where to go, dials my phone when I ask her to, and finds the song I want to hear. I also love the style and design of the Flex.  But none of this matters if the basic functionality of the vehicle, its ability to take you from Point A to Point B,  does not work as promised. Bells and whistles can’t replace quality. I recently wrote a post about my first year with a Ford Flex, and concluded that I would, with certain caveats, recommend the vehicle to a friend. I was wrong. As much as it breaks my heart to admit it, this is the first, and last Ford that I will buy for quite a long while.

In my post I documented a surprisingly long list of problems that I had encountered in the first year of Flex ownership, but was willing to forgive. Bad battery, leak in the window, rubbing tire on the fender well, and a persistent alignment issue. But this recent trip to the dealer is the last straw.

Last Monday while driving in a rainstorm with my two kids in the back, water began pouring through the ceiling heater vents. Each of those vents is perfectly positioned right above both child seats, so the water was flowing down on their heads. My wife sat in the back  for an hour with wads of paper towels pressed against the vents to keep the kids dry. I called Ford that day, and was told that the “water specialist” (mmmmm…) came in on Tuesdays. That night I dropped the car off for repair. While I was there, I mentioned that since they had the vehicle, could they also investigate a funny propane smell that filled the car when I came to a stop.
Tuesday afternoon I got  a call from the service department informing me that the water specialist had not located the leak and they would need the car for another day. The good news however was that they located the reason for the propane smell-a cracked hydraulic pump in the four wheel drive system that was dumping hydraulic fluid onto the hot exhaust pipe. The vaporized fluid was coming into the car and accounted for the smell. I can’t tell you how excited I was to know that my family had been breathing that for a month. The part was on order and should be in the following day. With a long Easter weekend coming up, I let them know I needed the car by Thursday.
Wednesday came and went. Not a word from the dealer. I called Thursday morning to find out when I could pick the car up. Not today. The leak had finally been located, and the  sunroof had been removed to replace leaky seals. Should be ready Friday. The call on Friday, however, was not good news. The sunroof glass had to be sent out to a specialist, and wouldn’t be ready until Monday. I was offered a rental car for the weekend, but couldn’t arrange to pick it up. We made do with one car for a few days (not really much of a hardship I agree), and moved some schedules around to be able to get the car Monday night, which proved to be premature planning as the car was still not ready. The glass had not returned from the specialist and re-assembling the sunroof and re-installing the headliner would take a day. Should be ready Wednesday. The leaky pump, however, had been replaced.

Eight days. Eight days to repair two major issues with a car just one year old. By themselves, forgivable, but at the bottom of a half dozen other issues, the forgiving well dries up.
I don’t deny that Ford has come a long way in the last few years. When the Flex works I love it. But it just doesn’t work well enough for a vehicle with a $40,000 price tag. I hope you keep at it Ford. I hope you keep working to improve the quality of your vehicles, but don’t forget that you have a long way to go, and that, despite my best intentions to become an evangelist, I think our relationship is over.