2010 Ford Flex EcoBoost: More power, less engine

BOULDER, Colo.–We have previously waxed semi-lyrical here in Wheels about the Ford Flex, the reigning Canadian Utility Vehicle of the Year.

Colleague John LeBlanc last week rated it first in a three-way comparison with Chevrolet's impressive Traverse and Chrysler's Town and Country minivan, citing its roominess, quietness, high-quality interior finish, and, most notably, its superior driving dynamics. By the standards of the class, anyway.

Now, drop in the turbocharged direct injection V6 EcoBoost engine lifted more-or-less directly from the SHO Taurus. It bumps horsepower by 35 per cent, which knocks about a second and a half off the 0-to-100 km/h sprint time with little or no increase in fuel consumption – and how bad could it be?

Not bad at all, is the answer.

In Canada, the new EcoBoost engine will be offered only in the Limited trim level, with the full-time four-wheel-drive system borrowed from the vehicle's progenitor, the Volvo S80.

It will be on sale later this summer, starting at $46,599, a $3,400 hit over the non-turbocharged four-wheel-drive Limited.

EcoBoost is Ford's engine concept of the present and near-future. Spraying fuel directly into the combustion chamber instead of into the manifold and compressing intake air with a pair of turbine-powered compressors sounds like diesel technology, and it is. Adapting it to gasoline engines isn't new, but has until recently been restricted to high-performance engines.

As the project evolved, Ford's management realized this was a concept that had much broader appeal.

The engine is, in fact, debuting in various Ford and Lincoln sedans and crossovers; the F-Series will get it in due course, and by 2013, more than 90 per cent of Ford models will have a variation of it.

In Flex, it is rated at 355 horsepower, 93 more than the non-blown Flex V6, but 10 hp fewer than the SHO Taurus, due to different tuning more befitting this style of vehicle, rather than a high-performance sports sedan.

It is mated to a beefed-up six-speed automatic transmission, which gains a Manumatic mode. Slide the lever back from Drive into "M," and you can shift from the steering wheel.

New as well is a variation on Honda's Grade Logic system – heading downhill, pull that lever back into M, a brief tap on the brake pedal to engage this feature, and it will downshift by itself as needed to help keep the car from speeding up too much.

While on the transmission, I must toss in my usual Ford whine that you cannot slide the shifter from Drive to Neutral without depressing the thumb button (as you might want to in a hurry in an incipient skid). This greatly increases the chances of sliding all the way into Park, with very expensive results.

Flex with EcoBoost also gets electric power-assisted steering, which enables a couple of new features.

The coolest one is called "Active Park Assist." Touch a button, drive slowly past a parking spot, and if the ultrasonic sensors determine that the space at least 1.2 times the length of the vehicle, you need only follow the prompts on the dash – pull forward, engage reverse, remove your hands from the wheel, govern the throttle and brake – and the car will do the steering for you.

Ford brought along a Lexus LS, which was the first car to offer such a system. The Ford was two to three times faster in operation, and got the car much closer to the curb.

This may be a sort of party trick deal: you may show it to your friends once and never use it again.

But it sure is fun to watch.

The second feature is "Pull Drift Compensation," which automatically corrects for steering disturbances caused by crowns in the road or crosswinds.

New for all Flexes is a telescoping feature added to the tilt mechanism of the steering wheel. Ford says this was the result mainly of complaints from the media. Next time we should whine about the gear lever.

Flex with EcoBoost gets a sport suspension set-up, which includes a 10 mm lower ride height. You'll need pretty good eyesight to notice this, but it does give the Flex with EcoBoost a nice stance. Dampers are 20 per cent stiffer, and spring rates increase by 12 per cent.

Trailer-towing is a big deal for large vehicles, and Flex with EcoBoost offers a Class III package for $500 that allows for up to 2,040 kg. This might not handle your entire herd of race horses, but according to Ford it covers the majority of civilian towing – two snowmobiles, jet skis, a fishing boat, that sort of thing.

Included with this package is Trailer Sway Control, which senses through inputs on the tow hitch if the trailer is starting to develop a mind of its own. Working with the standard Electronic Stability Control system, it can reduce engine power and apply slight pressure to one or more brakes to bring the rig back under control.

This was Ford's party, so you can hardly blame it for holding it at a venue that really suited its own vehicle. Boulder is about an hour from the Mile High City of Denver, and one of the major advantages of a turbocharged engine is that it is less susceptible to power drop-off due to altitude.

Because the air is less dense the higher you go, naturally aspirated engines lose about 3 per cent of their power for every 304 metres of elevation. By the time we got to where the demonstrations were taking place, we were nigh on 2,400 m up, meaning the competitive vehicles were down on power some 25 per cent.

Turbo engines are affected by altitude as well, but not as severely because they don't rely on atmospheric pressure. They can blow more air into the engine – more air means more gasoline can be burned, which means more power.

But our first exercise was to show how a turbo engine can also run efficiently if you don't lean on it very hard.

We were asked to reset the fuel economy computer, and see who could get there using the least amount of fuel.

The PR guys said most people were hitting the mid-20s (miles per U.S. gallon, roughly 9.4 L/100 km), with one "out-of-range" result of 30 m.p.g. (7.8 L/100 km).

Ha – I got 33.3 m.p.g. (7.06 L/100 km).

More impressive was the performance of Flex, especially when towing trailers (which Ford had also conveniently arranged). The car just dug in and sped away.

Again conveniently, several competitive makes were on hand with similar trailer loads. The Toyota Sequoia has more peak torque than Flex with EcoBoost, at least at sea level. But because the Flex's turbos spool up quickly, they build maximum torque at a diesel-like 1500 r.p.m. By the time the Sequoia gets on the boil, you're half-way to the cottage in your Flex.

I also ran the trailer-laden Flex against a Traverse, a vehicle I really like. But in this contest – well, there was no contest; the Flex just walked all over the Chevy.

Without the trailers, the Flex is, as we've said, a very pleasant vehicle to drive, and even more so with this sport suspension.

Strong performance, decent handling, smooth quiet ride.

Flex's "H-point" (h for "hip," and I don't mean cool) is about where it was on the old Ford 500/Taurus. That's tall for a sedan but low for a utility vehicle: you open the door, pivot and your bum is pretty close to seat cushion height. In you get, easy as can be.

Loads of room in the middle row of seats too. These can be adjusted to vary the people/cargo space.

I do wish, though, that fold-down armrests were included back there – it'd be even more comfortable sitting back there.

The back seat easily clears my beats-walking-home-in-the-rain criterion, but adults won't want to ride very far back there.

With the EcoBoost model, Ford has tossed a very quick cat amongst the pigeons in the full-size crossover category. To an already excellent vehicle, EcoBoost dials up the performance level substantially, with little increase in fuel use.

flex continued on W16

Travel was provided to freelance auto writer Jim Kenzie by the automaker. jim@jimkenzie.com

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