The Ford Flex is a 4-door SUV from Ford, built from 2008 to 2019, in the decade of stability control, dual-clutch gearboxes and the first serious hybrids. Under the bonnet: 3.5 L Duratec V6. Peter Horbury drew it.
The story
The Ford Flex is a full-size crossover SUV manufactured and marketed by Ford over a single generation for the 2009–2019 model years, having entered production in 2008. It is the successor to the Ford Taurus X.
The Flex was introduced in 2005 as a concept vehicle based on the Ford D4 chassis architecture, a variant of the Ford D3 platform shared with the 2011-2019 Explorer and the Lincoln MKT; the latter a rebadged variant of the Flex. From June 2008 until its discontinuation in 2019, the Ford Flex was manufactured by Ford Canada at Oakville Assembly (Oakville, Ontario); the Flex and the Lincoln MKT were produced alongside the Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX (today, Lincoln Nautilus). The Flex was marketed in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Middle East — with production reaching just over 300,000.
What is underneath
Power comes from 3.5 L Duratec V6; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. It weighs 4468 lb.. It shifts through a 6-speed 6F50 automatic / 6-speed 6F55 automatic. The wheelbase is 117.9 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Its place in the line
Its family tree is legible: it took over from the Ford Taurus X/Ford Freestyle / Ford Freestar; assembly was at Oakville, Ontario (Oakville Assembly), Canada. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Tesla Roadster, the Nissan 370Z, the Volkswagen Tiguan — show what else the money bought that year. Nearby in the Ford catalogue sit the Ford 021C and the Ford Escort.
What it costs now
The money question first: $15,200–$44,200 is the typical asking range today, and running it — fuel and maintenance at its age — costs about $4,514–$7,331 a year. Insurance sits around $1,240–$2,290 a year. The figures are class-level estimates from the federal record, with the formula on the methodology page; the model-year pages carry complaints, recalls and repair costs year by year.