Congratulations to Ford for figuring that out what surfers with their vintage ‘woodies’ already knew — station wagons really can be cool-looking cars.
Despite the constant changes in American daily life, one ritual has changed little in the last century — the neighborhood summer cookout.
And there’s no better time or place to litmus test Ford’s dramatic new Flex family car. At one summer cookout in my neighborhood recently I polled friends and neighbors for their views on the Flex. After all, everyone in holiday cookout land drives a family vehicle, be it a minivan, a big, old truck-style SUV, or a newer, car-like crossover.
The verdict was an overwhelming landslide endorsement of Flex’s blocky styling. One mom said it looked too much like a hearse, while 12-year-old Matt, a seventh grader, called it a “loser minivan.” But those were the only negative remarks I encountered.
The most flattering evaluations thought the Flex recalled vintage surf wagons, suggesting it would look natural with a couple boards on the roof. This suburban survey was critical to guessing the Flex’s future, because with this car Ford is treading into unknown territory.
That’s because the Flex is impossible to pigeonhole. It isn’t a Jeep-wannabe SUV, it isn’t a minivan, and it isn’t one of the cuddly, soft-edged new generation of crossover SUVs. It has a bold, almost haughty, visage that defies classification. And this can cause shoppers to overlook a product when they draw up their shopping list.
One cookout companion had actually tested a Flex at the dealer the day before, and I asked her what kind of vehicle she thought it was.
“The dealer said it is a crossover,” she replied, “but I don’t even know what that means.”
This would be worrisome if the styling verdict wasn’t so overwhelmingly favorable. Ford has taken this chance before. When the company introduced the 1986 Taurus, the car brought avant-garde styling to the masses and established Ford as Detroit’s style leader for a decade, until Chrysler snatched that title away.
Like the Flex, the Taurus sought to introduce mainstream family car buyers — usually the most conservative of customers — to a new design aesthetic. Groundbreaking design is the purview of urban fashionistas, not suburban moms and dads. Attempting to sell high style in high volume is a risky business.
A cabin with seven leather seats should look, feel and smell like a back room at a country club. The Flex’s just seems nice.
But Target has shown that middle-of-the-road suburbanites can embrace fashion when it’s matched with solid quality and affordable prices. The same consumers who snap up Target’s Michael Graves-signature products for their homes seem ready to consider the Flex, just as their parents embraced the Taurus a generation ago. But times — and people — change, so it’s impossible to be sure. After all, in 1986 Sarah Palin and Keith Olbermann were both sportscasters.
The complication in this calculation is the price of gas. If it had remained under $3, as was expected when the Flex was in gestation a few years ago, the vehicle would probably now rank alongside the iPhone as one of the most sought-after consumer goods of the year. It may yet achieve that status. Yahoo reported that Flex was among its top ten searches by consumers in July, and heads turned everywhere I went with my test vehicle.
But pricey gas has consumers reconsidering plans to buy three-row, seven-seat vehicles, and it’s making them think about downsizing to something smaller and less thirsty. This reluctance on the part of consumers to commit to vehicle of the Flex’s size and fuel economy is the only obstacle to it becoming a success along the lines of the original Taurus and Chrysler minivan.
The EPA says the front-drive version of the Flex will get 17 MPG around town and 24 MPG on the highway, while the tested all-wheel-drive version is rated 16/22 MPG. In a week of driving around suburbia, I got 17.5 MPG, suggesting the front-drive version would match the 18-19 MPG I normally see in minivans and front-drive crossover SUVs.
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