cars guide

Even among people movers, the

is particularly versatile. It’s part station wagon, part crossover, and as spacious inside as a semi-trailer. Despite finishing fourth in a

, the Flex is a unique, well-made, and beautifully packaged vehicle, albeit rather slow and unremarkable to drive with the base 262-hp, 3.5-liter V-6. But for 2010, the new twin-turbocharged, direct-injection, 355-horse EcoBoost six-cylinder is an option, and it’s being marketed as offering “V-8 performance with V-6 fuel economy.” How does adding a serious shot of horsepower affect the Flex’s appeal? And is there any truth to Ford’s EcoBoost hype?

Getting the Kids to School in a Hurry Well, we can say that for a 4800-pound family vehicle in which you can get a second-row refrigerator—how’s that for a niche?—the twin-turbo Flex is seriously quick. With the 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6 sending 355 hp and 350 lb-ft of torque through the standard six-speed automatic and all-wheel-drive system, our SEL tester hustled to 60 mph in six seconds flat, covered the quarter-mile in 14.6 at 96 mph, and reached a governed top speed of 123 mph. That’s nearly two seconds quicker to 60 mph and through the quarter than

with all-wheel drive and the base V-6. Turbo lag is virtually nil, shifts are smooth albeit a little slow, and the exhaust note sounds about the same as that of the naturally aspirated version, so you get a big bump in speed without the boy-racer behavior you might expect from forced induction. The EcoBoost engine still swills regular unleaded, too.

Turbo models also sport a retuned suspension with stiffer springs, revised dampers, and a slightly lower ride height (by 0.4 inch), although all that didn’t really add up to a notable improvement in skidpad grip, which was 0.81 g versus 0.80 g without the revisions. But the changes, combined with optional 20-inch wheels wearing 255-series Goodyear Eagle RS-As, do help the big Flex feel more sure-footed and planted than before. The transmission’s manual mode and steering-wheel-mounted paddle shifters make the drive somewhat more involving when the road gets curvy. However, the Flex still doesn’t feel as dynamic in the twisties as did our, which remains one of our favorite large, three-row crossovers.

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We reported a few weeks ago on Ford’s surprise hiring of a slightly chauvinistic, but essentially charming orange spokespuppet called Doug which was causing a stir.

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