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I came across an article that says that Ford has canceled production of the Flex vehicle at a Canadian auto plant.

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=88f4ed4b-45bd-46cb-acea-4f71b76b9bbd

Not sure if production of all Flexes is being affected.

Good, we should move away from all fuels and begin to find new ways of pushing our cars, machines, etc. Flex fuels are a temp. sollution but not the sollution. In my opinion.

Good, we should move away from all fuels and begin to find new ways of pushing our cars, machines, etc. Flex fuels are a temp. sollution but not the sollution. In my opinion.

The Ford Flex,
Not Flex fuels.

Hi Smile-n-Nod:

___If only Ford would have listened :(

Aerodynamics -- Boxy Flex’s secret weapon yields mediocre fuel economy (http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13706)

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Lets see we built 13,000 and sold 500 over the last two months. So with 12,500 sitting on the lot we have 48 month supply of Flex's. Well someone has a major Fubar on their hands.

In the article, it says they've sold 500 so far out of 13,000 produced. I hope, for Ford's sake, that is total sales in Canada and not throughout North America. If they've only sold 500 total so far, in the US and Canada, that is frightening.

I checked on fueleconomy.gov and found the Flex FWD is EPA rated at 17/24. That's bad enough, but has anyone noticed that the other little porker - the Edge FWD - is rated at 16/24?! And for anyone who needs AWD: Flex 16/22, Edge 15/22. So they both win the Golden Pork Chop award for being fuel sucking pigs. Scary to think that you could buy the larger Flex and get better FE than in the cramped Edge. Ugh!

No wonder, that thing's fugly.

Funny though, the equally fugly Scion sold like hotcakes just because it wasn't an American car.

Can we really say that styling's what's holding it back?

Honestly, I think the bigger problem is that it's not even known. I'd never seen one until Mike Craig Ford in Gilmer, TX put one by the road last week, and thanks to this thread, I now know the name of it. They don't advertise or put any publicity to it. Plus, they already have the SUV lineup pretty saturated, what's to get someone who comes in for an Edge or Expedition to buy this thing?

Hi Jcp123:

___The Scion xB and Honda Element are not selling all that well either.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

...Honestly, I think the bigger problem is that it's not even known. I'd never seen one until Mike Craig Ford in Gilmer, TX put one by the road last week, and thanks to this thread, I now know the name of it. They don't advertise or put any publicity to it. Plus, they already have the SUV lineup pretty saturated, what's to get someone who comes in for an Edge or Expedition to buy this thing?

They are advertising the Flex in the NYC area here, but not much. I think they know that no matter how many ads they run, the market for this type of vehicle is drying up fast. I have been watching people's reaction to the Flex when they see it and the general opinion is that it looks odd to them, and they all see it as a gas guzzler. Rather than asking what kind of mileage it gets, they all say, "That must eat more gas than my Explorer". They see it as larger than the vehicle they are familiar with, and assume the mileage is therefore worse. Unless Ford tells them otherwise, they wouldn't go anywhere near a Flex.

Hi Jcp123:
___The Scion xB and Honda Element are not selling all that well either.
___Good Luck
___Wayne

Both the xB and Element are heavy and are relatively low in MPG compared to their platform donors - the Yaris and the Civic. So I suspect that more people are driving out in CRVs rather than the quirkier and thirstier Element, and taking the RAV4 over the less-capable and quirkier-than-an-Element xB. A friend of mine has an Element, and he chose it over a CRV because he needed the suicide doors to fit large cargo in through the side. The CRV's conventional doors don't open all that far for large cargo. For him, styling is irrelevant and he loves the Element. And I have to hand it to Honda to bring such a vehicle to market and stick with it to offer people this option.

The Flex, on the other hand, doesn't break any new ground. It is just a 21st century station wagon that is styled to look like a ranch house, complete with striated sheet metal that suggests clapboard siding. The radical styling is just a way to create buzz and get people to notice it. We'll see over time if this strategy makes the Flex the next Taurus, or the next Edsel.

Wheverver I've been the Scion has been a hot seller, I see tons and tons and tons of them. Even here in East Texas, which is almost as backwater in terms of vehicle preferences as it gets, I will see at least 5 or so each way on my commute, only about 3 miles of which is actually in town. In California, they seemed like an instant hit, they seemed to crowd the road as soon as they were released. The Element...not so much a hot seller, I agree - I don't seem to see many of them, though they did seem modestly popular in California.

As for the Flex's advertising, it sounds then like the marketing has been targeted at major metro areas, because there's sure nothing here in Tyler (pop. 83k in 2000, curr. est'd ~100k). No TV, no radio, no billboards, nothing by the local dealers, no flyers, circulars, or newspaper.

Hi Jcp123:

___The Scion xB is selling at a little over 20% better than HCH-II if that helps. 25,926 through June which is way up from last year but relatively flat the last two months. The HCH-II saw 19,032 through the same period.

___As for the Flex, the 18 combined per the 08 EPA reveal fuels costs over the next 5-years and 75,000 miles to be in the neighborhood of $16,500 + dollars at $4.00 per. More than half the cost of the vehicle goes to fuel the damn thing over the next 5 years and that is not a value any of us want to be anywhere near.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

_As for the Flex, the 18 combined per the 08 EPA reveal fuels costs over the next 5-years and 75,000 miles to be in the neighborhood of $16,500 + dollars at $4.00 per. More than half the cost of the vehicle goes to fuel the damn thing over the next 5 years and that is not a value any of us want to be anywhere near.


:eek: that's a brand spankin new Fit/yaris with twice the economy!

Wish the damn FE on the Flex would have been alot better, here in ontario Ford pledged to add a third shift at their Oakville plant, 350 new hires, mostly to help build the new Flex, along with the Edge. They called all of those 350 new hires last tuesday to let them know that after going through the exhaustive hiring process over the last couple months, that they'd succeeded and were being hired, to start their orientation July 28. Naturally most of those people promptly put in their notice at their current jobs, since it was less than 2 weeks notice. This tuesday, a day and a half ago, Ford called every one of those people back and said nevermind, third shift is canceled indefinitely. Great news for all those people that now have no jobs.
Yeah I'm a little bitter, I was one of the 350, the only good thing was I was unhappy with my job and hadn't given notice yet because I didn't trust them not to stir up trouble, I'd planned to quit this friday. Guess I'm staying there awhile now. :rolleyes:

Definitely sounds like the Edsel.

Ford is quickly becoming irrelevant... not paying attention to consumer demand and the market.

As for the Flex's advertising, it sounds then like the marketing has been targeted at major metro areas...

They've been running a decent number of TV spots here in the SF Bay Area. Some radio involvement, too. Somehow, I don't think it's helping sell the thing. ;)

-soD

Robblaze, I'm sorry that happened to you. Seems like Ford didn't even give the vehicle a chance. Since I don't watch TV, I'd barely heard of the Flex.

As for the xB, which generation are we talking about? The only thing the 2008 xB has in common with the first gen xB is the name. They're completely different vehicles, not even in the same size class, and the new one sucks 4mpg more gas. FWIW, after a year of sales I still don't see that many of the new xB, but the original (30/33mpg) xB sure sold like hotcakes around here.

XB, Element, Flex - boxy is all ugly!

XB, Element, Flex - boxy is all ugly!

Word on that one.

Ford sought to build an even uglier car than the Element and nearly succeeded. The only thing is, I'm not going to pay for it and apparently nobody else wants to either.

I saw one on the lot advertised at 299/month...I laughed...If I wanna guzzle gas in style I'll go get a dodge challenger.