Discounted Freestar suggests the future for Canadian consumers
Thanks to a growing list of fine minivans on offer and a contest between car companies to provide a feature that buyers seem to desire but mostly won't use, Canadian minivan buyers have recently been presented with one the best bargains of recent years.
This is good news for anyone who's going to be buying a new car in the next couple of years, not just minivan consumers.
This time around the special sale was on the Oakville-built Freestar, which Ford of Canada has been offering for a cash price of $19,998, or for $177 a month for four years on a lease with $4,895 down, or for $281 for four years with no money down. Next time around it will be some other model, as the car companies grasp for new ways to move metal in a market that has too much supply for the demand.
The upcoming deals may not be as good as the one Ford has been offering on a base Freestar, or they could be better. These are extraordinary prices for a vehicle of this quality, ability and packaging, since the lowest official MSRP for a Freestar model is $27,195. Clearly, Ford is starting to feel the pressure of the vehicle's slow sales and burgeoning dealer inventories and has come up with this package to move the metal.
For the money, the consumer gets a high-quality, seven-seat minivan with a 4.2-litre V-6, a four-speed automatic transmission, air conditioning, 16-inch wheels, remote keyless entry, a tilt steering wheel, four-wheel anti-lock disc brakes, and power locks, windows and mirrors.
Anyone in the market for a new minivan who's concerned about cost can essentially stop looking, and so should many people considering a used minivan.
Freestar is an excellent product. The V-6 delivers 200 hp at 4,250 rpm for a steady, economical highway ride and 260 lb.-ft. of torque at 3,500 rpm for better-than-average acceleration. Its ride is comfortable and quiet, and it can be tossed around at much greater speeds than the average person will drive it.
Thanks to Ford's decision to triple the amount it spends to design and create interiors, Freestar also has one of the most accommodating cabins on the market, with all kinds of places to store things and comfortable seats.
Unfortunately for Ford, Freestar's debut was quickly swamped by the advent of some serious competition (Toyota Sienna and the Chrysler minivans) and now the imminent arrival of the latest Honda Odyssey.
They'd be tough competition at the best of times, but as fate would have it these vehicles also have the Houdini Factor, as in ''Watch these seats disappear.''
What Freestar's two rows of rear seats do not do is fold and flip into the floor, leaving a clear, flat storage space from the tailgate to the back of the two front buckets, as the seats in the three competitors' minivans do. Only Ford's third row flips and folds; the second row flips forward but stays in view.