The all-new 2013 Ford Escape has been the big newsmaker within Ford’s crossover family recently, but now is also mid-cycle-update time for that polarizing box on other end of the size spectrum, the Flex. Making its debut alongside the Escape at the L.A. auto show is a freshened Flex that greets the world with sleek new front-end styling, more horsepower from the base V-6, and an updated interior blessed (or just less-cursed, depending on your penchant for climbing technological learning curves) with an improved version of Ford’s controversial MyFord Touch system.
On the outside, the 2013 Flex jettisons its staid three-bar grille in favor of a single space-age chrome band which is flanked by skinny new headlamps set within darkened surrounds. The front bumper also is new, echoing the grille with a slim air intake bracketed by rectangular fog lamps. And if the Flex’s T-square styling isn’t unique enough in the segment, the contrasting roof is still available as a standalone option in white or silver, while a black lid is part of the Appearance package that also brings 20-inch machined wheels and sundry interior upgrades. Interestingly, the blue oval has been banished from the front end; the only Ford badges found anywhere on the vehicle’s exterior are discreetly placed on the wheel center caps and in the corner of the tailgate.
Inside, the big news is that the 2013 Flex sees an updated version of the controversial MyFord Touch added to its options sheet. The first iteration of the system has been slow to win friends at C/D and in the market. Ford recently reworked the setup to provide quicker response times, clearer displays, larger and more readable system fonts, and “buttons” that look more like buttons, but we’ll reserve judgment for after we’ve seen and touched it ourselves.
As with the 2012 model, the base Flex is powered by a 3.5-liter V-6; thanks to variable camshaft timing, it now produces 285 hp and 255 lb-ft of torque (up from 262 and 248) and should travel an additional mile on each gallon of gas (up to 18 in the city and 25 on the highway for front-wheel-drive models). We don’t expect the uptick in output to shave much from its 0-to-60-mph time (which was a ho-hum 8.4 seconds last time we tested it), so speed demons are advised to check out the EcoBoost-endowed Flex, with its 355 hp and 350 lb-ft of torque. This engine is unchanged from 2012, and again comes standard with all-wheel drive, which is optional with the naturally aspirated six. In our testing, the EcoBoost Flex hit 60 in six seconds flat and cleared the quarter-mile in 14.6 at 96 mph.
It should be noted that, regardless of what’s under the hood, no Flex has ever struck us as terribly fun to drive, and it doesn’t look like that will change for 2013. At least no Flex will be saddled—yet—with the wimpy 2.0-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder that, as we noted when we encountered it in the 2012 Explorer, is overmatched by the mass of a three-row crossover.
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