2009 Ford Taurus X - Aeromods
 

We are having a baby in the fall and that prompted me to find a more family friendly vehicle. I heard good things about the Ford Flex and it's "man-van" appearance. My wife did not warm up to the idea of a true minivan, and as a landscape contractor the odd tall plant/product sample/ladder/etc. was getting a little troublesome with the Civic. Ford Flexes are still quite pricey, but I found out the that predecessor Taurus X (and the Freestyle before it) are essentially the same vehicle underneath - so the search began.

Long story short, wife liked the car, I liked it too, the price was acceptable for having only 81,000 miles on it - so now we own Minotaur. ("Taste the beast!" ... anyone? anyone? "Role Models"? ah... never mind. :rolleyes:)

It's front wheel drive which is unusual since most of them were sold with AWD. Similar setup as in the Volvo XC90 - so it's a decent system. But we were happy with FWD for the FE reasons.

So I finally got around to trying out a mild lawn edging air dam. I followed the recommendations from another forum member (can't think of him now, sorry) but it worked like a charm. The threaded aluminum bar in the edging stiffened it up nicely, and I attached it with self-tapping screws right to the plastic bumper and existing (excuse-of-an-) air dam.

Below are the results of my afternoon tinkering.

http://i.imgur.com/PdsMAhi.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/RIDuiY0.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/6HiQTbM.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Y4aIJ6S.jpg
Note the temporary electrical tape grille block and foam insers in the upper grille. (Uppermost and lowermost. Leaving the middle two open for now.)
http://i.imgur.com/SEPh2h9.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ltWbNMH.jpg

Any comments, suggestions, predictions?

Not bad. The Freestyle/Taurus X always seemed like a very nice family hauler. How did it do fe wise stock?

As an aside, I can't wait for SUVs to finally get the "soccer mom" stigma that women hate so much about station wagons and minivans.

Keeping in mind that I want hyper miling it to any extreme, with gentle throttle and thinking ahead around town it was getting about 20 mpg and 24-25 on the highway.

It's relatively heavy (4000 lbs) and the engine is quite large (3.5L), but the 6 speed auto and the relatively rounded nose have me hope. Cruising RPM at 60mph is low at 1750 RPM of thereabouts.

The wheel wells are obviously oversized/bulbous, and the hatch may get a kamm back, so I am shooting for 30 mpg highway as a realistic goal.