Everybody's Everything Mobile

I can't speak how this car rates specific to all other potential competitors, but I can share my last month's impressions as I bought this vehicle used. My previous cars were a 1987  Nissan 200SX hatchback, a 1992 Acura Integra GSR hatchback, a 1996 Nissan Altima, a 2004 Dodge Grand Caravan, and a 2007 Dodge Grand Caravan with Stow 'n Go. Both Caravan's were with the larger 3.8L engine for towing. I still have the 2007 and as you might imagine, I went from being single to married to now with 3 kids, 8, 5 and 3yrs old. That said, this review should make better sense.
It came time to get rid of the 1996 Altima -I just couldn't stand driving it any longer, although it was completely reliable. I also wanted to have a vehicle that could carry windsurfing gear inside so I was looking mainly at wagons. In my research I found the Freestyle. I recall driving one about three years ago as a rental and was reasonably impressed, though since I never really saw it advertised, it quickly left my synapses.
Freestyle has perhaps the best and almost only fold flat 9.5 foot cargo hold on the market for this sized car. It has AWD that is a Haldex, 3rd generation design. This highly advanced system is lightning fast and not dependent on viscous couplings. I've tried to get it to engage and it certainly does. I wanted AWD for the winter treks to the ski hill. It has seating for 3 kids in various stages of booster and child seats. It's virtually the safest vehicle on the road based on its crash test ratings. It has reasonable gas mileage. I can get 10.2L/100km highway and 87Octane.
Next was some amount of fun to drive and it's here where the 'Style gets some bad review vibes. However, I disagree. My AWD version has serious sized rubber, very little body roll, pinpoint steering, and a reasonably low center of gravity for a car in this bracket. If you come from a 4-banger car to this one you'd probably say the power was decent. If you come from a 6 cylinder sports sedan you probably would say it lacks power. Where I think power is needed is when passing or other times when already in motion. Here the CVT actually seems superior in that you get almost instant thrust which will increase/decrease as you need it. Sure sometimes the engine revs up there and sure it creates cabin noise but the sound is rather sporty. Afterall, the Duratec 3.0L was technology Ford purchased from Porshe (so I've read). So, it does drive pretty darn well for a very beefy "station wagon" that can sit 7. Another notch for the CVT is there is almost no speed change when driving on cruise control up/down hills. I've never seen this in a typical automatic transmission.
Now the the other bits. I purchased, used, a Limited, AWD, DVD and NAV equipped Freestyle with just more than 54K km on it. So it came with most all available options and they all work and work really well. What's most amazing is how little money one can get this car for, given all its attributes. I could find no better value vehicle for my money and I looked really, really hard.
I also believe this to be a very nice looking vehicle. It has no pizzaz but it is a well proportioned, angular looking car without being a show-off. Which may be why there's hardly any reports of it being stolen -yet another bonus.
One last word. I recently drove this car through some horrendous winter weather for 10 hours on one of North America's busiest roads (401). Almost everyone was slipping/sliding, crawling along, taking chances and ending up ditched, etc. The Freestyle drove amazingly well. It felt planted, was very controllable, and so relaxing to drive (windshield wiper controls take top marks) in such mayhem. I had to take evasive action numerous times to avoid others going out of control. This is not something that one gets to "test-drive" but if you'd like my opinion (and I've done extensive winter driving), the 'Style ranks up there with the best winter driving vehicles if you put snow tires on it.