CHICAGO Ford didn't throw in the kitchen sink, but it did add a refrigerator.

Ford used the New York Auto Show to unveil the production version of its 2009 Flex, the full-size crossover that goes on sale in the summer of 2008.

A lot is riding on Flex so Ford can live up to its promise to fill company coffers with cash and coin rather than cobwebs by 2009.

Flex will replace minivans in Ford's lineup as well as serve as an all-wheel-drive alternative to sport-utility vehicles that come up short on mileage.

It will compete with the Saturn Outlook, Buick Enclave and GMC Acadia crossovers from General Motors.

Flex bowed on the auto-show circuit a couple years ago as Fairlane. Originally, sources said, the concept was developed under the code name Hamptons in honor of the East Coast hideout for the super rich. A tad pretentious, Ford switched to Polo to honor designer Ralph Lauren, until the legal staff noted that Volkswagen beat them to the moniker.

Whatever. The name now is Flex, the full-size companion to the midsize Edge and Freestyle, which becomes the Taurus X for 2008. Flex will hold seven in three rows, Taurus X the same and Edge five in two.

Like the Toyota FJ Cruiser, the big and boxy Flex will offer a white (or silver) colored roof. It also comes with a three-bar grille like that on the Edge and Fusion sedan. Side windows are heavily tinted so in profile it looks like a single piece of glass front to rear.

Flex is derived from the Five Hundred platform, which is renamed Taurus for 2008. It's a car-based alternative to low-mileage and rough-riding SUVs. Flex is built on a 117.9-inch wheelbase and 202.3 inches long, almost the same as a Chevrolet Tahoe SUV.

It will be powered by a 3.5-liter V-6 with a 6-speed automatic transmission, same as in Edge, Lincoln MKZ and Taurus/Mercury Sable (formerly Montego).

No mileage estimates yet.

It's loaded with amenities, such as numbered keypads on the front door pillars to unlock the doors, seven interior lighting colors in the footwells and around the cupholders, second-row captain's chairs with adjustable/removable footrests, capless fuel filler so you don't dirty your hands loosening/tightening the cap, heated and cooled seats, back-up camera, overhead DVD entertainment system, a fridge between the second-row seats to hold sandwiches and up to seven drink cans, second-row seats that flip and fold forward at the touch of a button to create an aisle to third row, and sunroof over the front seats and a skylight over the other two rows.

There will be SE, SEL and Limited versions, full-time all-wheel-drive, electronic stability control with rollover control, side-curtain air bags for all three rows, power liftgate and 18- or 19-inch radials.

It eventually will be joined by a Lincoln version that Ford isn't talking about at the moment.

Reason to smile

"Three years ago we sold 70 percent trucks and 30 percent cars. Now it's closer to 46 to 50 percent cars, and we aren't just a truck company anymore," Ford president and CEO Alan Mulally told the media at the New York Auto Show.

Mulally says the shift is evidence Ford is offering a wider variety of vehicles. Mulally also said worker morale is not a problem, illustrating that by directing the audience to the tables to his right.

"Look at all the smiles," he said.

At those tables were Mark Fields, Ford president of the Americas, and a host of still-employed Ford public relations staffers. But, yes, they all smiled.

How much?

Lexus has priced the gas/electric 600h version of its LS sedan at $104,000, or $33,000 more than the $71,000 gas-powered LS. Lexus says the V-8 and battery pack in the hybrid, which goes on sale in June, will develop more than 430 horsepower, but no word on mileage.

"Even at $3 a gallon it will take a long time to recover the cost of the hybrid premium, a very long time," noted Art Spinella, general manager of CNW Marketing Research.

GM puts brakes on RWD vehicles

General Motors has put a hold on future rear-wheel-drive vehicles.

"We've pushed the pause button. It's no longer full-speed ahead," Vice Chairman Bob Lutz revealed in an interview.

Two of the most important RWD cars in the works are the Chevy Camaro sports coupe due back late in 2008 and the full-size, RWD replacement for the Chevy Impala sedan for 2009. Both are expected to be huge sellers and contribute major profits to a GM till burdened with IOUs the last few years.

"It's too late to stop Camaro, but anything after that is questionable or on the bubble," said Lutz, noting that also means Camaro derivatives along with a big Impala sedan, "if we call it Impala."

The RWD cars, you see, would be larger and heavier than front-wheel-drive cars or are high-performance models.

So it comes down to the matter of fuel economy. Or as Lutz says: "We don't know how to get 30 percent better mileage from" RWD cars.

That 30 percent bogey arises from a proposal by the Bush administration to raise corporate average fuel economy standards by 4 percent a year so cars would have to average 34 mpg by 2017, up from 27.5 mpg today. On top of that, the Supreme Court ruled last week that the Environmental Protection Agency can regulate carbon dioxide expelled by cars, a gas that contributes to global warming. The EPA doesn't do so now.

"This is very disappointing," noted Erich Merkle, director of forecasting for IRN Inc., in Grand Rapids, Mich. Most of the cars coming are necessary to GM's turnaround as showroom magnets.

Besides, those who see cars as more than just an appliance are eager for the new RWD offerings.

(Write to Jim Mateja, Chicago Tribune, 616 Atrium Drive, Vernon Hills, IL 60061-1523, or send e-mail, including name and hometown, to jmateja@tribune.com. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.)