Ford Freestyle: A feature-rich car with surprising off-roading capabilities

The Ford Freestyle grille, with a 3-D mesh that has the Ford logo fixed on it, gives the car a sporty look

All I could see for miles and miles was flat barren land. We were at India’s largest inland salt lake, the Sambhar Lake, a good two-hour drive from the Jaipur international airport in Rajasthan. I was at the wheel of the new Ford Freestyle, the car maker’s all-new compact utility vehicle. I could not resist switching off the traction control and tossing the vehicle around at high speeds on the dry lake bed.

I braked and cornered to my heart’s content. With its active rollover prevention (ARP), a first-in-class intelligent technology, I knew for sure the vehicle would not go