The worst thing about the Ford Flex we were loaned last week was having to give it back to Ford; my family and I loved this car. Whether we were tooling around town or taking a road trip over the holidays, the Ford Flex was a comfortable, luxurious ride with all the power we needed.

I have had a crush on the Ford Flex since it was first introduced and am appropriately jealous of my friends who own one. So when I knew that my family would be taking a little trip to Coronado Island at the Holidays, I started requesting to borrow a Flex for the trip. And graciously, Ford said yes.

My family and I were thrilled with all the luxury amenities in the Flex, including the Ford SYNC system with entertainment, navigation and roadside assistance. Of course the first thing my kids did was change all the radio station presets and connect our phones and iPods. Good kids I have.

The Flex is connected, with multiple places to charge your devices and usb ports to connect them.

Then we configured all the seats the way we like them, loving the pinpoint accuracy, and more importantly, setting the temperature the way each of us likes it. The Flex allows both the passenger and the driver to have their own personal temperature, and the riders in the back seats can customize theirs as well. Just what we needed.

My impish son, who loves a practical joke, delighted in setting my seats and steering wheel heaters and coolers when I wasn’t paying attention. He managed to do it to me several times while I was driving, which I credit to the fact that I was focused solely on the road – and that he is very impish.

The storage area in the Flex is massive, and we were able to pack the opposite of lightly for our trip, with plenty of room to spare.

We had the pleasure of traveling with my Aunt and Uncle on this vacation, so once we reached Coronado Island, we were able to unfold the third row of seats and all ride around together, which was really a nice bonus. Plus, everyone felt comfortable, on all of the seats.

We drove south along the coast, which is truly spectacular and not to be missed if you have the chance, by the way. And the Flex was a great car to do it in, because there’s so much visibility.

Lest you think this is some sort of mini-van in disguise, made for short trips to daycare and the store only, I want you to know I gave the car a good run for its money on Highway 5 heading home from our trip. There were several times when the merging was tricky, but the Flex is really peppy and I was impressed with its performance and speed.

It looks like it might be like trying to park a limo, given the length of the Flex, but it moves so smoothly, even parallel parking was a breeze, of course helped by the rear-view camera.

I loved driving the Flex and my whole family loved riding in it.

Sarah Auerswald is the co-Founder of MomsLA.com. She was loaned a Ford Flex for the purpose of this review. This is not a sponsored post.