The 2009 Ford Flex has commendable sight lines as well as a vast interior, and it gets pretty good gas mileage too.

In absolute terms, the Ford Flex is squarely brilliant. Here is a six- or seven-passenger spawn hauler with none of the minivan stigma that so evidently traumatizes suburbanites. Actually, with its blacked-out roof pillars and “floating” white or silver roof, the Flex looks like the star of Roger Corman’s Attack of the 50-Foot Mini Traveller. How could this not be a Nobel-winning idea?

In terms of packaging — the art of putting the most usable space over the smallest footprint, carbon and otherwise — the Flex mops the garage floor with your typical full-size SUV, such as Ford’s own Lincoln Navigator. The Flex offers about 83 cubic feet of cargo space — it’s a pity children aren’t cube-shaped — compared with about 103 for the Navi-slayer. Meanwhile, the Flex weighs about 1,500 pounds less and rates 30 percent better fuel economy (17/24 miles per gallon, city and highway). For anyone with a big family who wants to downsize from their gawdamighty SUV — all those in favor, raise your empty wallets — the Flex compromise is pretty attractive.

Based on the Ford Taurus X platform — a large crossover, in other words — the Flex is, essentially, a super-sized wagon, powered by a 3.5-liter, 262-hp V-6 channeled through a six-speed automatic, with optional all-wheel drive. OK, it’s not nuclear-powered or anything, but it’s adequate for a breeder limousine.

In up-level trim, it has glassy roof panels over each seat position. It has an honest-to-Haagen-Dazs refrigerator between the vast second-row bucket seats. It has a voice-recognition multimedia system (that’s the Ford-Microsoft Sync system with Sirius Travel Link service). Good Lord, the Flex does everything but diaper the dog and write your kid’s term papers.

And yet, right about now, nobody cares. Such is the wholesale misery of $4-per-gallon gas. In the last year, unfortunately, the entire automotive world has been knocked off its axis, making almost every new car seem dumb, clueless and irrelevant. But they aren’t, or at least they weren’t. When it debuted as a concept car in 2005 (then called the Fairlane), the Flex seemed conspicuously clever. Oh, but now.

Maybe it’s because I, too, work in a beleaguered industry, but my heart goes out to Ford on this one. The Flex brims with insightful details. The sight lines are tremendous. The interior is so spacious, so utterly airy that about the only people who won’t like it are agoraphobics. And it actually does deliver pretty good mileage, considering that it’s a virtual auditorium on wheels. Here’s my prognosis for the Flex. It’s too good a vehicle to be ignored entirely. It will scavenge minivan sales away from league leaders like the Honda Odyssey and the Toyota Sienna. I predict the Flex will be a hit in service fleets, converted into limousines, taxis and hotel courtesy vehicles. The thing has more legroom than an old Checker cab.

And I predict the Flex, as good as it is, as on-point as it is, won’t help Ford. Things are tough all over.

2009 Ford Flex

Base price: $28,995

Price, as tested: $45,000 (est.)

Powertrain: 3.5-liter DOHC V-6 with variable-valve timing; six-speed automatic transmission; front-wheel drive (optional all-wheel drive)

Horsepower: 262 at 6,250 rpm

Torque: 248 pound-feet at 4,500 rpm

Curb weight: 4,498 pounds (FWD), 4,661 (AWD)

0-60 mph: 9 seconds

Wheelbase: 117.9 inches

Overall length: 201.8 inches

Towing capacity: 4,500 pounds

EPA fuel economy: 17 mpg city, 24 mpg highway (regular)

Final thoughts: Ford’s UnHappy Meal