Edmunds dealer partner, Bayway Leasing, is now offering transparent lease deals via these forums. Click here to see the latest vehicles!
Ford Five Hundred/Mercury Montego
This discussion has been closed.
Popular New Cars
Popular Used Sedans
Popular Used SUVs
Popular Used Pickup Trucks
Popular Used Hatchbacks
Popular Used Minivans
Popular Used Coupes
Popular Used Wagons
Comments
http://waw.wardsauto.com/magazinearticle.asp?magazinearticleid=18- 0618&magazineid=50&siteID=26&releaseid=11509&mode- =print
http://www.autonews.com
has larger photos of the Five Hundred, Montego, Freestyle, and other cars on their coverage of the Detroit show
However, Ford and the others have been putting money and effort into improving their existing designs and coming out with completely new transmissions.
Other manufacturers have been successful with CVTs, and CVTs are far less complicated than traditional automatic transmissions.
Of course, buying a brand new model in the first year is a trade-off between having the benefits immediately and dealing with flaws which will be corrected later. An extended warranty may be a good idea.
Ford will have the new 3.5 Liter V6 for the 2006 model year, so that may be annother reason to wait.
Still, I think that once we have all seen and driven a Five Hundred, Montego, or Freestyle, it will be quite difficult to wait.
Nissan is a leader of CVT technolgy since the 1970s - with their CVT products mainly in Asia & Europe. Their largest CVT being on the Murano, a Freestyle competitor, sold here in the US with 245HP 3.5L v6 with 246lbs of torque, a record for CVT torque capacity. A check of the Murano board here at Edmunds shows there are some problems but for the most part many are content with the CVT after a period of ajustment in getting used to it.
My hope for the Five Hundred is that the CVT and all goes off without any hitch.
That being said, I would still not myself go with a CVT from any manufacturer, foreign or domestic in the first year of production, I prefer to buy what has been on the market at least a year or two or three. Just my conservative nature, I guess.
Looks feature wise the 500 will have the bases pretty well covered in the full size-large sedan market currently served by Avalon, Pontiac Grand Prix, Buick LeSabre, and Ford's own Crown Victoria.
I had a 2000 Lincoln LS8 which I just replaced a few months ago, and that vehicle had 121K without any warranty repairs. I was holding off for the new Mustang but considering production will not start till August of this year, simply I couldn't wait. Hence, I had to get another LS and I guess I must wait till next year's '06 model.
A lot of us have very pleased with our Ford products generally, and never left.
The Five Hundred / Montego are so spacious that the Fairlane should finally be full sized in the sense that rear passengers have excellent leg room and ease of entry better than many Limos.
Ford appears to be taking the tactic of developing two cars to replace Taurus, the 500 which is slightly larger in external dimensions but with significantly more room than Taurus, and the Futura which will be somewhat smaller dimensionally than Taurus but may have nearly the same interior room as Taurus does now.
This puts Futura squarely up against Camry, Accord, and the new Malibu, and 500 up against Avalon, Buick LeSabre, and Pontiac Bonneville, and maybe Chevy Impala-though I would suspect Impala may morph again in a few years as its design is getting fairly long in tooth.
It is interesting that both the Focus and Taurus wagons are considered mid-size and the current BMW 3 series and previous 5 series are listed as compacts.
Chrysler is not being shy in calling the new LX cars "full sized".
Nhtsa determines size for purposes of crash testing using curb weight criteria less driver/passenger/cargo.
Why Ford would refer to the Five Hundred as mid size might have something to do with other government requirements such as CAFE regulations, but I don't know, in any case its misleading.
From what I have gleaned the EPA classifications;
Compact - (includes mini-compact & subcompact) a coupe or sedan that has an interior volume of less than 110.0 cubic feet:
Midsize - A coupe or sedan that has an interior volume between 110.0 and 119.9 cubic feet.
Full size - a coupe or sedan that has an interior volume of more than 120.0
If the information given to me is correct then the Five Hundred totals out to 128.1 cubic feet
the Crown Victoria totals out to 131.8 cubic feet
obviously placing both in the full size category.
Because there is no federal rule regulating how rental companies classify their vehicles they can size any vehicle as they see fit. For the most part they use the criteria of the vehicles popularity and the publics willingness to pay which can vary among companies and different locations in the country.
http://media.ford.com/newsroom/feature_display_new.cfm?release=16- - - 644
Also look at this link on the Montego, last line second paragraph
http://media.ford.com/newsroom/feature_display_new.cfm?release=16- 661
A) It might be done because they do not wish for consumer's to perceive it to be as LONG as the Crown Vic.
They might have a larger RWD vehicle coming out that might complement to the Crown Vic. -(I'm betting on this one).
Automotive News reported this week that Mercury will get a version of the Freestyle crossover, but Lincoln will not.
Automotive News also reported last week that Lincoln's next flagship sedan will not be based upon the LS's D/EW 98 platform, but will either use the old Panther platform or the Five Hundred's platform. D/EW98 is too expensive and will probably not be used for anymore North American Ford products (as the Mustang uses a very simplified version of this platform).
The Lincoln Aviator and the Ford Futura will use a modified derivative of the Mazda6 platform. In the caption under the photo in the following link it addresses the Aviator and I believe that is what I read.
http://www.autonews.com/files/2004NAIAS/lincoln/aviator/anpages/a- viator1.htm
oedipus1608 - If the Five Hundred starts at 25K and rides the wave to over 30K what does that say to its usually more costly cousin, the Montego
I am hardly 500/Montego customer though, want smaller and sportier car, probably will wait for Futura clone.
http://www.autonews.com/files/2004NAIAS/ford/500/anpages/5007.htm
I say some shopping the Passat might look at the 500, but that's not Ford's real goal. It's mainly Avalon they have set their sights off. Of course, with some of the reactions that the 500 has set off, I see quite a bit of "midsize" driver's, stepping up to this "huge midsize in denial", vehicle.
Overall I'm more interested in seeing consumer's acceptance of the CVT and AWD models, that itself might shift a bit of the market on future products musts.
I have a relative who 'settled' for a minivan because he's expecting twins. He really wanted a sedan, but because "It's what's expected" he settled for it.
Then another friend who settled for a Corolla because she needed reliable transportation. That vehicle was stolen in 3 weeks after she bought it and never found (probably in central america now).
Another friend had to buy an Explorer(he wanted a Mazda6), because the wife insisted they needed something with space to haul (the ONCE in a year Xmas tree). I say he should have stuck her with the Explorer and taken her car.
My parents always had RWD V8 sport coupes and just because they had a kid, they didn't change their liking to please me and kept buying what they liked (and still do).
I also finally realized, with the Pacific Coast Thunderbird, why I don't like that car. They should have extended the hood to the bottom of the front fascia. It just looks cheap with that line across the front where the hood meets the grill section. Maybe that's why they are copying the better styles??
We don't know about the new 2005 Toyota Avalon, but I doubt that it will have the higher seating position, spacious interior, and large trunk of the 500.
The interior of the 500 looks nothing like the Kia Amanti, so I don't understand that comment.
Nor did the wood trim, extended through the center console pod like it does on the 500. Nor does it have a storage bin above that center console.
As for the 500, It's interior looks very much like the Freestar's layout, but outside of the Ford range, definately closer to something you would see on an A4/A6... This isn't surprising since it's the same designer that designed it for Audi/VW.