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Ford Five Hundred/Mercury Montego
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Comments
Does anyone know of any other sedans (NOT minivans or SUVs) that have the high seats and easy exit/egress of the 500. I will buy it! :confuse: :confuse:
I will look at the Avalon. Appreciate the input.
Mark....
We all know that the 2008 models coming out in early 2007 will be shown at the Detroit show, and will have the new 3.5 V6 and GM-Ford 6-speed automatic, and will have enhanced front and rear exterior styling. What about the interior? Bill Ford has mentioned something about a revised interior, but why haven't any photos been taken of the new interior, if there is one?
In fact, why is Ford waiting? All of the vehicles which might compete with the Five Hundred are already on the market, or are so close to being on sale that photos and detailed specifications have been published. The only exception is the next Accord, although plenty of people would dispute that it and the Five Hundred / Montego compete. Therefore, what has Ford got to loose by ending the secrecy about the revised Five Hundred and Montego?
The sales of the current models will not decrease, but Ford stands a good chance of causing people to delay purchases of vehicles if they have all of the information on the revised Five Hundred and Montego. Why not release photos, specifications, and show the new versions in Anaheim? If they are not finished by now, Ford is in far greater trouble than any of us imagined.
It will depend on the dealerships - if they order and promote the cars with the new styling / features and the new engine and transmission, they should finally sell very well.
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=118930
I was sort of hoping against logic that they'd do more than the usual Ford front and rear fascia band aids, but it looks like the 500 will remain a wall flower for now. Let's hope they take care of business with the interior.
The new 3.5 should be a nice addition though.
I agree about the diesel option though, and in more Ford vehicles than just the 500.
I agree, the 500 with the 3.0L getting 29mpg highway is not bad, but, with a diesel getting 35 to 42mpg would be great.
This is no surprise, as Europe is experiencing this very issue, having to export gas cheaply to the US and importing huge amounts of refined Diesel fuel to keep 30% of its car fleet running.
Not to mention the cost to clean the Diesel engine exhaust to American standards (Diesel engines are allowed to pollute more than gas engines in Europe) and the poor NVH relative to gas engines, even in modern Diesel engines.
HTH
Now, if you only put enough energy to refine just Diesel out of crude, you'll have to throw away almost half of each barrel. Not very wise...
HTH
That about 19 gallons of each barrel becomes gasoline and about 10 gallons of each barrel becomes diesel and fuel oil speaks to product demand, but says nothing about what energy it takes to refine either one--or even how many gallons of gas or diesel you would get if you used all 42 gallons of crude to make either one. I mean it's not like you really think it takes 42 gallons of crude to make 0.04 gallons of aviation fuel, do you?
As I said, one can only extract so much Diesel fuel from a barrel of crude, and this amount in volume is much less than gas. Diesel fuel is made up by long HC chains and there is a limited amount in a typical barrel. This limit determines how much of each fuel type can be extracted from crude in factional distillation. The result is that the ratio of gas and Diesel cannot be set arbitrarily.
Think of a barrel of crude as a solution of several fuels and the refining process just separates its components. Therefore, there's only so much gas and so much Diesel in a barrel of crude, roughly 2 to 1.
Mark.
Coincidently, Consumer reports rated Ford's AdvancTrac in the Explorer quite highly, especially compared to some other brands who have "standard" stability control.
Mark.
I still maintain that the vast majority of those who brand the Five Hundred as "underpowered" wouldn't actually USE any more power than is available in the current engine if they had the 3.5L available. Instead, they simply want to get the same power, but at lower rpm.
I'll take the higher rpm's along with a transmission that can get me there (and back) SMOOTHLY. And that's exactly what the CVT does.
People who were on the fence and were waiting for more power, satellite radio, auxiliary audio input, stability control, Bluetooth or a nav system may buy it now, but the styling still is not that great to attract many new buyers. The new grill only looks good in the photos where you look straight-on at the car from very close up. At an angle and from further away where you can see the rest of the body of the car, it doesn't look very good. The grill doesn't work as well on this car as it does on the boxier Fusion.
I wonder about the fuel economy and pricing.
It should be a good choice for crash safety anyway.
Not exciting even compared to the other conservative sedans it competes against, but is an improvement and should sell a few more than before unless pricing is too high.
It's a very substantial update that addressed many, if not all the comments that many people had over the vehicle. Many of them, not expected.
It's not about a new drivetrain, rather, all the other little things as well. My personal favorite is the FordSync system, which no one expected. And yes, stability control available as well, and favorite other high-tech gadgets.
I love my CVT . . the Freestyle is one of the reasons I got the Five Hundred, and so I made sure that I got one with a CVT in it.
I think the 500 will stack up well on paper vs its competition, but it still looks like it will blend into traffic. I'd expect a modest bump in sales at most from the refresh, and I'm not sure this will be enough to keep this car selling for the next couple of years.
As a side note, I have to say that I'm losing faith in J Mays in particular and in Ford's design team in general. I have been a big Mays fan over the years, but I'm just not seeing consistently good designs coming from Ford. He's been there long enough so that he can't say that these products were all in the pipeline when he got there as we heard for a while. They've done some great concept vehicles, but what actually makes it to the showroom is hit and miss, and no strong theme has emerged in their design other than a 3 bar grille that works for some vehicles and doesn't for others.
One that looks interesting is the new voice recognition system that you can synch with both your cell phone and portable music players.
What do you think of this?
http://www.syncmyride.com/
Mark.
Hard to believe it can be as smooth as a CVT.
How often DO you have to change the transmission fluid? I can't imagine going more than 60k miles. I can't imagine even going THAT long, really.
Looking over the photos of the auto show, I couldn't help but thinking that maybe the critics are right? Just look at the Hyundai Veracruz, and see the interior. It's a pleasure to look at! And so are other vehicles.
It's time to wake up, Ford!
And please, let's not go off on the tangent of "who cares about the quality of materials?" If you don't that's great, but I assure you most people do. Just as an example, I have a sister in law who was dead set on the Freestyle, until she actually sat in one. She said "it just felt cheap and cheesy." Now she's looking at a Subaru Tribecca, mainly because it "looks so luxurious inside." Who would have thought a few years back that Ford would be losing sales to the Korean makes, Saturn, Subaru and others, because of the quality of their interiors?
The MKX and MKZ have great looking interiors with real wood. The Fusion interior is very nice as well.
(If i had to choose between a Top of Dash display and a storage compartment as in the Fusion, I would rather have the storage.)
Mark.
IN this regard, every vehicle being introduced each and every year will start to outdo one another, as they are redesigned. And it's very unlikely that a manufacturer will improve certain materials on the 2-3 year refresh cycle.
Suppliers build to spec that the manufacturer has, and within all that legalities the only leverage they might have is IF a vehicle is released, and people critic materials for example, the contract might NOT allow for a change till it's renewed 4-5 years after, unless a hefty penalty is paid. Those are the little things that can slow things up.
Also, VW/Audi are known for having some of the best interior materials in the industry. They actually are rated as having the highest "Perceived quality" index, but reality is, it's one of the most unreliable brands out there.
Having known 12 friends that HAD (and will never own) another VW, I can tell you how well (or lack thereof) those materials held up 4-5 years after the fact. The rubbery door interior grab handles which fade. The door surround felt trim pieces that sags. Airbag cover corners starting to lift. Cupholders that broke earlier on. Footwell panels that won't clip into place correctly and pop out with slight kick. Turn signal stalk which looses it's texture and fades. Headliner starting to drop.
And my personal favorite "The A/C doesn't smell mildewy Sir, it's just the outside air", next to the "I dont understand why you think the Jettas interior smell like burnt crayons, they smell perfectly fine to us".
But anyhow, moving on...that is a sore topic for me being I was USED each time they needed my help at the dealership ever other week.