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Ford Five Hundred/Mercury Montego

3623 messages,  Last post on Feb 13, 2011 at 9:08 AM

You are in the Ford Five Hundred/Mercury Montego Forum.

What is this discussion about? Ford Five Hundred, Mercury Montego, Sedan

Messages Page 195 of 364

#1932 of 3623 Ford Five Hundred Opinions by briham

Dec 03, 2004 (8:26 am)

Replying to: porknbeans (Sep 03, 2003 8:27 pm)
It seems the consensus of opions is as follows:
 
Positives: High ride, large interior, safety(a la Volvo), CVT and available AWD(with proven volvo components)
 
Negatives: Bland styling, moderately powered engine as the only choice.
 
Personally I like the car. As a family car I think it would be a very solid choice. They may have considered offering a sport option first with a big engine and then have cheaper models available with the lesser engine, similar to how the 300 is packaged. If you can't afford the Hemi you have two additional choices. The styling is nice, it just looks bad when compared to the 300. What a tough act to follow.
 
Here is a review from autoMedia: http://www.automedia.com/autoReviews/2005/ford/500/rts20041101fh.- asp?affid=

#1933 of 3623 Re: ANT 14 - Does the 500 have Lumbar? Narrow footwells [jagsowner] by nedc2

Dec 03, 2004 (8:34 am)

Replying to: jagsowner (Dec 02, 2004 11:31 pm)
Driver's side manual lumbar adjustment is standard on all trim levels for the Freestyle, Five Hundred & Montego. Passenger side lumbar adjustment is only standard on the Limiteds and Montego Premier, it's available in some option packages on the SEL trim level.

#1934 of 3623 by ANT14

Dec 03, 2004 (10:08 am)

Jag,
 
If you currently have an S-type, the footwell will be almost similar in width, if not an inch or 2 wider, but instead of being deep as in the S-type, it's a tad less deep. I have an LS myself and I perceive it's footwell to be narrow because of the wide center console, but in reality it's deep and sufficient even with size 13 shoes.

#1935 of 3623 19 MPG ? by kcflyer

Dec 03, 2004 (11:02 am)

Edmunds review states an average of 19 MPG for the five hundred in their test. Is Ford kidding? Underpowered and lousy milage. Are they trying to lure people away from the H2? How can Ford ignore the fact that Toyota and Honda make their minivans get nearly 30 MPG. Both of the vans are larger and offer more room. These are just a couple of examples of similar or larger vehicles that get much better milage than this all new sedan. I had expected great improvement over the previous generation Ford sedans with the CVT but the older cars get better milage than the five hundred. When is Ford going to get it?

#1936 of 3623 by ANT14

Dec 03, 2004 (11:17 am)

So why are the "test numbers" of Edmunds being used as the bible (worse case senario), then the numbers of Toyota/Honda (best case senario) being compared?
 
From the friends that I have who own Odyssey's and Sienna, I can tell you they aren't even getting 23MPG even on Premium, downwind, no load, on Overdrive.
 
I can tell you from testing vehicles, you'll never post good milage on the first week, let alone with a CVT because your still not accustomed to how it "shifts". I was posting 17MPG the first week under heavy throttle, It wasn't till the 3rd week I was able to post 23-25MPG, once I learned not to slam the gas fully to get power, and just let the CVT do it's job.
 
Everyone has their own driving habits, and it'll vary greatly depending how they drive the vehicle. I've been known to average 19MPG on a friends Civic...And even driving my friends Sienna for a day of shopping, we were posting 16MPG, and I personally have yet to fall within the usual EPA estimates of any car. So is it me, or the car?... Hence, auto-journalist hardly ever post decent MPG because of the variations and techiniques they use on driving.
 
How many people have posted 60MPH on the Prius ? Case in point....

#1937 of 3623 well.... by kcflyer

Dec 03, 2004 (12:07 pm)

The only close fried I know with an oddy has a 99 which averages 26 combined. The camrys I've been around routinly get 26-30 combined. The five hundred with a cvt should do at least that good to be a serious competitor.

#1938 of 3623 by ANT14

Dec 03, 2004 (12:26 pm)

Let me borrow your friends Camry for a few hours, and you'll see how it'll drop to under 20MPG as I routinely get in them. And I'll even be "nice" and throw in the Over-drive for kicks to give it an advantage (at the cost over overheating it's transmission which seems to be an issue lately).

#1939 of 3623 Ant14 by kcflyer

Dec 03, 2004 (12:57 pm)

If you can drop a Civic to 19 mpg than I think its safe to say you are not the average driver and I'll stick to comparisons with folks who want to keep there cars for more than a year. If the folks at edmunds who came up with 19 mpg for the 500 drive like you do than I hope they will stop posting reviews. I doubt they do. While they no doubt drive harder to see what it is capable of I suspect there #'s are closer to mainstream than yours. I base that on my own experience with vehicles. BTW, I was a loyal "Ford guy" until I suffered through a 1990 Explorer (17mpg on a good day) and a 2000 Windstar (17 combined mpg over 54,000 miles. In fact I once took a road trip with a buddy and his family, we drove the windstar, they drove their 99 Siena. Same load, same speeds - all highway. He got 27 mpg, we got 22. We'll see in a few months if there is solid evidence that the 500 does better but I'm willing to bet it won't come close to the imports, or even similar GM products.

#1940 of 3623 Ford Territory = Ford Freestyle? by fsv

Dec 03, 2004 (1:09 pm)

Ford Territory = Ford Freestyle? Then how come they get 4L engine and we the miserly 3L?

#1941 of 3623 Re: 19 MPG ? [kcflyer] by briham

Dec 03, 2004 (1:16 pm)

Replying to: kcflyer (Dec 03, 2004 11:02 am)
I saw 19-20 city and 27-28 highway. That's not too bad. See the specs on the bottom of the 500 review link below:
 
http://www.automedia.com/autoReviews/2005/ford/500/rts20041101fh.- asp?affid=

Messages Page 195 of 364

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