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Ford Five Hundred/Mercury Montego

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

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#31 of 3617 by tomcat630 Apr 03, 2002 (1:43 pm)
"It has a sophisticated look to it that has been severely lacking in Ford cars for many years, finally purging the ghosts of the cartoon-ish Taurus once and for all."   From autoextremist.com today's "issue" about the Ford 500.   If this was an Asian car, there would be no moans of "it looks like a.." and "its not original".
#32 of 3617 by machiavelli Apr 03, 2002 (1:54 pm)
Good point. Everyone knows a Lexus LS430 looks almost exactly like the previous generation S-class Mercedes.
#33 of 3617 by tomcat630 Apr 03, 2002 (8:54 pm)
What else i can't stand is detractors never acknowledge any improvments, just nit pick silly junk like trim and image.   When it's radical its too "wacky" and if its conservative its a "copy".
#35 of 3617 by rea98d Apr 04, 2002 (4:52 pm)
Ford can't afford another fiasco like the '96 Catfish Taurus. Which is why they're going extremely conservative on this car. Sure, the automotive press may not rave over it, but they're not the ones Ford has to impress. Heck, the Automotive press bashes anything that doesn't handle like a Corvette, even if the vehicle was designed to take old ladies to church potlucks! If Ford can convince the "unwashed masses" who by Camry's and Accords as fast as Japan can crank them out that this is a good car, the public will care less who Ford copied stylingwise. Personally I think it's a boring car, but a boring car is exactly what Ford needs right now if they're to take sales leadership back from the Camry.
#36 of 3617 by venus537 Apr 06, 2002 (12:06 pm)
and take it back through retail sales and not be another "rental" king. even when the taurus was winning its sales titles, it was because over half of its sales was due to fleet sales. not good for prestige and resale value. but isn't this car suppose to be more upscale than a taurus and therefore be too expensive to ever win a sales title. by the way, it's taking ford way too long to come out with a redesigned taurus.
#37 of 3617 I think Ford.... by rea98d Apr 06, 2002 (12:44 pm)
...Is ready to forsake the Taraus, once the darling of their fleet. They're pinning their hopes and dreams on the new 500 (I still say they should have called it the Galaxie or the Fairlane. 500 is so bland). If the 500 turns out to be a winner, I expect Ford will discontinue tha Taurus all together, decontent the 500, and use the Mercury nameplate to sell the more upscale, expensive version of the vehicle designed to go for the upper-middle class, while the Ford version would take on 4-banger base model Camrys and Accords. After the wonderful '96 redesign, Ford pretty much screwed up any brand equity associated with the "Taurus" nameplate. It's got the "rental car" stigma, and it's time for Ford to move on. In a way, really, it's sad that what was once the number 1 car in America has come to this. But like any great athlete that's over the hill, it can't win any more Super Bowls, and for it to keep coming back year after year with nothing but past greatness to go on would be foolish. It looks like Ford has the new generation of MVP all star in the new 500. As much as I like Fords, I hope this one works. The company has really worked to get models like the Focus and T-Bird launched with as few glitches as possible, and hopefully, this car will be the one where those efforts pay dividends. This is Ford's big gamble to get back on top, and I think they've got all their ducks in a row on this one.
#38 of 3617 My two cents on the 500 by rbenton Apr 06, 2002 (3:20 pm)
My take on the 500 it is, a better looking Avalon, hopeful a competent design. My worry is with the transaxles' since both of them are jointly developed by ZF. In my opinion I just don't trust the ZF Ford combination. Given that both companies have a record of producing transaxles' that don't last long in the hands of American driving conditions and maintence habits. Blue Oval news had a Feature on how Ford is dismantling their powertrain development work force. So Ford is giving up fixing their current problems. Instead they are bringing ZF to do their work, I see this as a way to cut development costs of a vehicle in bean counter sort of way. This is supported by reports massive cost increases with no improvement in quality control. One only has to look the dismal repair record of ZF 4 HP18 and ZF 4HP 22 Transmissions. These trannies seldom last more 70-100K no matter how they are driven and maintained. Basically they are as failure prone as AXOD and A604 from Ford and Chrysler respectively yet are 2x-3x more expensive to fix. So given Ford current lack of quality control in the name of pleasing stockholders dividends (ie Ford Family and other big wigs) and ZF repution for overpriced and underengineered crap, I have no cofidence in reliabilty of the 500 until it proves itself to be as Reliable as a Nissan Primeva (Infinti G20). Enough Ranting about Found On The Road Dead Again!!!!!!!!!
#39 of 3617 Will Firestone bring back the Firestone 500 tire!! by pluto5 Apr 08, 2002 (5:00 pm)
#40 of 3617 Firestone 500 by fdthird Apr 09, 2002 (4:58 am)
Good golly I hope not!   I had two blow out sidewalls on my '73 Mercury Montego...a lot of fun!

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