In 1997 Ford went outside the company to hire J Mays as its new chief designer. Earlier Mays had been chief designer at Audi, and Ford hoped he’d work similar magic in Dearborn. Well, the magic has been a long time coming. Mays’ concepts ranged from retro to futuristic. His most notable product to date has been the retro Ford Thunderbird, which left the gate strong but soon flagged. The similarly retro 2005 Mustang promises to do better.
But the real proof will be with Ford’s mainstream products. Though it has been seven years since he was brought on, because of budget crunches and such Mays’ first clean sheet mainstream cars have only now arrived: the new Ford Five Hundred sedan and Freestyle crossover wagon. Worth the wait? To find out, I test drove a Five Hundred with all-wheel-drive. More recently, I drove a Mercury Montego with front-wheel-drive. This review covers both.
Styling
The VW influence is readily visible in the Five Hundred. It looks very much like the soon-to-be-updated VW Passat, just somehow watered down. Unlike the VW, this is not an interesting car to look at. The C-pillar is most obviously to blame. From an aesthetic perspective it’s too thin, and represents a missed opportunity to lend this very cleanly styled car some needed character.
Inside the situation is much the same: VW in its rectilinearity, but without the upscale ambiance present in a Passat. As in other recent Ford interiors, the materials are of good quality—the IP and doors are soft to the touch—but don’t look it. How did they manage this? Usually interiors manage to appear higher in quality than they actually are.
Extremely plain door panels with narrow, overly firm armrests don’t help. The center armrest is similarly styled with no thought to an upscale appearance. It’s very flat with a hard-edged perimeter. Finally, while the instrument panel proves soft when pressed the appearance and initial feel is that of hard plastic.
The interior is at its best in Limited trim with black leather and dark faux wood. But I drove an SEL with beige cloth. Bland, bland, bland. Functional to a fault.
The Montego adds a dash of style to this bland package. Outside you'll find the art deco detailing that has distinguished Mercurys from Fords in recent years, xenon headlamps, and LED tail lamps. Inside a two-tone treatment and satin-aluminum bitrs of trim help liven up the interior. Those who find the Ford overly dull will likely be more satisfied with the Mercury. Sadly, the overly utilitarian design of the door panels, console, and such remains.
Accommodations
Now for the Five Hundred’s strong suit. The Five Hundred is considerably larger than it looks—its 60-inch height visually compacts its 200-inch length. Though it doesn't look it, the Five Hundred is actually larger than the Chrysler 300. Combine this large body with efficient packaging, and you get a very roomy interior. An interior for people who have become accustomed to the elbow room in large SUVs. When I was visited one dealer a six-foot-seven-inch man took a seat in one. He fit.
In another attempt to make the car more SUV-like, the driving position is a few inches higher than in the average sedan. Combined with a generous amount of glass and those thin pillars, visibility is excellent all around.
Seat comfort is merely acceptable. The height off the floor is good in both rows, but the seats are lacking in contour and generally feel functional rather than supportive or luxurious. Ford raided Volvo for this car’s basic chassis. Couldn’t they have grabbed some Volvo seats while they were at it?
Trunk volume is outstanding—the most in any sedan today. Vertical depth is especially notable. For even more space, the rear seat and front passenger seat fold. Very versatile.
On the Road
When I learned that Ford was going to Volvo for a chassis, I cringed. I’ve never cared for how Volvos steer, handle, and brake. Well, in the Five Hundred I detected little sense of Volvo, good or bad. Nothing feels particularly European about the car. Or American for that matter. There’s very little character here.
Handling is competent, with moderate lean and understeer in turns. The steering is reasonably well weighted, with better feel than I've found in Volvos. The Freestyle wagon is more firmly sprung than the sedan though, so its handling tends to be more composed and to feel marginally sportier.
The Five Hundred's ride is generally composed and moderately quiet—no loud thump-thump over tar strips—but not luxurious. Through bumpy turns the car bobs about a bit, so damping could be better, but then I suspect this chassis wasn’t tuned for aggressive drivers.
Acceleration is not the car’s strong suit. A more powerful 3.5-liter V6 is on the way, but for now the Five Hundred makes do with a warmed over 3.0 from the Taurus. To make the most of the engine’s 203 horsepower, the Five Hundred is fitted with either a six-speed automatic or CVT. The first sedan I drove was all-wheel-drive, and thus fitted with the CVT. Even with the all-wheel-drive system’s added weight, this powertrain moved the car adequately, if hardly energetically. The front-drive car feel more energetic, but under hard acceleration its six-speed automatic was not as smooth as most and torque steer was evident. Overall, the Five Hundred roughly matches the Chrysler 300 in straight line performance. The latter car has a larger engine, but it is hobbled by a four-speed automatic.
In casual driving I could hardly tell the transmission was a CVT, which is a good thing. Ask more from the engine, though, and the CVT quickly bumps the engine into its powerband and holds it there. A slightly strange sensation. But the largest issue is that the 3.0 sounds noisy and strained in this mode. Bring on the 3.5.
In some cars all-wheel-drive aids performance by permitting more power to be applied in turns. For obvious reasons, it doesn’t really play as large a role here. It does eliminate torque steer, though.
Ford Five Hundred Price Comparisons and Pricing
For quick, up-to-date pricing, and especially user-specified price comparisons, check out the website I created:
www.truedelta.com. Why yet another vehicle pricing website? Well, I personally lacked the patience to keep using the others. They were too slow and required too much effort, especially when trying to compare prices. So I taught myself some programming and created a site where there is no need to dig through option packages, prerequisites, and the like one by one -- the
TrueDelta algorithm figures these out for you in
one swift pass.
In a nutshell, the Five Hundred is priced very reasonably for its size and content level. The MSRP of a similarly equipped Chrysler 300 is about $3,000 higher. That of a Chevrolet Impala (before big rebates) is about $1,500 higher.
Last Words
Ford has a very practical, very room, very reasonably priced sedan here. The Five Hundred is certainly much better than the Taurus and Impala. What it doesn’t have, unlike the less functional Chrysler 300, is any reason to fall in love with it. The packaging engineers deserve kudos. J Mays? Not so much. As for consumers, those who want a roomy, functional car should take a look while driving enthusiasts and luxury lovers should look elsewhere.
A Note on Ford Five Hundred Reliability
I cannot practically cover reliability within the context of this review. However, many people are interested in such information, so I've started collecting my own data. Results, once they are available, will be posted to my site, www.truedelta.com, with updates every three months.
Unlike other sources, TrueDelta will clearly identify what difference it will make if you buy a Five Hundred rather than another vehicle by providing "times in the shop" and "days in the shop" stats (among others). You will be able to specify the number of years, annual miles, and types of repairs to include in Ford Five Hundred reliability comparisons.
Before I can report results, I need reliability data on all cars--not just the Five Hundred--from people like you. To encourage participation, those who help provide the data will receive
free access to the site's reliability information. Non-participants will have to pay an access fee.
For the details, and to sign up, visit www.truedelta.com.
A link to this website and alphabetized links to
my other vehicle reviews can be found on my
profile page.
Some of my reviews of related vehicles:
Chevrolet Impala review
Chrysler 300 review
Dodge Charger review
Ford Freestyle review (wagon version)
Nissan Altima review
Toyota Avalon review
Toyota Camry review
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