titan

Damn right. It's a shame they're bringing this car out with that pitiful engine. Both of the tranny options are awesome (6sp and CVT), but will be waisted when mated to this engine.

Python2121

HAHAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHHAAHA

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

<deep breath>

HAHAHAHAHA

wow that looks like it was designed by 3 different design teams. each element doesn't look bad alone, but all put together it looks like 3 different cars. they couldn't even get the finish the same on the gear select lever similar to the radio

Time For Sleeep

203 hp for that size of a vehicle is pathetic. They expect to compete with the 300? .... :ghey:


-And I didn't realize how ugly the center console looked until pointed out

Crazy Bimmer

Well if people want a larger sedan then this isnt that bad.

The two rivals are priced within spitting distance of each other  the 300 starts at $23,920, the Five Hundred at $22,795, including destination. Both models seat five adults in comfort, and both are available with all-wheel drive

For that price it will be great for many large families. IMO

Silver™

It is not supposed to compete with the 300c, but it matches up just fine with the base 300.

Infamous425

hyundai interior > that

titan

Nawww, the interior is Audi level or anything... but i's not bad. Certainly not lower than Hyundai's (even though their improving at lighting speed). It's not bad at all for this class.

AcuraFan

Well, considering the 300's base engine is only good for 190hp, the 203hp in the Five Hundred isn't bad...just as long as they offer some real power as an option.

Red Rider

This from the same Company that gave us the SHO sedan with 220 HP in the late 80s, what a joke that they can't provide a sport sedan since.

kumar6

that looks like a rebagded Taurus... ford must have had some old taurus drive trains to get rid of...

and that interior looks like totall ASSSSS... i hate Ford...

They charge too much and give too little...

Chrysler is making big moves, and they making big money here in Michigan as well....

Sorry Ford.... you is slippin...

Kumar

Red-CL

It's a Ford.

What else can be said.

98CLChick

I read about this in the newspaper today...

I don't understand why Ford wouldn't offer a v8? If anything hurts sales of this car, I think engine options will definitely be one of them.

I don't like it; too blah. But I wasn't expecting that much, either.

Time For Sleeep

-Didn't realize that. Thanks for putting me in my place. :P

SJ Silver Type-S

Hertz, Avis, Enterprise,...

heyitsme

Have no idea what they are doing either. This whole car seems like a waste of effort, time, and money. Should have focused on a kick ass taurus replacement based off the 6 platform instead of trying to lure crown vic buyers to a new car.

heyitsme

Infamous425

nice camry rear end.

titan

They played it just as safely as Toyota and Honda does... I think it'll do well. It'll be a good competitor to the Avalon. The only problem is its underpowered.

deandorsey

there is no need for that many buttons just for cruise control lol

Infamous425

the next avalon will have 270hp

chungkopi

i really don't understand why they don't produce mondeo in america. i've rented mondeo here in london, and it looks and drives better than any other ford's sedans..

kansaiwalker1

Pictures of the top of the line model always look good but just wait until the stripped down and decontented models with plastic hubcaps and no interior trim start coming out and flooding the rental car agencies. Looks like the 500 is a sure winner for "Rental Car of the Year 2005" award.

1SICKLEX

Don't underestimate people that want large American Sedans. This thing is a size bigger than the Camry and Accord. The name if fucking silly though. 500? 500 what, bucks for re-sale in 2 years? The interior is a really good step, styling is safe (the oval styling was different but scared away tons of buyers with the Taurus) to maybe try for the #1 selling spot again.

1SICKLEX

DETROIT (Dow Jones)--Even though they haven't even hit the market yet, the Ford Five Hundred sedan and Freestyle crossover vehicle will be getting facelifts soon thanks to widespread criticism that the cars are boring.
J Mays, vice president of design at Ford Motor Co. (F), said Monday the company has been working on refreshing the new cars for six or seven months.

"Some have said they were a little too conservative," Mays said. The newer versions will get a few styling changes, including a more aggressive shiny 3-bar grill.

Ford had dubbed 2004 "The Year of the Car" - promising that new products like the Five Hundred would help lift market share. But, unlike the popular Chrysler 300 sedan, the Five Hundred hasn't set the world on fire. Focus groups and magazine critics say that its dull exterior make it a ho-hum offering. And its 203-horsepower 3-liter V6 engine - the only engine offered on the car - is puny compared to Nissan Altima's 3.5-liter V6, which pumps out 250 horsepower.


Boring styling has never been a death knell in the sedan market. Take, for example, the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord, which have sold 272,800 and 242,000 sedans respectively year to date. But Ford doesn't have the same quality reputation as Toyota Motor Corp. (TMC) and Honda Motor Co. (HMC), said Art Spinella, president of CNW Marketing Research, so buyers are likely to go elsewhere.

"If you have a reputation like Toyota and Honda do for building cars that are bulletproof, you can sell boring cars," Spinella said.

Spinella's firm has conducted focus groups with traditional Ford buyers, and they have come away lukewarm on the car. People said the car was "hardly distinguishable from anything else," Spinella said. Comparatively, other focus groups were excited about the Chrysler 300, which has been a hit since its launch earlier this year.

Still, some dealers say customers are are expressing a lot of interest in the car. Jerry Reynolds, owner of Presige Ford in the Dallas area, said he's received as many calls asking about the upcoming Five Hundred as he has for the newly remodeled Ford Mustang, both due out in October.

The new sedan will give Reynolds something to sell against the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord. Ford's current sedan, the Taurus, has become largely a fleet vehicle and doesn't generate much consumer interest.

"I don't have anything that competes," Reynolds said. "This car competes."

Mike Wall, an industry analyst with CSM Worldwide, said the fact that Ford is working on redesigning the car already "is an indication that all is not right in the world." The sedan is too conservative, he said, and lacks a powerful enough engine to compete with the Asian automakers.

Base price for the Five Hundred is $22,795, which is lower than most of its competition. But Spinella said focus group buyers thought that was about the right price - which could be bad news for the sedan. Focus group members thought the Chrysler 300 and Toyota Avalon sedans should be priced a few thousand higher than they actually are.

"The Five Hundred is right about where people think it should be - and without having anything else to distingiush it from the competition, that's not good enough," Spinella siad. "If you're not going to do it with styling, you should do it with price."



Link HERE

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Someone posted this picture in another forum about this topic.... and I agree wholeheartedly so I will share with you as well

charliemike

I saw a Five Hundred on the road the other day and the car is big but attractive in a Toyota Avalon kind of way.

However, for most people that's going to be too plain-jane for them. Redoing the grille on the car is not what this car needs. It needs to be more aggressive looking. Fender flares, bigger wheels with an agressive design, and definitely a different engine so that the exhaust note matches the more aggressive appearance..

Moog-Type-S

Is it just me or does this look similar to a front end view of a Ford Ranger Pick-up?? BTW just say not to too much black interior plastic!!!

Shotgun3131

Is it trying to be an Audi A6????
The guages look like audi ones, but they are probably far inferior.

The profile view looks like a passat.

AcuraFan

That's the first thing I thought when I saw the profile...they're trying to copy the Passat...not gonna work.

Bobbydoedoe

whoa the front looks like a windstar

Scrib

The Ford plant in Hegewish, IL produces the 500. I pass it everyday on the train on my way into work (Chicago).

Every friggin day, the lots they have around the plant just overflow with 500s. They're almost like a weed; vancat lot in the morning, full in the evening. I wonder how many they crank out in a day, because the amount of cars they have sitting there waiting to ship is simply mind-boggling.

If I remember, I'll bring my digi cam next week and try to snap a few pics from the train. It's quite a sight.

Ruski

What's the name of that town? Hogwash?

Infamous425

they want to compete against camry and accord with a 200hp engine and a interior worse than the early 90's model cam-cords ? thats funny.

titan

Well, they'd better do something. They can't afford to fuck this up. More importantly, though, is the midsize (used to be called Futura) that will go head to head with Camry/Accord.

kumar6

just another shi**y ford car... why are we surprised that ford has once again introed an ugly car with very little options...

these are the guys who made the tempo, the escort, and many other so-so cars...

they have a few "winners" in the group, but overall ford doesnt have shyt on any of the other car makers...

i have seen those 500s tooling around my area for months, and they arent impressive...

they look just like a slightly updated taurus... probably had some leftover so they retooled them a bit...

lame as usual...

Maximized

I feel as this is partially the right step for Ford. The interior is huge improvement over the Taurus. I actually feel that it looks nice. The only downside to the car is the engine. If Ford would have put a refined engine that made 260+ hp in this car, it would be a well rounded car.

kansaiwalker1

From this week's 10/20 Autoextremist.

Detroit Think. There was an interesting front-page story about Ford in today's Detroit Free Press, written by Jamie Butters. In it, Butters delineated Ford's profit predicament until they can get their new models to the street, but the following snippet from the article was extremely revealing, "Critics have ripped the Five Hundred for its conservative styling and underwhelming power. But loyal Ford customers have been excited by the sedan's spacious interior and elegant appearance, relative to the Taurus or Crown Victoria, said Art Schrade, sales manager at Don Maxey Ford in Detroit. 'It's a large car, with a large trunk, large backseat -- definitely more upscale than what we've had in the past,' he said." And that one little bit, dear readers, encapsulates Detroit's perennial problem, and the dreaded "Detroit Think" in a nutshell. GM, Ford and Chrysler have been catering to their "loyal" customers for the last 25 years, and every year those "loyal" customers diminish in numbers, either defecting to new or more contemporary brands - or just simply dying off. Unless and until Detroit can get the attention of the non-loyal consumers out there, the ones who normally wouldn't give a Detroit brand the time of day, then the Detroit Three will continue to lose market share and continue to mine their profits from their financing arms. The Ford 500 may indeed be better than the Taurus or a Crown Vic, but in the larger scheme of things, it simply doesn't matter. The more relevant question is how will the 500 fare out in the "real world" (aka not Detroit), where its painfully conservative exterior and anemic power are extreme liabilities? These Detroit companies need to stop talking to themselves and patting one another on the back for delivering vehicles targeted to their "loyal" customers, because in fewer than 20 years, there won't be any of them left.


Ford, J Mays. And yes, we are one of the card-carrying "critics" of the Ford 500, the ones that everyone in this town loves to hate - seeing as criticism of Detroit's car companies and their products is considered something akin to high treason. Well, excuse us, but we're not finished. J Mays went on the record saying that the Ford 500 was purposely designed for the vast middle of this country, that people "out there" don't need good design or design "reach" to be happy. That somehow, plain old "satisfactory" design will suit them just fine. We think that's a ridiculous premise to set out to design a mainstream car with these days, especially in this, the most competitive market in automotive history. Ford had a golden opportunity to design a milestone car with the 500, one that would set the tone for the "new" Ford going into this new century, and they simply blew it by erring toward the rolling equivalent of vanilla pudding. We don't give a damn how many golf bags you can get in the trunk of the 500 - that's certainly not enough to hang your hat on in this market. And we don't care what "loyal" Ford buyers think, either. The fact of the matter is that the Ford 500 is white bread in a digitally enhanced world. And it's nothing less than a major disappointment, in a time when Ford can least afford one. com

gavriil

Ford pushes ahead on redesign of Five Hundred - - Reuters / March 18, 2005 - - Source: Automotive News

gavriil

Which planet does this guy live on?

Dude, you're supposed to be having a refresh every two years and a totally redesigned offering in 4 to 5 years if you're gonna talk about it!

BEETROOT

unbelievable.

I really try to like American cars....but its getting harder and harder every year.

Moog-Type-S

They can refresh the 500, but in the end it is underpowered, overpriced, boring sedan that cannot compete with the imports from Japan.

Ford is out of touch.