Ford 500 Pics and Review

[giagastormer]

Here is a link to a great 500 review Family Car 500 Review

The interior looks great, alot better than the pics at Ford's website.

[Swahili]

Another vehicle that's growing on me. This road test seems to be a positive one for the 500, but it's success will depend on how the general buying see the car, and how well it sells.
I for one really like the interior. It's a lot better quality that most, if not all Ford cars but I guess that statement could be up for argument. I think all Ford has to do on the next MY is add a stronger motor and they'll find better success.

[ChevyLaxMan]

The fake wood doesnt look bad but it doesnt match the hard plastic surrounding it imho. Does the 500 replace the vic?

[The Oatman]

The exterior is appropriate for the type of car that it is. I still don't like this new front found on the new focus and now the 500. The interior, while being fairly boring (to be expected for this type of car) looks comfortable and well put together. I really do not like how the fake wood contrasts with the fake aluminum, the interior color, and the black plastic radio. I would love to see the different interiors available with this car. The front on the Fusion looks much nicer (slightly different audience) but it reminds me too much of Cadillac front ends.

[usa1]

The 500 looks pretty good. It needs the Duratec 35 now, but we will have to wait. The media will harp about the lack of power and ignore the fact that 80+% of Accord and Camry buyers get 4 cylinder models. Whatever.

The interior looks good, but the best looking fake wood is still fake wood. I would like to see the high end models have a good looking interior without fake wood.

Mark

[stewacide]

I've always believed the Fusion was going to be a class-leader since they have such a great car to start with in the 6, but I wasn't very confident in the 500/Freestyle untill these reviews started coming out. All that I've read have been glowing, and these aren't exciting vehicles so that's saying a lot. The Freestyle especially is impressive, with what is apparently true minivan-like space and flexability in a much nicer looking shell (Ford intends to sell more Freestyles than 500s).

The only piece that's missing for me is the looks. Everyone who sees them in person says they look very nice and expensive (a factor of build quality? paint?). I guess protos can't do that sort of thing justice...

[jro4566]

I've always liked Family Car's reviews - they always talk about the unnoticed details that the average consumer will find when personally viewing a car. Giaga I totally agree with you - these pictures are a lot better than the studio ones on Ford's website.

BTW, does anyone else think the front seats look exactly like Volvo seats from 2 generations ago (1997 era)? I mean they already used the platform!

[powervette]

6-speed automatic transmission (only on car with front-wheel drive)

WHAT?!? :huh:

[stewacide]

Originally posted by powervette@Sep 4 2004, 05:40 PM
6-speed automatic transmission (only on car with front-wheel drive)

WHAT?!? :huh:

Yeah, i'd be really interested to have someone explain why the 500 needs both a 6-speed and a CVT, and the logic behind which tranny goes in what package? Perhapse the 6-speed is there in anticipation of thr Duratec 3.5 with more power/torque than the CVT can handle?

Anyways more reviews, all very positive:

http://www.pbs.org/mpt/motorweek/carofthemonth.shtml
http://info.detnews.com/autosconsumer/auto...ex.cfm?id=16021
http://www.car-data.com/xpage.preview/pre....del=fivehundred
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04247/372681.stm

"The Five Hundred lives up to the hype. Ford is going to sell a ton of these things."

[stewacide]

I'm pretty sure the base FWD Five Hundred also gets the CVT, which is why it doesn't make sense to me. CVTs are *supposed* to be *a lot* cheaper than 6-speed automatics I guess.

Also I can't see the point of stretching this car out into a new Crown Vic' if the interior is already BIGGER than the Vics' in all important dimensions. Does anyone want/need a car bigger than this?

Also as for power it would have been nice if they'd applied some of the Mazda/Lincoln/Jag' tricks to the Duratec 30 in the top-trim cars untill the 35 is out, or perhapse they have already and the low hp number is because it's tuned for torque (what's the torque rating?)

[Swahili]

[quote]Does the 500 replace the vic?[quote]

It's not supposed to replace the Vic, but I think I read an article with a link from GMI that Ford might use a stretched 500 platform with AWD to take the Vic's place. Seems odd that Chrysler gets back in the game with a RWD V8 sedan, GM is going to have one in a few years, and Ford is going to kill the Panther cars. We'll wait and see.

[chicubs]

I dont really have a problem with the interior of the 500...its the terribly boring exterior...I thought GM and Ford would have learned from Chrysler that aggressive and macho does still sell as a sedan (300c)....Gm is also getting there, but Ford still tries to copy the euros.

[MCGARRETT]

If GM hade done such a bland, outsourced, half-a$$ed car, people on this site would be roasting GM over hot coals.

The interior is simply superb. Place this $25,000 car against the Cadillac CTS in interior design and it would be hard to justify how a Cadillac interior can look so cheap!

Put the crackpipe down and step away from the vehicle.

The $28,000 CTS with the 2.8 DOHC V6 has more class and style in its turn signal lever than this entire car has in its whole interior

I mean really are you joking?

How many phony trees were killed to make the interior of the Five Hundred, do you know that fake tree slaughter leeds to fake depletion of the phony rain-forrest?

Hey Ford, you forgot to put wood on the brake and gas pedals and the instrument faces, just like a 1974 AMC Matador, oh yeah, and good use of F150 gauges!

The steering wheel is so plain and cheap looking that I would reject it for a Maylasian Focus.

On a positive note, the seats are nice looking.

One Engine?

I dont mind one engine being available if it's a good engine, but this is just a larger version of the 2.5 Duratec that was introduced in the Ford Contour, way back in the day. Please no references to the 3800 V6, I dont mind a car using a good engine that is old, the 3800 is a vastly superior engine to the 3.0 litre Duratec, that is why the so called "ancient" 3800 has made Wards Auto Worlds "Best Engines in the World" list several times for several years, while the Duratec V6 has never made the list. 203hp and 207 lb-ft of toruque? That is it? That is all that Fords supposed flagship sedan is going to have? About what a Malibu has in it's 3500 V6. Why even have 2 automatic transmission choices if you are only going to have one engine?

So what if the car has a 6 speed or 8 speed or 16 speed transmission. The 6 speed auto is not even a Ford transmission, it's an Asin unit from Japan and the CVT is from ZF. The car rides on a Volvo platform that was designed before Ford even owned Volvo and it uses an AWD system from another European manufacturer. Did Ford even make the "FORD" badge for the front of the car, or did it outsource that too? I dont have a problem with a manufacturer using some out sourced parts in their cars but the parts and platform that this car uses are almost all from other manufacturers, with the exception of the "excellent" Duratec V6 and some other parts. Please no references to GM using parts and platforms from Opel/Vauxhall/Holden for US cars, those companies have been part of the GM empire since before WWII, not since 1998 like Volvo and Ford. Yes GM does outsource entire cars like the $9995 Chevrolet Aveo to it's subsidiaries like Daewoo, but that is on a low end econo-box, the next generation Impala is not going to use the Daewoo Leganza or Subaru Legacy platform.


The styling of the car is clean and unoffensive, again is GM had done something like this, which it has, it would recieve flak, this car is FWD, but no one here is complaining about that, though most people here believe everything from the Cobalt to the XLR should be RWD and have a V8 and a 6 speed manual.

The car sort of looks like a Toyota Avalon meets Chevrolet Impala meets Ford Taurus. The rear of the car is pretty classy, it sort of looks like Mercedes-Benz S430 meets Ford Focus. I looks like it also will do pretty well in hillclimb events!

Congratulations Ford, you now have a car that competes with the 2000 Chevrolet Impala!

Oh and the Impala will be re-designed next year! Good Luck!


Chevrolet Impala

200 inches long
73.3 inches wide
111 inch long wheelbase
3389lb curb weight
104 cubic ft of interior volume
18.6 cubic ft of trunk space
Base Price $21,735

21/32 mpg (with 3400 V6)
20/30 mpg (with 3800 V6)
18/28 mpg (with Supercharged 3800 V6)

________________________________________

Ford Five Hundred

200.7 inches long
74.5 inches wide
112.9 inch long wheelbase
3664 lb curb weight
107cubic ft of interior volume
21.2 cubic ft of trunk space
Base Price $22,145


Nevermind the fact that the Impala offers a choice of 3 ENGINES to the Five Hundreds one.

Chevrolet:

3400 V6
180hp/205 lb ft of torque

3800 V6
200hp/225 lb ft of torque

Supercharged 3800 V6
240hp/280 lb ft of torque

________________________________________

Ford

3.0 litre V6
203hp/207lb ft of torque



Does anyone notice how Car & Driver excludes GM cars from comparison tests when they are afraid that the car will finish in the top 3? also they always include a last generation GM in a comparison test, i.e a mid-size sedan test including the 2004 Grand Am, but not the G6, now they wont do a comparison test again unit the G6 is in it's last model year again. Notice how C&D has not done a comparo with the Cadillac CTS since it got the new 3.6 DOHC V6? Notice that they have not done a mid-size sedan comparo with the new Malibu? They probably wont do a small car comparison with the Cobalt until it's at least 2 model years old, but they probably do one with the Cavalier or Sunfire before they are out of production. No small truck comparion since the Canyon and Colorado came out, Probably no small sports car comparison test with the Solstice either. Last month was the first time that I had ever seen the 2000 Bonneville in a comparison test, when it was 5 model years old, wow, and it lost to the all-new 300C, your kidding! They never did a comparison test, say about, 3 years ago, with the Bonneville SSEi vs a Chrysler Concorde vs a Mercury Sable.

Anyone else notice this or is it just me?

Who wants to bet that Car & Driver, which already gave good review of the Five Hundred during this months preview of the 2005 models, will do a comparison test with the new 2005 Five Hundred with the 3.0 Duratec and a 2005 Impala with 3400 V6, not the 3800, and then rave about how much better the Five Hundred is, but when the new 2006 Impala comes out, they wont do any comparison test.

[fjehlik]

Amen McGarrett, preach on. Laserwizard has announced his sense of style, and predictably so, it's company is that of kindergarten doodling. The Fivehundred roofline is a skyscraper forcing an awkard A-pillar making it look like Herman Munster’s forehead. Perhaps The Detroit Pistons (can i get a Hell Yeah for Detroit?) will find the air-up-there comforting, the mere 6'4" or less mortal finding it useless. Jay Mays has blatantly ripped off his Audi days (interior and exterior) for a design that was fresh 8 years ago (an ion in today’s car design). i suppose he did the same with the new Mustang, only this time he looked @ 1967 (37 years late- and i will say the '67 is a superb looking Mustang that was original for it's time). Nice work Jay, earning that paycheck, try something new and original next time. Perhaps then and only then will the ego be superceded by talent (and thanks for insulting the original Cobra this last year with that rounded lunchbox on wheels). Naturally, the fit and finish of the interior are good- this is simply the price of entry in today’s market (i.e. Aveo/Cobalt or dare i say Scion- bottom dollar grocery getters). Laserwizard may say as he wishes concerning Cadillac or the 300, but sales will be the bottom dollar (we can't make enough CTS's, and neither can Chrysler the 300). The Fivehundred will NOT have the same problem. Oh, and the engine is a joke.

[4runner]

Originally posted by MCGARRETT@Sep 4 2004, 07:49 PM


So what if the car has a 6 speed or 8 speed or 16 speed transmission. The 6 speed auto is not even a Ford transmission, it's an Asin unit from Japan and the CVT is from ZF.

Get off your high horse! Aisin AW (the makers of the 6 speed) also supply GM with the 5 speed auto used in the Equiniox and will supply the manual transmission to be used in the Solstice!