weird tail lights, guess they needed to do something to bring a lil life into that car. still not my taste.

Looks BLAH. looks like the 500, nothing specail

Looks like nothing really changed visually on the exterior like with the new fords

I like the Mercury Milan, and the Lincoln Zephyr styling.

This right here is bland-tastic. It looks just like the freggin 500. And thats not a good thing. The 500 is possibly the most boring sedan made right now.

Looks like a brokeass Audi A4

The sad thing is that the camo isn’t making it look bad, all they need to do is drive it to Siberia and leave it!!!!

blahblahblah better cars in this class, i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again, if you need a fullsize sedan look elsewhere (i.e. Avalon, Azera, 300)

deutschetouring1337, it’s a re-badged Volvo…

Anyway…

The Five-Hundred and the Montego were both bad ideas that I hope get dropped soon. That Interceptor keeps looking better all the time.

It’s like they’re tone deaf …in charge of an orchestra. Too bad.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MATRIX LED TAILS? ugh

For those insisting the Avalon’s so much better, it trails the Five Hundred in Edmund’s satisfaction scores…and that’s BEFORE the 3.5 motor gets involved this year.

Sorry, but the D3 cars get stupid levels of abuse…for what? Being huge, comfortable, safe, high quality, and (’til later this year) only having the power to get the car to 60 in 8 seconds?

Yeah, gee, what a bummer.

Good point Zanary, just remember this everyone. They are ment to be big family movers. Yeah, the styling isn’t quite their, but name something else that isn’t that you would want for your family, what a minivan???

Exactly. Honestly if I ever happen to be in the market for a full size family car I would probably get a 500 over an Avalon or an Azera. Yes it is big, boring, and slow but it does its job well and that is all that matters.

I am so sick of this rebadging of cars. Why can’t they just design something unique for each brand. Have each brand have it’s “own look” besides a grill and a badge.
Im so sick of hearing about Ford’s struggles when I see crap like this. As we all know, Ford has posted a record-loss yet again for this quarter. If they think crap, and I stress the word C-R-A-P, like this is going to save them, they might as well start digging their grave already.
I mean c’mon, do they really think rebadging a car 5 different times is going to help them with sales?

There’s a thing about Ford. I WANT them to do better and would NEVER hope for their downfall, but it seems that EVERY time, just when you think they’re going to improve, they do something really stupid. Kinda makes you wonder what goes on at their board meetings. Is President Bush running Ford or something? Because after so many mistakes, you kind of start seeing a slight connection between the two. LoL

Andre, this Montego clearly has a different headlights style than the 500’s updated headlights. Also, different taillights (except same triangluar look). Not just limited to grille and badging.

Rest of u bloggers who flamed about everything, there’s one thing that I personally think the clear LED taillights are much more modern than of those LAME typical red taillights!!

Lastly, i have a Ford 500 in my garage too. Its completely the opposite what you all think!! You need to shut ur piehole and at least sit in one and test drive one before u comment anything soo lame!!!

^ ^ when i said, LAME typical red taillights, i meant, all cars of any brand!!! I like red L-E-D type taillights and clear/LED taillights. No red with normal blub inside. Thats all.

Where do you see LED taillights on this? They look like clear lenses with regular bulb shadows behind them. At least the Milan has nice looking LEDs.

autonutt….. they can’t go back to normal bulb after they used the LED. Its dumb to do that. Once the car have it and it gotta at least have it for next redesign. Plus, i dont even see a blub in the pic. Maybe they are doing the same with current Montaineer’s rear lights, u can’t see the LED but it will show it when braking.

deantj, they are not Altezza taillights. Altezza is an aftermarket lights. Mostly with ROUND braking lights. Too many of them on Neons, Civics and crap.

Modern taillights should look like this new Montego and Milan, Saturn Aura, etc. Not just plain old red taillights with normal blubs, like Ion, Corolla, Camry, G6, etc. L-A-M-E!!!

The ford 500 is a incredibly bland, generic car for over-weight families. Thats the only explanation for that vehicle. Why even bother re-badging this boring thing. Seriously ford, whats bold about this?!

Secondly the Milan taillights are stylish, and modern looking. So are the Zephyr taillights.

These on the other hand, look exactly like the custom (all-white) tail light conversion kits you put on a 1994 accord sedan. HORRIBLE. They cost 40 bux on ebay. Look for yourself. Way to push the envelope ford. 1994 style.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/94-95-HONDA-ACCORD-2DR-4DR-ALL-CLEAR-TAIL-LIGHTS-LAMPS_W0QQitemZ160077394479QQihZ006QQcategoryZ33716QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

S-60,

An Altezza is Toyota’s JDM version of the Lexus IS200 which we have here in the states. Aftermarket companies quickly starting replicating the lights as “Altezza-style” tailights, but quickly became too difficult & long to say for the average “ricer”, so they refered to them as “Altezzas”. Fo Mah Civic ‘n shiet.

I liked the old lights better.

They joined the clear taillight fad WAY too late. WAAAAYY TOO LATE. As usually happens when you’re a follower not a leader.

Even the new Lexus IS (aka altezza) doesnt have them anymore. No Lexus does. No BMW does. No Benz does. No Infinity does. So why in the hell does this Mercury have them? Who at Ford thought this was a good idea?

When is ford going to stop facelifting its 2year old models?

Adrio,
Doesn’t the current Lexus RX have them?

A noticeable improvement on an underrated vehicle. Hopefully the update in style (it is still a bit bland but bland doesn’t have to be bad, just ask Toyota) and engine will let people see this vehicle in a better light.

@Adrio – Not so much overweight families, but tall ones! You know you have a nice-sized vehicle where I (6′7″) can fit behind my dad (6′5″) and not be completely uncomfortable. There’s as much, if not more, rear leg room than the Town Car.

s60.. I agree they shouldn’t go back after having LEDs, but where do you see the LED pattern in the clear lenses? I distinctly see the shadow of an amber bulb behind one section of the lamps.. look at the closeup again.

OK.. I looked at it again too, and that is probably not an amber bulb, but rather a shadow of the chrome housing. But I still don’t see the telltale honeycomb pattern of LEDs in any of those lamp sections!

Waaaaaaaaaaaay better then the original.

@Andre Neves

Yeah, actually the RX does have clear white “altezza” tail lights now. My mistake. It didnt originally have them. I guess since they havent hardly updated that bodystyle in 10 fregging YEARS, they decided it was better than nothing.

I dont think Ford should be taking fashion advice from a Cross over that looks practically the same as it did in 1998.

But, no current car in that segment has them. And that is for a reason. Because they are played out. They were a fad. And now Ford shows up late to the party looking very outdated.

Meh, who cares. The buying public would rather you STOP wasting the bandwidth on crap Fords and German trash and use more on news about the new CTS, Malibu, Camaro, Lambdas, Impala and new Buicks.

Adrio,
Actually, Now that I think about it,I believe that the previous RX was the first car to have Altezza style clear lenses…even before the IS. The IS was just the first car.

yeah S-60…theyre altezzas and theyre disgusting. The old taillights were 100 times better. Cluster/Matrix style LED taillights are the classiest looking available. Yeah the mountaineer has the safety built into its taillights when it lites up LED, but if you cant see all the little diodes like in the old tails, or say any Infiniti for example, wheres the luxury look that goes along with LEDs? The mountaineers take on LEDs doesnt add any more appeal to the vehicle… the old Montego’s did.

If styling where everything Toyota would be the #9 automaker, not the #2 rocketing towards being the #1 automaker in the word (sorry Mr. GM#1). Toyota’s designs range for boring (Highlander) to downright strange (Camry). How can Toyota sell such boring cars and trucks and yet be successful? Toyota’s customers are happy with their products and keep buying them. Ford needs to prove to the world they can build this thing right and Ford’s dealers need to prove they can service it right. Or they are doomed…

the infiniti fx have them as well…

They day US automakers learn to not build cars as ubiquitous as a cardboard box is the day that they might stop hemorrhaging money from their noses. I feel sorry for Ford shareholders after seeing Ford’s “effort” with this Montego. Evidently Ford still believes in the “offend nobody, appeal to nobody” philosophy.

Also, clear Altezza style taillights are an awful trend that I hope dies sooner rather than later. Ford is undoubtedly behind the curve with regard to this, too.

AUTONUTT– i can’t see anything inside the taillight, too. The pic was taken at bad angle. Ill wait for more pics in the future.

all of you peeps are scared to move ahead in modern time. Its 2007, not 1980 or 1990. Time for fresh, modern style!!! Who friggin’ cares about the altezza stuff!! At least it would be tightly screwed, not loosely installed by teens or auto custom shop worker.

This Montego will look bad-ass in black with chrome rims, chrome strips, those clear taillights and urban, silver-styled front end.

“Badass” in that “look, I need shiny wheels to distract you from the vacuous, mind-bending boredom of the rest of my car!” kind of way… This car was obviously designed for people who are about as exciting as a glass of metimucil. And in regard to the taillights (S-60-Driver), evidently “fresh” and “modern” also means “ugly” and “non-cohesive.” As such, I will gladly stay in the past when taillights weren’t albino… There are better ways of modernizing and freshening automotive design. While I’m not scared of moving ahead to a modern time, I am scared of lackluster design teams who follow overtly trendy themes established by pimpled high schoolers.

@Andre Neves. You may be right. I think they were the first to have them in the US. Although the Alteeza might have had them before them in Japan. Not sure.

@Syrax. No they dont. They’re modular but they’re not clear or white.

Like I sayd, white tail lights were a cheap trend in the late 90’s. Nothing bold about that. Red will always be a valid color for tail lights because thats the law for break lights. They should have went with black tail lights, that would have been bold.

Who cares about a mercury?

Yeah seriously

I hate how S60 Driver is trying to make it seem like Ford has differentiated between the 500 and the Montego by giving them slightly different grilles and taillights: wake up, it’s still badge engineering, and they are both still mediocre cars.

To whoever mentioned Edmunds up there, I don’t give 2 ****s about what Edmunds says, the reality is most of those little polling devices are corrupt anyway, full of twisted statistics, etc. If you look at car reviews, car comparisons, etc, you’ll find the Avalon and Azera to be FAR superior to these twins of trash, they both have way better looking interiors with better fit and finish and higher quality materials, they both have better exterior styling, more so for the Avalon than the Azera, and they both drive better, WAY BETTER, and that’s indisputable, those are facts agreed upon by every journalist in the automotive business that has compared these cars. So stop quoting dumb internet sites that say Ford is higher in satisfaction than Toyota, or whatever, because there’s no way for you to prove at ALL that that’s accurate, and judging by sales, and judging by reviews, and judging by the quality of materials used, the Avalon and the Azera are trouncing the 500/Montego C-R-A-P C-A-R-S

Toyota has all but dropped the Avalon. It just got totally overshadowed by shaky workmanship, recalls, stiffer than normal American competition in the segment (thanks DCX), and the Camry.

FORD will improve the FiveHundred and Montego, but it will lose out to the rest of the field in terms of appeal. Toyota is likely to keep stumbling until Detroit catches up and passing them again.

I still don’t like the car and I know FORD can do way better… lots better. They just need to stop trying to be some pseudo-European/Japanese car company, lay of on the trucks some, and listen to and follow through with customer and fan input.

^don’t mind him. Just ignore him like others do.

Len A, I said the Avalon was trouncing the 500 overall, in terms of quality, I know I mentioned sales, but I never said it “trounced” the 500 specifically in sales, though as you do admit, it still outsold it, which says something, it says I’m right about that. However you’re clearly biased, you go on and on about the great attributes of the 500 like how well you say they handle (also, that’s clearly bull****, everything I’ve ever come in contact w/ save you says they handle only decently, not that well at all), and yet the Avalon’s strong points you glance over without much notice. Not a fair comparison there at all, a lot of people actually give 2 ****s about their car’s interior, the 500’s interior is JOKE, it has such awful fit and finish that I seriously laugh out loud when it’s put next to an Avalon’s. Sticking Ford part’s pin materials on the dash, ugly black plastic, same design as multiple other Ford vehicles, looks like Ford is turning into GM! The Avalon has a dash no other Toyota has, high quality, good trim and good fit, and to many people that counts for something. Not to mention that 14 cubic feet of luggage space is usually enough for anyone, and it’s clearly not a huge detractor in Avalon sales, as you even stated yourself that the Avalon outsold the 500, so obviously it’s not hindering it TOO much. Get your facts straight or something to that extent

Len_A, im with you all the way.

I really hate those people who bash about the 500/monetgo/freestyle. They have never sat in or driven these before!!! I have a 500 in my garage and i absolutely LOVE it!! The handling is really good.

Avalon is too soft when cornering. Not good.

There’s nothing we can do to convince them to, at least, test drive one cuz it won’t cost them anything. They just won’t cuz they are STUPID and prefer to call these trio crap. They are just stubbornly plain lazy stupid!!!

I have driven the cars, not like some who like to critizie them. They are a nice handling car, and the AWD in the snow here in Northern Michigan, combined with the gas mileage is awsome. I do not have any problems with the interiors of the ones I have driven. I do not see any goofy gaps, and the materials do not make me feel like they are cheap. I have not been in the other cars mentioned, so I cannot comment, like others who have never been inside the Five Hundred/Montego. The outside is bland….no way around that one, but the new motor will be nice. If they could upgrade the styling, this car would be perfect, at this price point.

Len, you would probably be happier in a new Chevy Impala. Sorry you are going to take a bath ono tradein of your Ford, but it’ll be worth it. Trust me, get out of it at least before the warranty runs out.

Hey look, its a wannabe merc!

Is anyone that doesn’t watch nAscar care about the midsize segment, from Ford, GM, Toy, Honda or the Koreans. Really the only cool or interesting car in this segment is the Maxima. Yes I know they are a bit up stream in terms of price, but they haul ass and look cool.