2005 Ford Five Hundred Preview

Bringing back sedan buyers


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Click to enlarge. 2005 Ford Five Hundred

Incredibly, the 2005 Ford Five Hundred is endowed with a trunk that will hold 21 cubic feet of cargo - more if you fold the rear seats down. That's bigger than the Crown Vic, and enough to easily manage five bulky golf bags when hitting the links with friends. Thanks to contemporary design that borrows cues from upscale European luxury brands, the conservatively elegant Ford Five Hundred should blend naturally into the surroundings at the country club parking lot.

The interior is huge, with plenty of space for five adults. All seats boast a tall H-point, which places occupants four-inches higher than in regular sedans, making it easy to enter and exit the Five Hundred. This design is sure to be appreciated by a significant portion of our nation's overweight citizens. The dash design is clean, sophisticated, and employs an improved grade of materials over the lame duck Crown Victoria and Taurus. SE models have faux carbon fiber trim; burled woodgrain plastic decorates the SEL and Limited.

The 2005 Ford Five Hundred is an exceptional design from Ford from both stylistic and functional standpoints. It lacks engine power, and it seems that the company forgot to include its AdvanceTrac stability control system on this new model, but otherwise we can find little to fault here. If crash test scores are good, and long-term reliability proves the Five Hundred durable, it's conceivable that the industry will look back on January of 2004 as the date when Ford rewrote the book on family sedans…again.

-- Photos courtesy of Ford Motor Company

About Christian Wardlaw
Christian Wardlaw joined Autobytel's Automotive Information Center (AIC) in January 2003, and current serves as Manager of Content Development for Autobytel. Previously, Christian spent eight years as Editor-in-Chief and Director of Automotive Data for Edmunds.com. A writer, editor, and automobile aficionado, Christian is a different sort of car enthusiast. His passion lies in the vehicles that people most often buy, rather than with high-performance sports cars or ultra-luxury sedans. “Given the choice to spend an hour with a Dodge Viper or a Honda Accord, I’ll choose the Accord,” he claims. Unless, of course, the driving venue is a racetrack. Christian has been a car enthusiast all of his life, uttering “car” as his first word while growing up in Detroit. A graduate of Western Michigan University, he holds a bachelor’s degree in English. His daily drivers include a 1994 Mazda Miata, a 2004 Mazdaspeed Miata, and a 2005 Nissan Murano.


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