Here's Why The Ford Five Hundred Didn't Last Long
Introduced in 2005, the Ford Five Hundred was the company's first full-size sedan offering since 1979. Designed to succeed the Ford Taurus, the "Five Hundred" name paid homage to the Fairlane 500 and Galaxie 500 models from the '50s and '70s and positioned itself right between the Ford Fusion and Crown Victoria.
Recyling a design inspired by the Taurus, Ford's best-selling car for several years, the Ford Five Hundred offered a spacious interior and safety features developed by Volvo. Available in three different models and for an asking price of around $23,000, the Five Hundred seemed like a worthy upgrade of its similarly priced predecessor.
Featuring a 3.0-liter Duratec V6 engine capable of outputting 206 horsepower and 207 lb-ft of torque, while the sedan wasn't exceptional, it was by no means a bad purchase decision, especially as a family car. Yet, despite its adequate performance and an affordable price tag, the Ford Five Hundred was short-lived, receiving mixed reception and declining sales — soon turning out to be one of Ford's biggest failures.
Perhaps Ford played it a little too safe
The Ford Five Hundred's biggest flaw wasn't its specifications or pricing — it was the uninspiring and boring exterior. People complained about the decade-old design that the Five Hundred tried to flaunt in the mid-2000s when most automobile manufacturers experimented with bold, futuristic, and innovative features to attract the more dynamic market.
Notwithstanding its generous legroom and spacious cabin size, the Ford Five Hundred failed to amuse the crowd during a period when SUVs were beginning to dominate the industry. The barely sufficient horsepower wasn't anything to brag about either, with most early reviews of the car expressing how the Five Hundred was just above drivable.
In response to the criticism following Ford Five Hundred's unappealing chassis, J Mays, the designer at Ford Motor Company, claimed that he didn't believe this aspect would hurt the sales of the sedan — stating how the car's target audience was among the most conservative buyers in the market. The statement couldn't have been more wrong, considering how the Five Hundred was discontinued in 2007.
The unremarkable legacy of the Ford Five Hundred
Even the advertising and promotion revolving around the sedan was lackluster, reflecting Ford's half-hearted approach toward the Five Hundred. The marketing campaigns lacked excitement, which is understandable, seeing how bland the Ford Five Hundred was in the first place. This tepid proposition, coupled with the designer's unfortunate statements, led to a lull in the market and caused a notable dent in Ford's otherwise plentiful sales figures.
Unsurprisingly, the transient tenure of the Ford Five Hundred that followed pushed the automotive giant into the rigorous rebranding of the car as the new 2008 Ford Taurus — relaunched with a slightly less boring design and evidently more effort in trying to market the vehicle to the masses. Given how the series was one of Ford's best-selling vehicles, this strategic move turned out to be lucrative since the Taurus nameplate proved to strike more of a chord with consumers.