My friend stops by this AM with his new Mercury Montego Premier. Man-On-Man was I blown away! Black, but I mean the most beautiful flawless brilliant black paint I have ever seen! Black leather, power moonroof and all the options, including intelligent all wheel drive and drop dead factory rims on it. Window sticker of $32,000, looking like a $50,000 car. From the side, it's a photocopy of the Audi A6, from the back, it's Mercedes E-class knockoff, the front is traditional Mercury. Theree is sooooomuch room inside, it's like a Town Car. As you can tell, Sandy was blowen away. We took it ou for a ride..super quiet and heavy feeling, no wind noise, dual pane glass, luxury touches all over, high quality leather and premium vinyl door panels and touches of satin nickel here & there. I assume there are lesser models that are probably nowhere near as nice as the Premier. Home Run for under $32,000 !! With that THX stereo system and power seats (both sides) and heated.

They seem ok, but I won't be jumping up and down shouting off rooftops praising it. ;) I checked out the Ford 500 (an upscale version)and you are correct about the room inside. The trunk is the same size as my '91 Grand Marquis @ 21 cubic feet, and I could practically put a Civic in there! I imagine Mercury's version will have more than it's Ford counterpart.

They are still a very conservative car imo, but cannot really compare to a Town Car for total luxury. They are aimed at Honda Accords.

http://www.autosite.com/Previews/2005-mercury-montego.asp

"Montego needs more muscle, Mercury."

We were and still are looking at the Mercury Mariner, as a small luxury SUV to replace our truck... its a sweet package and looks great.

Mercury Mariner, Ford Escape and Mazda Tribute are all 100% identical. Same standard features, same options, same interiors, same paint colors. The top of the line, with every single option between the Mariner & the Escape, there is a $10.00 (TEN) dollar price differance in LIST price. However, the Mazda Tribute - again, still 100% identical, is $2,500.00 less! Why? Have have no clue, but I'd sure love to know. My good friend was shopping these 3 and was literally blowen away by that fact, claiming over & over that there had to be SOME difference! I took him by the arm to the 3 dealers and proved to him that they were in fact, identical. He bought the Tribute, and still cannot believe it. He tells everyone, and now they will not believe HIM, just as he didn't believe me. Frustrating. People pay a lawyer for his advice & take it. A car buff who knows his stuff gives advice and nodoby want to believe him. Bottom line? We need to charge for our advice !! :lildevil:

While I agree the Mariner is nothing but another Ford Photocopy project, I do like the exterior ALOT better than the Mazda and the Ford. The Ford is too utilitarian looking, and the Mazda looks quirky, the Mariner has a classy and refined upscale look to it.

The Montego is a beautiful car. It has Xenon lights, LED Tail lights, a wonderful Audio system, great ride and handling. This is one of the few times the Ford and Mercury versions are sufficiently individual to warrant going for the Merc. The only downside to the Mercury, is that it does not offer the CVT transmission out of the Audi like the Five Hundred does. Anyhow, when you consider everything good about the Montego, it should come as no surprise that its entirely built on the Volvo S80 Platform.

I thought S60. S80 looks much longer.

Before I ordered my 2003 Town Car LTD ED. I had actually ordered a Volvo S80 Elite. Fantastic car !! But the dealer (actually Volvo) couldn't deliver, and after 9 weeks I got tired and bought my 2nd choice, the T.C.

And a fine choice it was :)

And a fine choice it was :)

Are you referring to this

http://mark8.org/users/johnaec/greenKIN.jpg

- OR - to this:--

http://us.autos1.yimg.com/img.autos.yahoo.com/aic/volvo_s80_25t_2004_385x192.jpg

are you serious double pained glass?WOW

THATS THICK

their website says it comes with perelli tires.

Double pained & insulated !!
Not positive, but I think it wore 18" trires & rims, too.

Also HID headlights & LED taillamps
Reverse Warning System & Pwr. Glass Moonroof
4 Head Air Bags & rear seat upper body air bags
Lincoln waterfall grille
Exterior keyless entry buttons
Power Closing Trunk Lid

MSRLP was $32,000

Are you referring to this

http://mark8.org/users/johnaec/greenKIN.jpg

- OR - to this:--

http://us.autos1.yimg.com/img.autos.yahoo.com/aic/volvo_s80_25t_2004_385x192.jpg

The Lincoln primarily, but the other is nice too! I thought it was cool the TC finally got a Navigation system option too, Im sure it will eventually get the THX system as well. However I wasnt aware that the Montego had the THX system?

the town car has the THX.

Ahh yes, thank you for the clarification. I should have known that since it got the attached Nav, it would have the THX as well. Duhr.

Mercury Mariner, Ford Escape and Mazda Tribute are all 100% identical. Same standard features, same options, same interiors, same paint colors. The top of the line, with every single option between the Mariner & the Escape, there is a $10.00 (TEN) dollar price differance in LIST price. However, the Mazda Tribute - again, still 100% identical, is $2,500.00 less! Why? Have have no clue, but I'd sure love to know.

Maybe Mazda gets 2500.00 for selling these cars to Ford and Mercury?

mazda didnt design the tribute , ford desinged the escape by modfying a ford contour platform , its the last contor derived vehicle at fo mo co ....

same deal as the early 90s explorer and mazda navaho

but the montego , man thats a nice car , i was behind the permier model a couple days ago in traffic ..one sweet car , really liked it after sitting in one at the car show .....Too bad lincolin wants the mazda 6 as a platform instead of the montego for there next entry level car....

The problem with Ford and mercury is they can make their cars real cheap because of the massive production numbers. I mean, you can get an f-250 fully loaded for 15 grand less than a Chevy silverado thats not loaded as much. And thats not even working the salesmen, but the main problem is the value and demand for these dissappears, and as well as I know ford, they aren't worth touching after 5 years. Chevrolet makes a much better product. I'm not even going to touch Dodge. Those are rustbuckets. Even dodges hold their value better than Ford.

Your right on everything except the F250 part.....go to any Ford Truck forum and NO ONE I mean absolutly NO ONE can get a F250 in V10 or Powerstrock V8 for more than 5 grand off MSRP....now thats current model year.....and the Superduty trucks hold their value better then any heavy duty truck line.

The trucks seem to do ok, but their cars and SUV's, including the Navigator seem to depreciate real fast. Its not really the cars fault entirely though. They are mass produced, and then as they start to sit on the lot too long because they pushed way to many out, they just flip the rebate switch and throw 12 grand in rebates at the things by the end of the year, resulting in a seriously deflated resale soon therafter. GM Does it too, but not as much as Ford does. And Ford does NOT do it on their PAG group lines, like Land Rover and Volvo, at least not with any frequency.