Today's new cars are way overpowered...

[TomSeller]

I don't know if the Ford 500 has much in common with the current Ford Taurus platform or not. We had a 2014 Taurus the wife LOVED. She was in a head on collision totaling the car with only 16K miles. More importantly I LOVED the car because she walked away with only a mild concussion. After checking into a clinic for observation, we right then decided to buy a 2015 Taurus due to the crash performance of the 2014. Professional rating outfits trash the car, but every day drivers love the car, as do we. I thought about buying the 2015 Impala and liked it's features, but like how the Taurus drives better. And price was no comparison, the Taurus was 9K off MSRP. Really like the standard 3.5L.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Tom I think the Taurus chassis is still mainly the quality of the first gen Volvo S80 chassis. Volvo has been known for safety forever. A guy last night said his girlfriend ran off the road doing 75 MPH and flipped her 90 series Volvo end over end and came out of it not broken up but shook up.

When Ford tweaked the S80 chassic in 2008 and when back to Taurus name they went with the 3.5L engine and the new Ford/GM 6 speed auto transmission. I think that may still be the case in 2016.

After two weeks of driving mine and many hours of reading about them I would go with another low mileage 500 or newer Taurus. There are a ton for example of 2011's SEL's (leather +) with 70K+ mile for under $10K in the US. New I think they are a lot of car for the money too. Ford moved to the Volvo chassis because they had bought Volvo and it was the fastest/cheapest way to give the Taurus line a major upgrade but they just did not sell under the 500 name. It came from the Fairlane/Galaxy 500 fame of the 60-70's I read. The new CEO took it back to Taurus in 2008 model year which may have started mid 2007?

Today Ford posted the best year since perhaps 2000 but most of the increase came from outside the US market per USA Today story. I know to local dealer when I traded for mine two weeks ago they were going crazy they were so busy selling new vehicles. The shop was working until 11 PM. It was all locked up to the public but still I could see about 4 guys. Perhaps they were doing preps.

I drove the car and told the salesman what I would pay cash and take care of tags, taxes myself. Retail it booked for $6K and my $5K offer was still $2K more than they gave the owner on trade in so the dealer came out OK. There a lot of staff in a dealership that has to be paid out of profits from new and used sales I realized the short time I was in the building. The guy that traded it in said they traded only because the wife decided she did not want to drive a 10 year old car with over 100K miles. That works for me because I do not have that limitation.

The controls are about the same at our 2000 Towncar so that made it simple to operate. It being a full size car and being to put 10 foot long stuff in trunk blew my mind.

 

[turnkey4099]

Harry the fact the 500's (2005-2007 only years sold before mods and name change to Taurus) are first generation (1998-2006) Volvo S80 chassis's with Ford 3.0L engines and the Aisin Warner AWF21 transmissions used by many cars in Europe and Asia that is owned in part by Toyota. It is very good but being a 6 speed it does shift more than a 4 speed for sure but is in part how they can get up to 30 MPG on the open road.

Being messed up with arthritis getting in and out of the wife's old towncar was the reason I was looking for another pickup to replace my dying blazer. When I read Five Hundred Ford set was 4.5 inches higher than the average I left the office and went to look at one where I was looking at a 2001 Sport Trac. The 500 fit me and gives me the best vision ever. It fits my 6'4" son as well.

Our 2006 looks clean all around and today I had the bottom side checked out and it actually looks new like being a TN car. It turned out to be the SEL version so the leather seats helps me side in and out better. I am going to keep my eye out for another one down the road. The towncar (2000 with 175K miles) is now kind of a back up car since we have four drivers. Some how the 18 year old twins are putting about 2000 miles a month on their trucks but a trip to town and back will rack up 50 miles to Mayfield or Murray or 100 miles to Paducah KY.

The Ford dealer gave $3K for it clean with 110K miles and I gave $5K and about all it needed was tires. We both would have been $1000 ahead if we would have talked before he traded. Well not really because if it had not been on the dealers lot I would most likely found it but their website promoted it well. The wife drove the car but when purchased the husband sold Fords and the dealership serviced it every 5K miles and it has a new like Ford battery for example. It does have new like rotors and pads but it was done by a private one man shop and they used the best quality from Auto Zone because the shop owner worked there once and still go parts wholesale. Looking down the oil fill hole the aluminum metal is bright and shiny with not film build up at all. The timing chain is the same way with not brown varnish look. I am going to keep using the same Ford oil for sure.

In 2008 Ford messed with the Volvo S80 chassis suspension some and redid the nose on them and later swelled the rear ends. I had a 1966 Comet, the 2000 TC and now this Ford. I am in love with my 500 in less than two weeks. I see some with over 200K miles on them so I am hoping this one will go for another 5-10 years.

Tomorrow with temps to be 61F I am going to pull off the transmission cooler exit hose and pump the fluid to a 5 gallon bucket until it runs red. I have 12 quarts of the Mobil 3309 ATF that Ford (actually Aisin Warner) requires. I will set four aside to top off with so that will let me refill the transmission twice pushing out about 3 gallons when it only holds two gallons so it should be quite red. Next week I will get a Ford oil change (actually cheaper than the Quik Lube place I have used for 20 years) and we should be ready to head to St Paul MN next Saturday morning.

What color is your 500? I think all 500's have the same 3.0L V6. Some were all wheel drive with the Constant Variable Transmission. Long term most prefer our 6 speed transmission from what I can read.

We have a red one - wife's instance. Prior car was also a Taurus but I made a huge mistake when I traded for it. I was "not red". 3 years later I gave in an traded for this one.

That CVT tranny only lasted a couple years. Never heard of any problems with it. I drove one as a loner once. Could not get used to the constant engine noise, rather a unique driving experience. I suspect it died when people took a test drive and said "no way".

 

[sld]

I don't know if the Ford 500 has much in common with the current Ford Taurus platform or not. We had a 2014 Taurus the wife LOVED. She was in a head on collision totaling the car with only 16K miles. More importantly I LOVED the car because she walked away with only a mild concussion. After checking into a clinic for observation, we right then decided to buy a 2015 Taurus due to the crash performance of the 2014. Professional rating outfits trash the car, but every day drivers love the car, as do we. I thought about buying the 2015 Impala and liked it's features, but like how the Taurus drives better. And price was no comparison, the Taurus was 9K off MSRP. Really like the standard 3.5L.

I just took delivery of a new 2015 Taurus Limited. Great car and the 288 hp 3.5L is plenty powerful. Love driving it.

 

[5030]

No car is 'overpowered' in my opinion. It all comes down to how brainless the owner is and how little control over their right foot they display.

 

[aczlan]

Harry the fact the 500's (2005-2007 only years sold before mods and name change to Taurus) are first generation (1998-2006) Volvo S80 chassis's with Ford 3.0L engines and the Aisin Warner AWF21 transmissions used by many cars in Europe and Asia that is owned in part by Toyota. It is very good but being a 6 speed it does shift more than a 4 speed for sure but is in part how they can get up to 30 MPG on the open road.

Being messed up with arthritis getting in and out of the wife's old towncar was the reason I was looking for another pickup to replace my dying blazer. When I read Five Hundred Ford set was 4.5 inches higher than the average I left the office and went to look at one where I was looking at a 2001 Sport Trac. The 500 fit me and gives me the best vision ever. It fits my 6'4" son as well.

Our 2006 looks clean all around and today I had the bottom side checked out and it actually looks new like being a TN car. It turned out to be the SEL version so the leather seats helps me side in and out better. I am going to keep my eye out for another one down the road. The towncar (2000 with 175K miles) is now kind of a back up car since we have four drivers. Some how the 18 year old twins are putting about 2000 miles a month on their trucks but a trip to town and back will rack up 50 miles to Mayfield or Murray or 100 miles to Paducah KY.

The Ford dealer gave $3K for it clean with 110K miles and I gave $5K and about all it needed was tires. We both would have been $1000 ahead if we would have talked before he traded. Well not really because if it had not been on the dealers lot I would most likely found it but their website promoted it well. The wife drove the car but when purchased the husband sold Fords and the dealership serviced it every 5K miles and it has a new like Ford battery for example. It does have new like rotors and pads but it was done by a private one man shop and they used the best quality from Auto Zone because the shop owner worked there once and still go parts wholesale. Looking down the oil fill hole the aluminum metal is bright and shiny with not film build up at all. The timing chain is the same way with not brown varnish look. I am going to keep using the same Ford oil for sure.

In 2008 Ford messed with the Volvo S80 chassis suspension some and redid the nose on them and later swelled the rear ends. I had a 1966 Comet, the 2000 TC and now this Ford. I am in love with my 500 in less than two weeks. I see some with over 200K miles on them so I am hoping this one will go for another 5-10 years.

Tomorrow with temps to be 61F I am going to pull off the transmission cooler exit hose and pump the fluid to a 5 gallon bucket until it runs red. I have 12 quarts of the Mobil 3309 ATF that Ford (actually Aisin Warner) requires. I will set four aside to top off with so that will let me refill the transmission twice pushing out about 3 gallons when it only holds two gallons so it should be quite red. Next week I will get a Ford oil change (actually cheaper than the Quik Lube place I have used for 20 years) and we should be ready to head to St Paul MN next Saturday morning.

What color is your 500? I think all 500's have the same 3.0L V6. Some were all wheel drive with the Constant Variable Transmission. Long term most prefer our 6 speed transmission from what I can read.

On the 2005-2007 wagon (Freestyle?), the CVT was used on the AWD models and the 6 speed was used on the FWD models.

Aaron Z

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Duplicate

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Aaron the same applied to all of the 500's and Montego's of the same years based on my research on the 3 model years that they were produced.

With help of the kids I got the Seafoam Trans Tune bucket flush completed and topped off with 16 oz. of Lubegard Platinum yesterday. I used Ford's specs by using Mobil 3309 ATF @ $6 each quart to the door with taxes by buying a case of 12 off Amazon. It was only $7.25 plus tax at the Ford dealer but the Amazon savings more than paid for the pint of Lubegard Platinum additive. Now if on the road and need to add for some reason we can just toss in a quart or two of Dexron VI and still be in Ford specs for our Aisin Warner AWF21 six speed per Lubegard.

After driving ours 600 miles in the last two weeks and doing a lot of reading I understand why over 3 model years Ford sold less then 250K of the Five Hundred badged units.

It is a high end European chassis (Volvo S80 1998-2006) that did not ride like a sofa on tires but handles like a sports sedan from Europe. It had the six speed transmission (new to Ford drivers) that locks up quickly at very low speeds and takes a LOT of Pedal to unlock the torque convert and triggering it to come back to Drive (4th gear or lower) from OD 1 and OD 2.

Tonight coming home I tested what happen when cruising at 55 and going to WOT (wide open throttle) as fast as possible. The tach goes from 1500 to 4500 RPM's and the car really moves. I am guessing that is 2nd gear. There is no lack of power from the 3.0L if driven like the 6-speed transmission computer requires. If I just slowly gave it more gas (lot of pedal slowly) it felt like I was towing a semi-trailer. The WOT programmed shift points are 6200 RPM. After driving the 4.6 engine in the 1993 and now 2000 Towncar 6200 RPM's sounds like the engine is going to blow up and perhaps it would if driven that way daily.

The transmission will up shift to the next gear at 1500 RPM especially down a small grade or only up shift at 6200 RPM at WOT. Non WOT take offs like to merger into traffic I find the computer shift points to be in the 4000-5000 RPM. That is very high for most American drivers of American vehicles. Take off in small town settings seem to trigger computer generated shifts of 1500 to 2500 RPM's I find but there is the that sense I am towing a semi trailer.

Six speeds and the hard to unlock torque converter is how this relative heavy full size family sedan can get up to 30 MPG. I read over the last few years the 3.5L V-6 introduced in the 2008 Taurus and beyond now can get the same mileage as 3.0L. This is common with many vehicles with the same displacement I guess. Nissan 2016 4.0L in pick ups get about 2 MPG more than say in 2012 per window stickers I saw.

While it was shifting OK with the 110K ATF it is more smooth especially when the computer down shifts from 2nd to 1st when the selector is set to 1 instead of D. It will shift up to 2nd only and only after you hit 3700 RPM in 1st gear. The computer will shift it back to 1st gear at 1800 RPM and with the old ATF it was a hard down shift but not now. Actually while I was running the Seafoam Trans Tune for 300 miles I added 8 oz of Lubegard RED after the first 100 miles and within 25 miles that hard computer down shift when the selector was set to 1 vs D went away. It appears to me basically what Lubegard RED does is replenish the Additive pack in the OEM ATF.

If a tree fell on our 2006 Ford 500 (and I was not in it) I would be in the market for another one based on my two weeks of research and driving it. I would not want the AWD version especially in this age of car but here in KY where I live (3 miles north of TN border) we see next to no snow most winters and even if not plowed it is gone in 2 days on active roads if we get any sun. On 10+ year old vehicles the fewer moving parts they have to replace the better in my book.

 

[aczlan]

It is a high end European chassis (Volvo S80 1998-2006) that did not ride like a sofa on tires but handles like a sports sedan from Europe. It had the six speed transmission (new to Ford drivers) that locks up quickly at very low speeds and takes a LOT of Pedal to unlock the torque convert and triggering it to come back to Drive (4th gear or lower) from OD 1 and OD 2.

Tonight coming home I tested what happen when cruising at 55 and going to WOT (wide open throttle) as fast as possible. The tach goes from 1500 to 4500 RPM's and the car really moves. I am guessing that is 2nd gear. There is no lack of power from the 3.0L if driven like the 6-speed transmission computer requires. If I just slowly gave it more gas (lot of pedal slowly) it felt like I was towing a semi-trailer. The WOT programmed shift points are 6200 RPM. After driving the 4.6 engine in the 1993 and now 2000 Towncar 6200 RPM's sounds like the engine is going to blow up and perhaps it would if driven that way daily.

The transmission will up shift to the next gear at 1500 RPM especially down a small grade or only up shift at 6200 RPM at WOT. Non WOT take offs like to merger into traffic I find the computer shift points to be in the 4000-5000 RPM. That is very high for most American drivers of American vehicles. Take off in small town settings seem to trigger computer generated shifts of 1500 to 2500 RPM's I find but there is the that sense I am towing a semi trailer.

Six speeds and the hard to unlock torque converter is how this relative heavy full size family sedan can get up to 30 MPG. I read over the last few years the 3.5L V-6 introduced in the 2008 Taurus and beyond now can get the same mileage as 3.0L. This is common with many vehicles with the same displacement I guess. Nissan 2016 4.0L in pick ups get about 2 MPG more than say in 2012 per window stickers I saw.

While it was shifting OK with the 110K ATF it is more smooth especially when the computer down shifts from 2nd to 1st when the selector is set to 1 instead of D. It will shift up to 2nd only and only after you hit 3700 RPM in 1st gear. The computer will shift it back to 1st gear at 1800 RPM and with the old ATF it was a hard down shift but not now. Actually while I was running the Seafoam Trans Tune for 300 miles I added 8 oz of Lubegard RED after the first 100 miles and within 25 miles that hard computer down shift when the selector was set to 1 vs D went away. It appears to me basically what Lubegard RED does is replenish the Additive pack in the OEM ATF.

Might try pulling the battery negative cable and leaving it with the key on (but battery disconnected) for 5 mins.
The transmission is likely an adaptive one and it probably learned from the prior owner. That would reset it and let it adapt to you quicker.

Aaron Z

 

[MF283]

No car is 'overpowered' in my opinion. It all comes down to how brainless the owner is and how little control over their right foot they display.

Yep, 60 MPH in a 70 MPH zone on the Interstate & brag about gas mileage:thumbdown: