Interesting. Nicely aggressive up front, and I like the turn signal placement, though I'm not sure that's visible enough from the front.

 

a 500 with slight adjustments and the mercury "M"

 

nnoice

 

Actually it is based on the Fusion (Mazda 6 chassis), the 500 is on the volvo chassis. (But it does resemble a 500.)

 

ya, mercury's 500 is called the montego:


so we've got the focus with no mercury equivalent at the bottom, then the milan and fusion, then the montego and 500 as well as the freestyle and unnamed mercury equivalent, and i'm hoping ford brings in the aussie falcon as a full size rwd on top of the 500, how bout either ford falcon or fairlane, with mercury's version getting the marauder name.

I really wanna hear some news about what's going on with the panther cars, are they gonna be around for a while or is ford gonna get a new full size rwd to compete with the 300, cause the 500 is definitely in a different league from the 300, two very different cars...

 

Don't leave out that the Ford Escape's cousin is the Mercury Mariner.

The Milan looks very sweet.

 

I don't even know why Mercury exist. It looks exactly like Ford. It would be better if they have their own models (that doesn't look like Ford).

I really like what they did to Mountanier, it doesn't look like Explorer anymore.

 

The problem with Mercury is as Ford has moved up-market, and Lincoln down-market Mercury has been squished. If I am not as comfortable in an 05 when I test one (I'm a big guy) I will probably replace my Escape with a Mariner, they did a nice job on the Mountaineer and Mariner, but the new Montego and Monterey are too close to their counterparts, IMHO... The Lincoln dealers need the sales volume from the combined Lincoln/Mercury sales however. I say they either admit their losses and combine Lincoln into a lower level luxury player once and for all (a la Buick) or give Lincoln some decent products to move it back up market (a la Caddy) which would give Mercury some more room.

 

Caddy isn't really up-market luxury anymore, though. I mean, they're aimed at a sportier market, and I think they're trying to appeal to the younger 35-50 market, as well. Not too many nowadays look inside or outside of a Cadillac and go, "wow, it's a Cadillac, look at the luxury." Now, it's more in line with Acura, IMO.

Lincoln just needs to catch up and be on par with the fit and finish of the others in its segment to truly be competitive. Better styling and interior materials can really help the company gain a lot of ground.

 

that is one sweet looking mercury

 

The Milan looks pretty cool,

since the Milan is based off the Ford Fusion (nee Futura) platform, and from what I've seen in spyshots, my opinion is the Fusion is gonna look sweet...