The Second Coming!
The press preview day of the Chicago auto show is only a few hours old and yet, we've already heard every possible joke about Ford renaming its Five Hundred, Freestyle and Montego to Taurus, Taurus X and Sable. We've even told a few ourselves.
So we're overjoyed to bring you an exclusive to Inside Line's Straightline blog: The Mercury Montego, er, Sable can drive on water! Oh sure, Ford marketing guy, Cisco Codina, pretended as if he didn't notice, but there it was on the show stand...
We'd think, if we were Ford, we might have mentioned that. But the new name is cool, too. â Daniel Pund, Senior Editor, Detroit
bmwrulz says:
11:38 AM, 02/ 7/07
Good, Mercury Sable is much nicer to say.
estreka says:
11:45 AM, 02/ 7/07
Next year they'll call it the SBL, along with the TRS and TRS-X.
alpha01 says:
11:59 AM, 02/ 7/07
I'm really baffled by this nomenclature thing. Ford is really looking to revive nameplates that in the last several years were synomous with generic rental vehicles? Why not call just call them the Ford Hertz and Mercury Avis?
Someone needs to do a top-down overhaul of the Ford Marketing Org Chart.
~alpha
lemontj13 says:
12:01 PM, 02/ 7/07
The taillights on the Sable are hideous.
hondacura4 says:
02:50 PM, 02/ 7/07
Ford STILL has no direction!
autoboy16 says:
06:17 PM, 02/ 7/07
IMO, this is still the better looker of the two or three. There should be some turnsignals in those mirrors too! Just nit picking.
-Cj
andy1102 says:
06:28 PM, 02/ 7/07
It's the new (now competitve) powertrain and minor design revisions that will help sales - not so much the name change.
Also, glad the F and M nameplate thing is over. Maybe Lincoln will bail on the alpha-numeric names as well and stop trying to be like every other luxury brand. Sometimes originality can be a good thing.
ateixeira says:
01:36 PM, 02/ 8/07
I agree. The real news here is the 3.5l engine. Drive one and you'll forget about those rental cars.
jgibs890 says:
02:13 PM, 02/ 8/07
lemontj13, I agree about the taillights , they really are ugly but other than that I generally like the design. I'm glad to hear the Sable and Taurus names are back, they were great cars and shouldn't have been discontinued in the first place. My mom has a Sable wagon and her mom has a Taurus sedan and they both love them, hopefully this change will help Ford but we'll wait and see.
david123 says:
02:52 PM, 02/ 8/07
I dont see why Ford ever brought out the FiveHundred/Montego names, i think that those cars should have immediately replaced the old taurus/sable. Instead, ford introduced two brand new cars while selling the aging taurus next to it. bad move, and they are making up for it now
jgibs890 says:
08:33 PM, 02/ 8/07
david123 I completely agree with you. That was not a very smart move on Ford's part.