Car Gazing
What might have been
Mercury Montego is good, not great
By Derek Price
Ford Motor Company started cranking out some wonderfully exciting products recently.
The new Mustang was a smash hit, as was the Ford GT, and even the mid-size Fusion sedan is filling showrooms across America with puddles of drool.
Unfortunately, the Mercury Montego doesn't fall into the same lofty category.
It's not that the Montego is a bad car. It's actually very pleasant to drive, quiet, comfortable, roomy – everything a good family sedan should be. But with so many outstanding sedans available today, it lacks luster when you compare it with competitors and even other products in the Ford family tree.
Take, for example, the Chrysler 300. The Chrysler has a bold, all-American style that you can't mistake when you see it on the road. It has an interior that's nearly up to Mercedes standards for quality, a suspension that's both smooth and precise, and Hemi power available under the hood. It's got the whole package.
The Montego, in comparison, looks like every other amorphous blob sedan you see driving around town. If you weren't into cars, you could easily confuse it for a Nissan or Toyota or Hyundai, and the driving experience is just as tepid. It's competent, sure enough, but Mercury seems to have sapped every last bit of fun from this car. The connection between driver and road feels rubbery, slightly sloppy and vague.
The engine doesn't help matters, either. Mercury only offers a 3.0-liter V6 called the Duratec 30, which gets good gas mileage but provides merely adequate acceleration for the hefty car. It never feels unsafe, but it lacks the reassuring oomph that big sedans ought to have. A strong V8 would go a long way toward solving the Montego's lame driving feel.
But enough about the downsides. If you want a good, solid, middle-of-the-road car at a great price, the Montego could be perfect for you.
Mercury's original idea was brilliant: to combine the best attributes of a crossover SUV – interior space, cargo room, all-wheel drive, and a tall driving position – with the styling of a classic American sedan. From a practical standpoint, that makes the Montego one of the best sedans around.
Back-seat passengers will fall in love with this car. It has big, wide doors that swing open to reveal more rear legroom than a Rolls-Royce Phantom. No joke.
If you like going on long road trips or have a reason to haul eight golf bags (like, say, you're a caddy for octuplets), you'll love this car's huge trunk. It's probably the biggest trunk on the road.
Finally, if you like the all-wheel drive and high seating position of an SUV, this is your car. It's like a Ford Escape without the militarized styling, with seats four inches higher than in an average mid-size sedan.
These SUV pretensions extend to safety, including standard anti-lock brakes, standard (on AWD models) stability control, optional side canopy and side airbags, and energy-absorbing construction designed to crumple in crashes. Ford used Volvo's expertise in developing many of these safety systems, helping to earn it five-star ratings for both front and side impact in Insurance Institute for Highway Safety crash tests.
Best of all, with a base price around $24,500, the Montego offers a lot of car for the money. It's a steal when you consider its big size and standard equipment.
Overall, though, it's clear that the Montego isn't as good as it could have been. A V8 engine and better styling would have made it a knockout on par with the Mustang and exotic GT, but it's simply a good car like it is.
(Derek Price is a newspaper editor and freelance writer living in Texas.
Contact him at dprice@cargazingonline.com)
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