2006 Ford Five Hundred Review Summaries

What reviewers liked most about the Ford Five Hundred:

All Five Hundreds come with a power driver's seat, fold-down rear seats, 17-inch aluminum wheels (18-inchers are optional), four-wheel anti-lock brakes, brake-based traction control, remote keyless entry, air conditioning, and a CD player.

-- Car and Driver

The six-speed automatic transmission that comes standard helps the engine deliver responsive performance and good fuel economy.

-- New Car Test Drive

This is a lot of car for the money....The back seat is immense, bordering on the obscene..Its trunk, at 21 cubic feet, is immense. To drive home this point, Ford rarely misses a chance to demonstrate that it can swallow eight sets of golf clubs.

-- New York Times

What reviewers liked least about the Ford Five Hundred:

The front seats are hard, flat and unsupportive. They are painful enough to yield saddle sores on a cross-country trek.

-- Cars.com

The Five Hundred has smooth styling, but looks too bland to turn heads.

-- MSN Autos

The 203 horsepower is just adequate; gunning the accelerator produces a lot of roar but not so much forward motion....The steering is too vague for my taste, with a reluctance to stay on center.

-- New York Times

Ford Five Hundred Comparisons:

The Five Hundred has a way to go to overtake entrenched Toyota and Honda in the midsize sedan market, but it has all the right credentials to be a strong challenger.

-- MSN Autos

The Five Hundred is larger, more modern and more upscale than the Taurus for just slightly more money.

-- New Car Test Drive

Its shape is unmistakably similar to some recent Volkswagens and Audis, particularly the Passat. ...In size and packaging, the Five Hundred is much like the Toyota Avalon, another large, high-set, roomy sedan - and one that is also rather beige and conservative.

-- New York Times

Best one-liner about the Ford Five Hundred:

If you value space over power, this new sedan is worth a serious look.

-- Car and Driver

...it looks like a VW Passat with a glandular condition.

-- Cars.com

Tall, spacious and bland, this is the sort of earnestly practical sedan my father would have loved. From front to back and top to bottom, the Five Hundred looks, feels and drives like a vehicle to take you softly over the hill.

-- New York Times