Buying a used Ford 500 possibly for wife. Anybody here have one ? If so has it been a decent car for you? I know the 3.0 is a little underpowered but it can be tweaked a little with some sct magic... thanks for the feedback.

 

My mom has had one for two years now. I think it's got about 40K miles on it. Except for a recall (can't remember for what.....I think she was there at the dealership about 3 hours) she has had no problems or repairs. She traded in a '96 Taurus that got an honest 32 mpg on the highway for this car that gets about 28, but she's got more room, even though the Taurus COULD seat 6 and the 500 seats 5. (I wanted to buy the Taurus from her, but the dealer gave her too much trade-in for her to sell it to me) The CVT has worked out okay so far and it's got a lot larger trunk.


If she had to, she'd buy the 500 all over again.

 

I’ve got an 06 Freestyle (the station wagon version of the 500). I’ve put just a bit over 100,000 miles on it and have only had one major problem with the CVT. There is a TSB for the problems that I had, but my dealer didn’t have anyone trained to work on the CVT. It’s all fixed now but was a real pain when it happened. I drive about 170 miles a day but have quit driving the Freestyle everyday due to the 20-22 MPG I was getting. My car is AWD and that cuts down on the mileage a bit. I was going to buy a new Taurus myself to replace my old 00 Focus but ended up getting an 08 Focus for my commuter car. When you put 42,000 miles on your car every year 35-37 MPG really adds up. I would recommend the 500/Freestyle/Taurus/Taurus X to any one who wanted a safe, comfortable, relatively large car.

 

I too would reccomend the new Taurus over he 500. For one you get a much better 3.5 and you also get a more common 6 speed vs the CVT.

 

I liked my wife's 2005 500 so much, I picked up a 2005 Montego for my daily driver (same color too).

Personally, I don't think it is so much that the 3.0 is underpowered ans much as I think the issue is the 'delayed throttle response' due to the drive by wire throttle.

I have no issues with the CVT.

 

I didn't have any issues with the CVT in my wife's '05, either. But I did have a worry. The CVT was only produced for the '05, '06, and '07 model years, then it went out of production. In several years parts and people that know how to repair them are going to be in short supply.

 

I just traded a 2006 Five Hundred SEL after 3 years of ownership. It had several small problems, all of which were covered under warranty. The most serious was a power steering issue which the dealer never seemed to fix. Had it had an extended warranty, I'd have probably kept it until the wheels fell off.
Despite that, it was always reliable and I'd probably buy it again.
Hope this helps.