All-wheel-drive sedan

Montego is a large-size car with mid-size price

Originally, Mercurys were mostly Fords with more flash and dash, for a little more cash. Fords were priced at the bottom end of the market, and Lincolns were designed, and priced, for the wealthy car buyer. Ford Motor Company needed a mid-priced automobile, and when it introduced the Mercury in the 1930s, it was an immediate success.

Mercury's newest sedan is a far cry from the Mercurys of yesterday. Sleeker, more comfortable, more powerful and faster, it nevertheless gets better gas mileage, requires less maintenance and lasts years longer than its predecessor. It's called "Montego," and this roomy, practical vehicle still shares one important feature with the original Mercury -- price. At less than $30,000, the Montego is affordable for many families, and Ford is betting it will help stop some of the market erosion caused by the flood of imports over the past thirty years. I checked out a Montego recently to see just how good it is.

First impression

You can never have too much trunk. I've done my share of trying to load a pile of family vacation stuff into an inadequate-sized trunk, and even if it does fit for the trip to vacationland, it won't fit for the trip back home. So the first thing I did was pop the trunk lid with the handy remote fob. Impressive. At 21 cubic feet of capacity, this is the largest cargo hold in the sedan kingdom. The trunk gets an "A+".

You can never have too much interior room. Your precious little kids are going to be big kids someday and, big or small, nobody likes to be squashed into the back seat. The Montego engineers did their homework, and I give them a solid "A" for interior room.

You can never be too comfortable -- unless you're studying for final exams in the library and you fall asleep in that big, soft, easy chair. In the comfort department, the Montego scores high with its complete line of luxury features, including power accessories, climate control, sound systems, and Mercury's "Command Seating" that puts the front seats higher than traditional sedans, and the rear seats even higher, for an excellent view of the scenery. Montego earns an "A" for accommodations.

The Montego, and its twin the Ford Five Hundred, are the first Ford products to be built on the Volvo S60 and S80 sedan platform. They make extensive use of Volvo safety and all-wheel-drive technologies. Ford has a controlling stake in Volvo -- and Jaguar, for that matter -- and we'll be seeing more European styling and engineering savvy showing up on this side of the Atlantic.

The Montego is available in either of two trims -- Luxury or Premier. Each trim level is available in front-wheel drive (FWD) or all-wheel drive (AWD) configuration. The Luxury gets you 17-inch wheels, a six-way power driver seat, full power accessories, air conditioning, a CD player, cruise control, HID headlamps, dual-zone automatic climate control, wood interior trim and air registers for rear passengers. The Premier rides on 18-inch wheels, and pampers you with leather upholstery, an eight-way driver and four-way power passenger seats, seat memory, an upgraded audio system and heated seats. Options include a moonroof, adjustable pedals and a reverse-sensing system.

All Montegos are powered with Ford's smooth-running Duratec 3-liter, 203 horsepower, V-6 engine. FWD models are mated to a new 6-speed automatic transmission, while AWD models get a continuously-variable automatic gearbox. 203 horsepower may not seem like a lot of juice in today's world, but unless you want to race Mustang GTs or pull a horse trailer, that's plenty of power to give Montego a peppy feeling. Horsepower isn't everything! The new 6-speed transmission that my test vehicle was equipped with kept the engine spinning happily in the sweet part of its power band, and the engine's adequate torque at low RPM made quick get-aways in city traffic.

Montego benefits from independent front and rear suspensions, rack and pinion power steering, and, for AWD models, self-leveling rear suspension, which I recommend. A car this large can be easily overloaded, and ride will suffer when the rear seats and huge trunk are filled to capacity.

The Volvo-developed AWD system can deliver power to the rear wheels in just 50 milliseconds when front wheel slippage is detected. Standard traction control allows torque to be directed to the side of the vehicle with the best traction, so even if only one wheel has grip Montego should be able to continue forward motion.

The new Montego is big on comfort and big on safety, but not big on price. My test vehicle, a FWD Luxury model, had a base price of $24,345. Even with several expensive options like a moon roof, leather, reverse sensors and side air curtains, the $28,425 sticker price seemed competitive. It is rated for 21-mpg/city and 29 highway, which is almost triple the fuel mileage of the original V-8 Mercury.

Steve Robertson of Robertson's Creative Photography is a car enthusiast and former staff writer/photographer for the Southeast Missourian. Contact him at sjr1@robertsonsphotography.com.