Ford Five Hundred & Mercury Montego Earn IIHS' New 'Top Safety Pick-Gold' Rating

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DEARBORN, Mich., Dec. 4, 2005; The Ford Five Hundred and Mercury Montego are the only Americans among the field of tough competitors to win gold. But it's not an Olympic official presenting these prestigious awards, it's the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), and the accolades are for safety.

The new IIHS "Top Safety Pick-Gold" designation can only be earned by vehicles that achieve the best-available safety performance in rear, side and frontal collisions. Only by achieving the highest ratings in all three categories can vehicles win entry into what IIHS President Brian O'Neill calls "an elite fraction of the car market."

In addition to being the world's only large sedans to merit IIHS' new Top Safety Pick-Gold rating, both also earned the government's highest available five-star crash test ratings in all four test categories.

"It's a true testament to the safety engineering of these vehicles that they achieved top safety scores from both IIHS and NHTSA," said Sue Cischke, vice president of Environmental and Safety Engineering, Ford Motor Company. "Ford and Volvo worked together leveraging our technical and intellectual resources to create this outstanding vehicle architecture."

The IIHS last spring presented both sedans with its highest frontal offset technical rating and a "Best Pick" because their innovative structures and restraint systems provide an effective balance between their ability to absorb crash energy and control the forces on occupants. The Institute also gave both vehicles its highest rear impact rating for offering effective protection against neck injuries, and its highest side impact rating for their ability to withstand intrusion into occupant compartments.

"The fantastic safety performance of our new large sedans is just one reason they're being well received across the country," said Darryl Hazel, vice president, Marketing. "These cars offer it all -- safety, spaciousness, comfort and great features at a good value."

The structure of the Five Hundred and Montego, co-designed by Ford and Volvo, is engineered with crush zones designed into impact areas to help protect occupants. Excess energy is transferred around the passenger compartment into a high-strength safety cage. An innovative cross-car beam "SPACE(TM) Architecture" under the front seats reinforces the structure between the B-pillars, which helps direct energy away from passengers.

Both vehicles offer an industry first two-row Safety Canopy(TM) side air bag system that provides additional protection not only in side impact collisions, but also deploy in rollover accidents. Side-impact protection comes from a combination of available air bag technology and structural features that help safeguard occupants from intrusion by channeling crash energy away from the passenger compartment.

An advanced air bag controller uses front passenger classification sensing to determine if the seat is occupied, and if so, whether the passenger is an adult, a child or a child in a child safety seat. Air bag deployment is tailored -- or altogether suppressed -- to help provide the proper level of protection. In addition, an adaptive steering column is designed to collapse based on the driver's size and safety-belt use for enhanced protection. The lower anchors and tethers for children, or LATCH system, provide mounting points for compatible child seats in the second row.

The 2006 Ford Five Hundred, starting at a Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price including destination and delivery of $22,930, and the Mercury Montego, starting at $25,130, represent incredible large sedan value for today's safety conscious consumers.