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2005 Mercury Montego Design

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"The all-new Montego is pure Mercury, from the signature grille and HID headlamps to the LED taillights with their bright horizontal bars. It’s a very modern design that suggests a high degree of sophistication. The interior fulfills this promise with two-tone themes and premium surfaces like leather, chrome and satin aluminum. These visually rewarding elements will enhance the experience of owning this excellent new sedan."

– George Bucher, Chief Designer

Mercury Montego Puts Emphasis on Sophisticated Design

The all-new Montego sedan continues the Mercury design theme launched with the 2002 Mountaineer sport utility and refined with the recently introduced 2004 Monterey minivan.

"Mercury design is modern and intelligent, with clean and intuitive elements that communicate sophistication," said Chief Designer George Bucher. "You see tasteful use of contrasting colors and textures. It is design with a purpose – nothing is done to excess. It lives on the cutting edge, without going over
the edge."

Premium materials, colors and surface textures firmly position the Montego as an aspirational vehicle. The car’s high-quality cabin reinforces Montego’s credentials with its class-leading space and natural, comfortable "high-package" command seating.

Simply stated, the Montego rewards those who value design.

"The styling is subtle, cool and technical," Bucher said. "Our customers thrive in a sophisticated and intelligent environment, and their vehicle should reflect that."

Montego features include:

Cool, Technical Exterior Design

"The design is refined, technical and substantial," said J Mays, Ford group vice president, design. "With Montego, we wanted to offer our customers an intelligent, sophisticated vehicle that reflects their worlds and brings outstanding design within reach of those who most appreciate it."

The Montego communicates Mercury design right up front, with a satin-metallic waterfall grille that is unique to the brand. The satin grille is complemented by the bright chrome, jeweled effect of the high-intensity-discharge headlamps. From any angle, Montego appears balanced, with its broad, geometric surfaces and satin-aluminum and bright metal accents.

"Satin aluminum is cooler than cool," Bucher said. "Where chrome picks up color, satin aluminum retains its purity. It’s not even blue – it’s white."

Vertical elements along the lower fascia, which includes integral fog lamps and central ducting, align with the boundary between the grille and headlamps, reinforcing the lines that sweep over the hood.

Large satin aluminum wheels – 17 inches on the Luxury series and 18 inches on the Premier – are key components of Montego’s sophisticated profile. Combined with the sedan’s low-profile tires, the wheels communicate authority and connection with the road – hallmarks of the Mercury brand.

A thin line of chrome surrounds the greenhouse, while mirrors, door handles, door frames and side moldings are body-colored.

The 17-inch, six-spoke aluminum wheels on the Luxury series are painted with a metallic finish. The 18-inch alloy wheels on the Premier are clear-coated for durability.

"It’s a very classic design," Bucher said of the 18-inch wheel. "Again, we’re blending a traditional luxury element – a spoke-like wheel – with a modern technical milled finish. This blend of the traditional and the technical is very much part of the Mercury design persona."

That styling theme is repeated at the rear, where LED taillights – the largest application of LED taillights in the Ford Motor Company lineup – are accented with horizontal metallic bars.

"The LED taillights are another good example of technical design – the lights themselves use technology, and we use bright accents to complement the headlamps," Bucher said.

The deck lid is proportional to the overall body and features a central, satin-metallic Mercury logo. A substantial satin aluminum header over the license plate balances the chrome taillight elements and chrome rear window trim.

Detail-Oriented Inside

Establishing the proper interior environment is essential to Mercury’s design mission.

"Details are very important," Bucher said. "The details, like tastefully decorative elements, colors, patterns and textures, are designed to reward the occupants."

Balance is crucial, as is evidenced by Mercury’s hallmark two-tone interior design. Done to excess, a two-tone look can communicate overt sportiness. For the Montego, Bucher chose complementary colors from the same family to preserve the sense of equilibrium.

"It’s a modern interpretation of two-tone," Bucher said. "It’s subtle, yet it establishes a distinctive persona in the showroom or in the driveway."

Interior surface textures invite interaction from the driver and passengers. Metallic surfaces are plated metal, not painted composite, including the satin aluminum cuffs that wrap the steering wheel spokes. As on the exterior, satin features are balanced with chrome, which is used on the door handles and gauge and climate-control-vent trim rings.

"The fabrics are soft to the touch," Bucher said. "The leather seats have a fine, ‘mini-perf’ texture, as opposed to coarser European-style perforation patterns. All of the surface treatments invite you to touch."

Both steering wheel and shift knob are leather-wrapped. The Premier series offers a burl-pattern wood grain appliqué on the instrument panel and doors, as well as around the window switches and door locks. The Luxury series presents a distinctive straight grain pattern. Both feature a chrome-trimmed analog clock in the center of the instrument panel – a Mercury family feature that communicates luxury. The clock and instrument dials are gray, with satin aluminum pointers and hubs.

The color palette of the instrument panel and doors is split horizontally, with a darker finish on top and lighter colors used below. This two-tone theme is repeated in the leather seating surfaces, which also have contrasting tailored stitching.

The only interior color variant that does not receive this full two-tone treatment is the black interior, which employs black seats, doors and carpet and a light canopy.

Roominess Equals Luxury

Montego’s interior is among the leaders in virtually every dimension, including best-in-class headroom and knee room in the second row. Front-row seats are cleverly mounted on a cross-car beam that enhances safety and provides extra foot room for second-row passengers.

Montego’s upright seating position offers both comfort and sport utility vehicle-like visibility to give the driver confidence and command of the road.

In fact, sightlines were maximized for all occupants of the Montego, with rear seats raised slightly to give passengers a better view without compromising the driver’s rear vision.

In designing the high-position seating, engineers focused on maximizing the "H-point," the pivot point of the human hip. The distance from the H-point to the floor determines whether the seating position is upright or "stretched out." In Montego’s front row, the distance between the H-point and the heel-point – where the occupant’s foot touches the floor – is 12.7 in. This is the most generous in its class, and more than an inch greater than its nearest competitor.

The upright seating, coupled with wide door openings and ceiling-mounted grab handles, makes for exceptionally easy ingress and egress.

Second row seats offer similar comfort, with 13.1 in. of H-point height and 40.9 in. of legroom. Knee clearance measures 6.1 in. – best in class and more generous than many full-size cars.

Montego’s Trunk is Ready for Anything

Montego’s trunk is deceptive. Under its well-proportioned decklid lies a class-leading 21 cubic feet of space. That beats most competitors by nearly 50 percent – even with the space-saving spare tire housed under the load floor.

With the split second-row seat folded, the trunk expands to offer a class-leading 49.9 inches of total load floor length. For added cargo-carrying ability, the front passenger seat also folds flat. An available cargo net – standard in Premier – enhances versatility.

Comfort, Convenience

Ergonomics engineer Chris Civiero employed sophisticated electronic tools to evaluate every control, handle, knob, dial, pedal and switch on the Montego, ensuring easy access for users of all sizes.

Driver comfort is enhanced through a power six-way adjustable seat with manual lumbar support, tilt steering wheel and optional power-adjustable pedals, as well as optional two-user memory for the exterior mirrors, seat and pedal positions. The Premier offers eight-way power adjustment for the driver’s seat, with power recline and fore/aft movement for the front passenger. The driver’s window has one-touch power operation in both directions. A power moonroof is available.

First-row seating features two power points, including one in the center console, handy for recharging portable devices like mobile phones or laptop computers. A small cutout keeps the charger cord from being pinched when the console lid is closed.

Other storage spaces includes:

"People get excited about wow factors, like a flip-open cup holder," Civiero said. "But when these fancy designs break or spill your coffee, that’s not good. It’s better to be basic – and right."

The Montego cup holders are wide at the top to accommodate giant-size convenience store drinks and tapered toward the bottom to assure that smaller cups won’t slide around.

Location, Location, Location

The radio and instrument panel typically get a lot of attention from the driver, so they drew a lot of attention from Montego’s design team. The result is a set of intuitive controls that doesn’t require a lot of study.

"My top priority is the driving task – the ability of the driver to operate the vehicle safely, to operate in the driving environment," Civiero said.

"On the sound system, we know people use their radio pre-set buttons more than the scan button for finding stations. You design the faceplate layout with that in mind. You definitely don’t want to force someone to go through a deep menu on the radio display while they’re driving."

Other important controls are placed in intuitive locations – the rocker switch for adjustable pedals is on the instrument panel near the headlamps, and the remote mirror control is on the "sail" panel at the front of the driver’s door. Each passenger seating position gets a reading lamp that provides even lighting without glare.

The window controls use an intuitive "push down, pull up" design.

Lessons Learned From Total Vehicle Geometry

Montego benefits from a quality-assurance program called Total Vehicle Geometry, which ensures top-notch fit, finish and design craftsmanship by requiring all engineers to take responsibility in a "systems" approach to vehicle creation.

No one says, "That’s not my job," including Bucher.

"It gives us a robust method for executing the design," he said. "The more you work with the engineers, the more you feel a part of the program. Making something doesn’t stop with designing it – that’s just the beginning."

Bjorn Mattsson is the TVG manager for Montego. His Swedish accent provides a clue to his previous tenure with Volvo, where he worked for more than 20 years. Working his way from a test driver of heavy trucks, he saw first-hand the value of a system that puts quality first.

"TVG is a circular process," Mattsson explained. "What we learn during the design, planning, prototyping and production stage of one program is incorporated into future product programs for continuous quality improvement."

Computer-aided design is a key enabler for the TVG team. All vehicle components originally are designed with computer tools. Parts evolve as engineering teams discover new or better ways to do things when prototypes come together. TVG assures that all these modifications are immediately translated back into the CAD system, so every engineer can access current data at any time.

"This optimizes the fit between components so we are not building in any ‘tension’ that could later cause squeaks and rattles," Mattsson said. "Every component is considered in the context of the vehicle."

The results have been impressive. At Montego’s body-in-white stage, 85 percent of parts met tolerance specifications. Air leakage tests – a measure of fit and finish for the passenger compartment – exceeded the engineering standard. And at the first prototype stage, most fit and finish already met the engineering target. First prototypes made their way through the pilot plant in record time, and prototype build quality was the company’s best ever.

This Volvo-pioneered quality system proved a good fit with Ford’s Consumer-Driven 6-Sigma methodology. The top 45 suppliers on the Montego team were incorporated into the program up front, becoming part of the TVG team. They brought along their Tier II suppliers. All could access and search the master database for best practices as they produced their components.

"Everyone can follow the roadmap between the manufacturer and the suppliers’ pre-assemblies," Mattsson said. "The result is unprecedented quality from our suppliers, which translates into the highest quality product for our Mercury customers."