The missing link: Ford Motor Company's reinvention of the American station wagon just may be the closest thing yet to a true crossover

Automotive Industries, Oct, 2004 by John Peter

Nineteen-ninety-nine was a pivotal year for the domestic automobile industry. For the first time in its history the Big 3 sold more light trucks than cars. The future of the large American sedan was looking bleak as more Americans were ditching cars in favor of more versatile SUVs and light trucks. That same year, Ford Motor Company initiated the Tall Sedan Program with the goal of reinventing the American sedan--creating a vehicle for people who needed more than just a car, loved what the minivan did for them but didn't really like the image and found true SUVs a little excessive.

"That's where the concept came from," says Amy Marentic, marketing manager, Ford Freestyle and Five Hundred.

And that concept led to the development of Ford's first true crossover and the off-shoot Ford Five Hundred and Mercury Montego sedans.

In the initial phases of the program, scientific research was used to help Ford define the people who made up this new segment. Ethnography, a descriptive study of human behavior as it pertains to technology, allowed the development team to virtually live with consumers.

"We put cameras in people's cars, we went out and rode with them," Amy says. "We paired them up with psychologists to try to get inside their heads and discover their unanticipated needs."

The team also had the luxury of seeing a lot of competitor's crossover-type vehicles come out before launch. Ray Nicosia, manager, Vehicle Engineering, says that they were able to evaluate some of the early entries to see what worked and what didn't.

"Clearly the Pontiac Aztek didn't do it," Nicosia says. "We saw some good points in the Honda Pilot and we found some things that weren't so great."

Nicosia says that the team saw the compromises that people were making to get the packaging flexibility of an SUV in a car-like product.

"This was our chance," Nicosia says, "to create a vehicle that didn't require compromise. The new vehicle needed to express all of the positive attributes and utility of an SUV with the ride of a large sedan."

With program approval in the spring of 2001 and with the vehicle's attributes now etched in steel, it was time to find the right architecture.

Nicosia says that the Windstar minivan was dismissed early on. Research showed that vehicles based on a minivan platform weren't delivering the necessary sedan-like dynamics. The Taurus was studied, but it didn't support the interior package and all-wheel-drive system.

The saving grace came through Ford's aquisition of Volvo in 1999. One of the company's assets was its P2 platform and Haldex AWD system found under the $60 and $80 sedans. The Volvo platform proved to be the perfect base for the new crossover.

"The choice of that platform enabled the design of the third row," says Joan Florian, manager, program management.

Florian says that exterior designer Ed Golden had the most challenging job in that the vehicle was specifically designed from the inside out to facilitate flexibility in utility and packaging. "When you're in that vehicle," Florian says, "there is no compromise in package. And Ed had to find a way to make it feasible."

"The third row seat was one of the things we knew we could nail and had to deliver," Nicosia says.

A lot of late nights were spent with engineers from interior supplier Lear devising the proper mechanics to make the third row fold properly while also dealing with things like a subwoofer that was mounted where third-row cup holders needed to go and making room for the side curtain airbags. The team succeeded in developing, not only a seat that folds and stows properly, but will accommodate two 6-ft. 2-in. males comfortably.

"When you're developing something that's more or less all new," Florian says, it challenges people to think differently than they had before."

Another challenge was creating a flat load floor. The initial design used plastic pieces to fill the gaps between the seats when they were down.

"They were very fussy and very complicated," says Bill Macatamey, planning specialist, product planning.

Vice President of Product Development, Chris Theodore, sent them back to the drawing board. Many hours were spent back in the studio re-engineering the second and third row seats to create a flat floor when folded, without the need for spacers.

"It was sort of a David Copperfield trick," Florian says. "We're all very proud of the execution. That took a long time to come to resolution and it took some real creative thought."

While the exterior design fluctuated between car and truck, the interior design was always focused on delivering SUV attributes with the look of an upscale sedan--the same look found in most luxury SUVs. The interior does carry over some SUV styling cues like the grab handle on the A-pillar and round air vent covers from the Expedition.

"I can remember when it got down to materials," Florian says. "I remember focusing on the center stack and trying to decide if we should have flat tones, high gloss or fake wood."

She found out that consumers loved the fake wood accents.