The Five Hundred was introduced at the 2004 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. It entered production on July 12, 2004 in Chicago, which previously produced the fourth-generation midsize Taurus, and it became available to the public in September 2004. While the Taurus's direct replacement in the midsize classification was the slightly smaller Ford Fusion, introduced in 2005, the Five Hundred was also considered by some to be a successor as well, and it replaced the Taurus on the Chicago Assembly line.