Rental Car 'Round the Block: 2009 Mercury Sable

[waymondospiff]

Obviously, this is a bit of a goodbye letter to the Sable as production on the car has already stopped. But I thought this would be fun to write up and see what other people think of this "last generation" Sable.

 

So, last Friday I arrived at the airport near-enough-it-makes-no-difference to 2am and was given the keys to a 2009 Mercury Sable Premier FWD, white-on-black leather, with only 3,400 miles. I was interested because I have yet to drive either a 3.5L Duratec-powered car or an updated Taurus/Sable. So I figured this would be an interesting opportunity. And my 200 or so miles of driving was - and I hope I've encapsulated the good and the bad in the following short write up.

 

First, the looks. Wow. I know people thought the Five Hundred/Montego were boring, plain vehicles. Well, at it's heart, that hasn't changed, the overgrown '98-'05 Passat silhoutte is still there, it's just now slathered in chrome. Big chrome grille, chrome fog lamp surrounds, chrome wheels, chrome mirrors, chrome window surrounds, chrome door handles, shiny trunk lip, chrome exhaust tips...it's all about chrome. Combined with the fact that this is a big honkin' car and that this particular car was painted white, and you can't help but think that this car is just ready to cruise to IHOP in Boca Raton at 4pm. In the left lane. With the blinker on. This car just screams old person. And I think that, more than any other reason, has been it's downfall. 'Cause the big, glammed up exterior contains a whole lot of goodness inside.

 

The interior styling matches the outside with its conservative lines and shiny bits added for decor all over the knobs, gauges, door handles, switches and other trim pieces. The difference between the interior and the overdone exterior though is the fact that the interior looks quite smart. A noticeable upgrade from the original F.H./Montego interior, which looked much the same, but didn't have the extra dollop of shiny bits. Beyond the style is also the fact that the materials were given a serious upgrade from the F.H./Montego to Taurus/Sable refresh. All of the door panels, dash, and center console pieces felt nice, firm yet supple, and suitably upscale.

 

Equipment wise, this rental was very nice - fog lamps, chromed-wheels, power sunroof, power windows/locks/mirrors, 2-position memory system for power drivers seat, power passenger seat, heated front seats, leather seats, Sync, automatic climate control, stability control, trip computer, puddle lamps, remote keyless entry with keypad, Sirius satellite radio, reverse sensing system, and more. Configuring one similar to this on the Mercury website comes to a price of $31,795. Not cheap, but not bad considering the content.

 

And those features were just the icing on the cake of what is, by design, a very comfortable vehicle. That big honkin' outside contains a big honkin' inside. This car has tons and tons of space. The front seat is roomy in every direction, although their could be a touch more rearward travel in the seat. Headroom is a joke, not because it's tight, but because there's so much of it. Even with the sunroof I still had inches to go from my head to the roof. The rear seat is awesome - room to sit, cross your legs, install a billiards table, skeet shoot, hold dog races...I can't think of another vehicle, minus the expensive long-wheelbase European-brand flagships that have more rear seat room. Compared to the Buick Lucerne, well, you can't even compare it to a Lucerne. Nor an Impala. Nor a 300 or Charger. Nor just about anything. This car has space. Including the trunk. The loading floor shape is a bit odd, with a rise right before the rear seats, meaning anything that can roll with end up lodged right behind the rear seat. And you aren't going to get that from the trunk opening, it's about four feet away, you'll have to fold the seats and reach behind to get it. It would just seem more logical to have a lip up to prevent that, rather than a lip down creating a crevice for things to get stuck in. But that's a minor annoyance to the otherwise impressive trunk. Golf bags, dead bodies, whatever it is you carry, it'll fit. And most likely, more than one. My suitcase and backpack looked almost comical back there - barely filling that massive space.

 

In addition to the space of the interior is the H-point of the vehicle, or the "hip-point" - the place where your body needs to pivot to get in and out of the vehicle. The H-point is several inches above normal sedans, making it easy to get in and out of the vehicle, and giving the seats a very chair-like upright seating position that lends itself to all day comfort when on a roadtrip. While it does say "old person" unlike any Nissan 370Z, I can't stress enough how nice the entry/exit to this vehicle is. As a Miata owner, I have a special appreciation for any vehicle that doesn't require high-stress physical labor to enter or exit, and this Sable is just about the easiest thing to get in and out of. It's high enough to not require much bending and at the same time it's not a climb up like so many SUVs. It's quite nice. It'll appeal even more to the retirees, but it's a nice feature for anybody.

 

Performance was a mixed bag, but mostly mixed with good, or, at least, predictable, elements. The 3.5L Duratech is nice. Plenty of power and punch, not afraid to rev, yet steps out quite well. The six-speed automatic is a great transmission, able to slur shifts when putzing around town or snap off a quick upshift under throttle. A form of manual override would have been nice, but for most driving the six-speed is fine left to its own devices. The ride is just a bit firmer than I would have selected for a car of this type. It's got a bit of thwack from road imperfections, more than I would have expected. It's not disruptive or annoying, it's just more than I would have expected for what I would expect to be a large, floaty boat car aimed at retirees. But this didn't translate into great handling. The Sable more than held its own through the few turns I took it around, but there was a lot of body lean in turns - enough lean that I decided to back off and slow the car down instead. Again, not unexpected considering the type of car, but I would have either dialed up the handling a bit to go with the firmer ride, or I would have given up completely and made the Sable a cloud car, all soft and pillowy and unable to turn a corner without hitting the brakes first. The steering was extremely light, and it wasn't as direct as I would have liked. This contributed to the overall desire to slow down instead of push the limits. Nothing scary or undesireable, but this isn't a car that likes to hurry or a car that will reward you on a curvy backroad. But for heading to IHOP at 4pm...

 

I was impressed by the highway noise. This is a fairly quiet car. It's not exactly Lexus-quiet, but it'll do for most any buyer.

 

So, this is a giant, luxuriously-equipped, peppy, quiet car at a reasonable price. So why is it being cancelled instead of selling out? Well, there are many small reasons and here's my list of annoyances:

-not enough front seat rearward travel

-no telescopic steering wheel (I drove knees splayed - elbows locked)

-no steering wheel audio controls (Sync would help with this, but I don't want to talk to my car just to scan through the radio stations.)

-brick radio (looks tacky & cheap in a pretty sharp interior)

-lack of transmission control (I prefer paddles, but a manual gate works as well - pretty much anything more than D and L)

-lack of auto up/down windows except for the driver

-lack of window control from the keyless remote

-the coarse-sounding engine. The 3.5L has plenty of power and has no fear of revving, it's just that when it does, it sounds rather unrefined. The snarl of the Nissan VQ or the quiet thrum of the Toyota 3.5L V6 is just not there, replaced with a sound that's about ten years behind the times in volume-V6 evolution. Ford can do better.

 

While none of these alone would prevent a purchase, when added up, they are enough to make one decide to go with a competitor instead.

 

But that assumes that someone gets past the exterior styling to begin with. I always thought that the F.H./Montego were a handsome, if subdued pair. However, all glitzed up as the Sable is, no one I saw said the car looked like anything but an old person's car. As people used the trunk or sat in the back seat, they were slowly converted over to the virtues of the Sable, but they still wouldn't consider it because of the styling. Too bad, really. I hope that Ford is able to keep the good about the current Taurus/Sable pair when the new Taurus comes out. Hopefully with the new attractive styling more people will discover all of the goodness of the car.

 

Anyone else have any comments on the Sable or other D3s?

 

Scott

[silvrsvt]

Anyone else have any comments on the Sable or other D3s?

 

Parents have a Sable, and I have to agree with your comments, perfectly nice,, but boring car, but its an Old Man's Car as my sister puts it. The New Taurus totally changes that...its finally an aspirational car.

[BORG]

Great review of history's last Mercury Sable .

 

I completley agree with you about the easy of entry and exit, it is perfectly designed for this. I'm a fairly tall guy at 6'2" so the car does feel ideal.

 

But yeah, the design is pretty ho-hum and it's slab sided design makes the car look really gigantic. Ford really pushed the envelope with the size and height of these cars, they are HUGE! There is nothing else like them, that has to be valuable to some customers. They are great cars, the new Taurus and MKS certainly demonstrate this better.

 

Oddly enough, the car has great visibility but that always made me feel like I was driving a fish bowl. I know my MKS and the the new Taurus seems to reduce visibility appropriately .

[MKII]

Agreed great write up, it mirrors my thoughts exactly to the rental Taurus Limited AWD I had in Toronto Canada last year.

Your descriptive " big honkin' car " term is what my 1st thought was when I walked out to the rental stall. I had reserved a compact car, and the counter person asked how about an upgrade, I said sure, and when I saw this beast my 2nd thought after the "big honkin car" was miles per gallon & $$$

[silvrsvt]

Oddly enough, the car has great visibility but that always made me feel like I was driving a fish bowl. I know my MKS and the the new Taurus seems to reduce visibility appropriately .

 

Maybe thats why I got the feeling in my parents Sable that I was sitting up too high in it...I never had that issue in any other car I've been in. Was one of the reasons I didn't care for it.

[aneekr]

Great review, Scott! Your assessment is very much congruent to my experience with a '09 Ford Taurus Limited rental. In addition to the expansive outward visibility provided by the vehicle's large glass area, I was quite impressed with the headlamps on the Taurus. The low beams had excellent intensity, width and distance. Very confidence inspiring for nighttime driving.

 

I know that styling is a matter of personal preference; I have no qualms with the that attribute of the Taurus/Sable at all- indeed, I appreciate the emphasis Ford put on user-friendliness and overall functionality over glitz in these cars.

 

If Ford can improve the Taurus/Sable's powertrain NVH and real-world fuel economy to Toyota Avalon/Lexus ES levels, and address the lacunae in feature content that Scott mentioned, the result would be the IDEAL car for long roadtrips.