I bought a barely used 1999 Mercury Sable in 2002 and it has lasted 13 years! I purchased it for about $10k and the repair work has been minimal. I do get it tuned up every 3 months, but it usually costs less than $20 dollars. I have beat this car up and while it doesn't look like much anymore - not that it ever did - it is a work horse. The engine is solid and I definitely got my money's worth out of it. It as much a utility vehicle as it is a passenger vehicle. It has leather seats and a huge trunk. I will drive this car into the ground. For my next car I want something just as, if not more reliable like a Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla. I would just prefer a nicer-looking body than that of a Sable or Taurus. However, I wouldn't change anything about my purchase and use of the Mercury Sable. It has served its purpose and will continue to do so until it dies, which will probably be around 200 to 250k miles. I will miss this car when its gone, not just because it was my first car, but because it got me through a lot of tough times in my life.

I like my Mercury Sable. It's nothing flashy, doesn't have a ton of speed under the hood even with a V6 engine and the body panels are beginning to rust. But it's kept on running for over a decade. I've done many self repairs on the vehicle, for some reason the HVAC parts seem to have the most failures along with some ignition starting issues. The engine itself however is a trooper, it's never given me a problem even without changing the oil once for close to 10,000 miles. There is now a rusted hole under the interior lining on the front passenger side seatwell, but that is nothing a sheet of steel and some JB Weld can't fix.

I bought my Mercury Sable used and as is from a car lot. That was my first mistake. The engine had terrible issues regarding overheating. I had to sink another $2500 into it before it was drive-able. That really put a bad taste in my mouth. Now that the engine overheating problem is fixed it idles very strangely and makes odd creaking noises when I push down on the break. My problem is, my last two cars were made by Saturn, I do not know if this is indicative of all older Mercurys or if whoever owned my car last just ran it really hard before using it for trade in value on something new. Assuming the problems I experienced are just isolated to this one vehicle I would say the things that are not messed up about it are pretty nice. The interior is very nice and the faux wood panels as well as strong air conditioner system are all things for the plus category. The ride is very smooth and even takes bumps with relative ease. One con, and I think this is just the fact it's an older car, is the comparatively poor gas mileage. My last car (a 2004 Saturn Ion) got about 24/30 mpg respectively this one does more in the realm of 20/25 mpg which gets noticeable on long trips. If I drove a version of this vehicle in mint condition and it didn't have any of the issues I encountered with my used Sable I would recommend it. Otherwise? Keep looking for something with better mileage.