1998 Mercury Mountaineer review from North America

I bought my Truck from a VERY reputable Ford dealer in Southern Illinois who performed the 1 billion point inspection and went on my merry way. Since I've had the Truck in November of last year, I've noticed a slight vibration in the front passenger side break and I've also had to have the Air conditioner recharged due to what I think is negligence on Ford's inspection team to fix any problems in the vehicle. Get this... buy a vehicle in the middle of a Blizzard and can't tell if the A/C gets cold, now when it's 90 in the shade and I ask the dealer to fix a problem they missed, they tell me I should have told them about it earlier... DUH!!! I guess I'm really mad with Ford and not MY ford.

Since I've had my truck, I've began allotting a LOT more $$$ for fuel because of the massive V8 and AWD which after a K&N filter and a Borla exhaust has got me up to a whopping 16 MPG. I absolutely LOVE driving it on long hauls and even in town. It's really sharp to look at with the two-tone white on gray colors. The interior has only two features that I miss from my old vehicle and that's leather and a sun roof. Other than that, I can't say enough about that 5.0 when pulling a load or just surprising the CRAP out of some of those little rice burning cars the kids around town drive with the Coffee Can Mufflers from Auto Zone :) For a SUV I think it's fairly easy to drive. It was a big change going from a Mazda MX-6 which cornered like it was made for an indy road course to a big truck, but it does do really well. The one beef I have with the truck itself and the way it's made is the Driver's Seat. Mercury chose the worst location to put a flimsy lever to allow the seat to lean back so when a person slides out of the seat to the ground, it bends the lever and over time breaks it off. (Good thing I got it where I like it)