1997 Mercury Sable review from North America

Transmission started "kicking" above 3000 RPMs.

Mysteriously stalls at idle, i. e when stopped at a red light I have to shift into neutral.

Faulty seals around tail lights allow for water to creep inside.

Power seats sometimes do not work.

Burns oil.

Power windows broke about every 5,000 miles. Cheap, but annoying repair.

Abysmal gas mileage.

I owned this car for about 5 years. The man I bought it from was in his seventies and only put 15,000 miles on it in 4 years. He took extremely good care of this car which I continued to do after I purchased it. I owned Hondas previously, but wanted something more comfortable for my daily 2 hour commute.

This car was horrible. Even though I took care of it with regular oil changes and changing the timing belt, water pump, etc. it was a disaster. The most high maintenence car I've ever owned. It handled poorly, got abysmal gas mileage and in retrospect, was not even that comfortable. I also did not care for the computerized climate control; it made it very difficult to maintain a comfortable atmosphere.

On the bright side, it was relatively quick for such a heavy car.