The Mercury Mariner

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m thinking of buying a Mercury Mariner (2004-2008 range). It’s a small entry-level luxury SUV that seems to have decent reviews and they’re dirt cheap now (they originally sold in the $40K range and now can be had for $4K-$8K for the range of years I’m interested, so quite a bit of depreciation has already happened.

It looks like it can haul quite a bit but also carry a small family and has some nice features. We’ll primarily be driving it on the weekend. Just wanted some personal insight and experiences if anyone has any. I know the entire Mercury brand was discontinued and it doesn’t matter to me. If you’ve owned or drive them, how reliable was it? Was it a quiet, smooth ride? How is maintenance?

2

The Mercury Mariner was a Ford Escape with a different grille and tail lights. look up ratings for the same year Escape and you’ll have your answer.

3

It’s a higher grade Ford Escape, if you’re at all familiar with that vehicle. So maintenance and getting parts shouldn’t be aproblem.

4

Thank you. Anyone have personal experiences with the Mariner?

5

no, it’s not a “higher grade.” it is an Escape, but with a different grille and badges. there’s literally nothing apart than that to differentiate it. This is more or less why Mercury is gone, they sold nothing which wasn’t just a re-badged Ford.

We had an Escape Hybrid as an office/pool car at my last job. Terrific fuel economy (at least, when I drove it, don’t know what other people were doing) and the only service it needed was when something chewed apart the O2 sensor wiring.

6

My wife bought a 2011 model with 80,000 miles on it last year. That is one generation newer than the one you are looking at, but basically they are the same.

We like the looks and features. The interior room is great. With the rear seats down, there is a lot of cargo room.

On the other hand, it is underpowered. We have the 3 Liter V6 engine and I cannot imagine what the 4 cylinder would be like. Just taking it up to 60 MPH makes me think I’m going to break it. The transmission is, well, as I saw in an online forum for Mariners, it’s a typical Ford transmission. With about 3/4 throttle, it shifts 1>2 at about 3500 RPM (with the engine sounding like a 737 at takeoff). The 2>3 shift is at about the same point. The 3>4 shift is at 2500 RPM. Then it’s back to over 3000 RPM to shift into 5th. I’m usually up to 50 or so by that point, so I’m letting off the throttle, but the quick shift into 4th leaves me a bit unsettled. It will cruise at 60-70 at around 1800-2000 RPM, which is nice. There is nothing wrong with the transmission, that is just how it is. In checking things out, it seems the 6-speed automatic was introduced in 2009, so maybe that isn’t an issue with the ones you are looking at. Oh, the automatic is just that; automatic. It has P-R-N-D-L. Six forward gears and you only get to choose between D and L.

As for maintenance, I am also unsure. It developed an issue that I though may be a transmission problem. No Check Engine Light or anything, but it would shudder at low RPM. I checked the computer for codes with a OBDII reader and no codes were present. I took it to the dealer and they said there was nothing wrong. A few weeks later, my wife was on a trip and she said it started to do it’s shudder thing and the Check Engine Light started flashing. She couldn’t pullover at that instant, but in a minute or two, the problem stopped and the light went out. I checked the OBDII again and found no codes. I took it to the dealer again and they told me the #3 coil was bad and wanted to change all the spark plugs. Total price: $700. It seems you have to remove the intake manifold to change one of the spark plugs.

Who designs an engine that you have to dismantle to change the spark plugs? The dealer said the plugs should be good for 100,000 miles (it had about 85,000 on it at the time, so I figured that was close enough), but that really sounds to me that their intent is to convince you to throw it away once it gets over 100,000 miles on it.

Other maintenance issues I have found. On the V6, anyway, there is no timing belt, but twin timing chains. A plus in my book. A bit noisier, but chains don’t have to be changed and rarely break and ruin the engine. On the transmission. You have to use the Ford Mercon LV. Most car makers have gone to designs such that if you don’t use their fluid the transmission will explode, however, so that is not unique to the Mercury. What I did find strange is that you can only drain about half the fluid during a change and that you cannot change the transmission fluid filter (unless you disassemble the transmission–the same team that designed the engine must have designed the transmission).

If you are the kind of guy who changes his own oil, likes to figure out what is wrong when it isn’t working right, and keep the vehicle running it’s best, I’d say this isn’t the vehicle for you. This is made more for the person who would rather take it to the dealer for all maintenance (and tires, too, would be my guess). It seems they took a chapter out of BMW’s playbook.

As it is mostly my wife’s car, it is fine. The ride is a bit rough (it rides high, like most SUVs, I guess), but it gets us where we are going and it looks nice. We have hauled a surprising amount of stuff in it. However, I doubt we would buy another.

7

Pretty much. GM was king of re-badging until they dumped two car divisions.

But Merc did have at least one unique US model in its last days: the 3rd-genCapri, which was a rebadged Australian Ford/Mazda “sports” car - one of the worst cars of that or any other era.

8

Hope it runs as well as a Mercury Morris.

9

the Capri was dropped in 1994, Mercury wasn’t wound down until 2011.

10

I just got rid of my 2004 Escape to get my 2017.

Loved loved loved the 2004 Escape! The cabin was great and the back end had PLENTY of room for hauling stuff. I helped a lot of people move with that car.

I never felt the back seat was very roomy. I didn’t take many trips in it with people back there. People didn’t complain, though. It’s probably fine for normal-sized adults and definitely for kids.

I never had any engine problems with mine. The only problems I had were on the underside - the ABS ring cracked and I had to replace the whole piece it was connected to. I had to get new stabalizer bars. I had to have some recalls done. That was it in 13 years (I had it from Nov 2003 to Sept 2016).

Also the tires seemed to wear quickly and did not have good traction, which seemed like an odd problem to have through 3 different sets of tires, but it persisted.

But the big problem with Escapes is underside rust. There is a specific issue with the way they are made that the rear end rusts away from the frame and in some cases pushes up through the rear compartment when the shocks let loose.

I had only 90k miles on my 2004 but had to get rid of it because the rear end rust. When I traded it in they showed me the rocker bars were also rusted away.

If you’re in a northern area I wouldn’t consider an older Mariner or Escape, to be honest. If you’re not in a place that uses salt for snow, or that has snow, then get a very very very thorough inspection maybe even by a body shop or a place that specializes in shocks that can confirm the sturdiness of the rear end frame.

11

NVM, misunderstood and replied accordingly.

12

That’s really high for a set of plugs and one coil on that vehicle. Did that figure include something else?

Who? The majority of manufacturers of vehicles with V-6 engines. And it’s not dismantling the engine, it’s removing and replacing the upper intake manifold. It’s maybe a couple hours labor, and since the plugs typically last for years, the long-term cost of spark plug maintenance is not excessive. It’s a common design among various makes.

13

They still had unsold ones on the lot. :smiley:

Merc’s “last days” went on for twenty years.

14

Well, not GM, certainly.

They designed a car you had to lift the engine out in order to reach all the plugs.

15

nobody sets out to do that. What usually ends up being the case is they design an engine to go into a certain vehicle, then when it gets used in other vehicles packaging shortcomings arise. Spark plug accessibility is a frequent complaint on cars with transverse vee engines. With the 3.0 Duratec, in order to get the driveability they wanted the intake manifold runners needed to be a certain length, but to get it to fit underhood the manifold had to be “laid” over one half of the engine.

Other ones I can think of are the RS (2001-2007) Chrysler minivans with the 3.3/3.8 V6. The easiest way to change the rear bank of plugs was to lift the car on a hoist and get them from below.

and it’s not just spark plugs; FWD GM cars with the 3300/3800 were always moaned about for how difficult it was to change the oil filter. Why? Because the 3800 was originally designed for RWD cars, and the oil pump and filter were integrated into the front cover. On a RWD car that puts the oil filter right in front of the crossmember where it’s easy to get a band wrench on. On a FWD car, that crams the filter in between the engine and axle half-shaft. addressing that would entail either a remote filter mount (no room underhood) or significantly re-designing the engine.

transmission filters are “life of the car” items now. you’re applying “old car” thinking to vehicles which no longer need it.

by that standard, no modern car is for you.

16

Everyone thank you for all the insights and feedback. It is much appreciated. It might be ok for our weekend errands is what I am taking away. I am not mechanically inclined but I plan to take the vehicle to a mechanic before I buy it if I decide to buy it at all.