Faults:

Nothing has been replaced, except tune up items.

General Comments:

The 3.0L Vulcan is one of the most dependable engines Ford ever made. Very common to see these engines reach 300,000 miles.

The reason I bought this was for college. I also own a Mustang. I did this because no garage, bad mpg, and potentially deafening for extended trips.

I drive to St. Louis and Chicago roughly every 3 weeks to visit my folks and girlfriend. I drive everyday to school and work. About 30 miles a day. The Sable is super quiet and smooth. There are times at a stop when I look at the tach to make sure the car is running still.

On highway I get 30mpg; yes, 30. City I get about 22-24. Mind you that HWY 55 (the HWY I take to St. Louis) is very flat and straight, so that helps the mileage. On the highway I go 80-85 mph and the Sable has no problems at that speed.

I bought the car from a dealer. An older lady owned it and traded it in for a '08 Sable. I put in plugs, a PCV valve, air filter, cabin filter, thermostat, oil, and flushed the coolant. This car is very easy to work on.

The Sable and Taurus were the #1 selling car for many years.

IMO I would stay away from the 24 valve V-6. They had head gasket problems. The 12 valve engine gets the Sable moving OK. I'm not scared of getting run over when coming off an on ramp.

Faults:

When I got the car, with 124,900 miles on it, it had no apparent issues. In the next 18 months and 23,000 miles, the following repair situations occured:

-Relay box for headlights died.

-Front end alignment.

-Electrical system went crazy with certain interior lights refusing to turn off (I ended up actually removing the bulbs) problem was eventually traced to a bad lead cable to the battery.

-Rear struts starting making a lot of noise around 145,000 miles. Then the front ones went, too.

-The head gasket blew around 147,000 miles.

-The usual oil changes, filters, brake pads, etc.

-Thermostat was repaired shortly before I got the car.

General Comments:

Until it started falling apart all at once, it was a very comfortable car with good performance.

Decent gas mileage (for it's size) - I got approximately 19 mpg city, 26 mpg highway.

Didn't use much oil, either.

Definitely responded when the gas pedal was stepped on. The V6 had some power. Then again, my previous car was a 4-banger, 1.5 litre Honda, so the Mercury might've just *seemed* fast to me :)

One of the more comfortable cars I've owned. I drove it 500 miles without getting a sore back or rear end. Very adjustable and cushy cloth seat.

The door openings for the back seat were small. I'm only 5'10" and had to duck my head low to get in the back seat.

Stupid design flaw: If you have the console area open with the cup holders flipped out and all that- it 100% blocks the ashtray and lighter. You may not smoke or care, but there goes your change tray and lighter to plug your cell phone charger into as well.

Trunk space was inadequate. Though it goes deep into the car (and the back seats fold down), the opening is narrow and nothing bulky can really fit in.

Overall, this was a nice care to drive. But, even though I kept up with routine oil changes and maintenance- when it stated to go, it just went. The brakes started getting squealy, the struts died, the electrical system began acting up again, and the head gasket blew- all within a few months.