Faults:

The BUTTONS FOR THE HEAT/AC are supposed to light up. They have lit up about twice since we've had the car. Took it to dealer, they claimed they couldn't find a problem.

Another problem we've had was an "off" NOISE IN THE ENGINE; again took it in, dealer said they couldn't find a problem except for some 160.00 belts that weren't included in the warranty.

Now, the TRANSMISSION is shot. No 2nd and 4th gear. Naturally, the car is no longer under warranty, so we're forking out nearly 4000.00 to get a new one. In speaking with someone who used to work with Mercury, we discovered that the transmission on the '96 is too small for the car; there have been many other complaints from other consumers.

General Comments:

The car handles very well; great, tight turns.

It's hard to get the second seat out by oneself and the hooks where it attaches collect some serious kid dirt (cheerios, candy, etc).

Not as roomy as one would think.

Faults:

Just regular maintenance items.

Since we bought the van used with considerable mileage (92,000), we changed the timing belt, the accessory belts (3), flushed the oil system, cleaned the fuel injectors, new brake pads and machined the rotors, changed the struts and changed the transmission oil & filter. These were mostly preventive maintenance items.

Oil & filter changed every 3000 miles.

No unforeseen repairs. No surprises! Van drives like it has half the actual miles.

General Comments:

Engine and transmission work very well. Not very quick from a standing start (weighs 3800 lbs) but has surprisingly good passing power. Engine idles very smoothly, revs quickly and sounds quite sporty. Drivetrain is same as 1989-94 Maxima. Very good torgue from 1500 to 3500 rpm.

Size is perfect for NYC: not too big yet good interior space.

I put on P235/60-16 Yokohama AVID V4's on 16x7 alloys with stiffer (KYB GR-2) shocks. Van handles very very well. Can drive very aggressively. Not great for long drives: a bit noisy and ride is a bit rough.

No problems!

Faults:

Misaligned headlights.

Minor electrical problems.

Noisy wheel bearings.

Brakes.

General Comments:

We had this van from 1996 when it was new until up to last year. It ran pretty good at first but had some problems after that.

The Mercury Villager and Nissan Quest twins seem to have electrical problems a lot, our lights would flash and the horn would beep on its own sometimes.

The brake lights were faulty. The brakes worked good sometimes and other times didn't. When they didn't we were scared to drive it, it was that bad.

Other than that the van was OK, pretty small inside though. Not much cargo space, I'd recommend a Chevy Astro or GMC Safari van to someone who needs a bigger/better vehicle, especially for large families.

Chrysler and Ford vans are notoriously unreliable.