1994 Mercury Grand Marquis GS 4.6L V8 overhead cam from North America

Summary:

Nearly flawless

Faults:

It eats some oil in its old age...

One of the brake covers fell off at 170,000 miles.. (not needed)

Recharged A/C --- $8.

General Comments:

Car is basically flawless.. it is now 15 years old and still running very strong. Transmission doesn't slip or anything, can't even tell it's shifting..

Car is rather powerful. You can spin the tires from a dead stop and it's an Automatic transmission..

Mine is a dual exhaust with like 215 hp. VERY FUN to drive and extremely excellent turn radius. It is a very very smooth ride. Only thing is I have leather seats and they get real hot in the summer.

Awesome car, and I would definitely get another one.. It defines large American cars!! :)

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 22nd July, 2009

1994 Mercury Grand Marquis LS 4.6L from North America

Summary:

Very easy on the wallet, and never leaves you stranded

Faults:

I hate taking my car to mechanics, and I wouldn't dream of a dealership servicing my car. I do my own repairs and oil changes. Everything on this car is easy to fix.

Steering box seal failed - could have replaced just the seal for next to nothing, but I let a local mechanic twist my arm into a new Ford unit. I could have gone with the cheaper repair and I'm sure it would have lasted, though.

Power steering pump shortly after the steering gear.

Air-springs for the auto-leveling suspension, leaky when I bought the car, but not severe for a couple more years. Inexpensive, quality replacements are available online, and are very easy to install.

With annual rust-protection, car body is in fantastic condition.

I've had trouble getting a good alignment - a local national-chain repair shop was absolutely useless. Took it to an alignment-only shop, where they did an excellent job for very little money. No more pulling to one side!

Except in the vent position, the climate control blower feels rather weak. But, the automatic climate control is great, though sometimes it blows on max for no reason.

No vent windows.

Air-suspension computer malfunctioned at 308000 Km.

Complete rear axle service (bearings, washers, etc. - but no ring gear) at about 300000km.

Driver-side power door actuator ripped sheet metal from door. This was probably because I never oiled inside the door.

General Comments:

Overall, these cars are very easy on the wallet. What you save on maintenance, repairs and insurance more than makes up for the extra money you might have to spend on gas. Although, compared to the '86 Grand Marquis I owned previously, the '94 uses about half the gas, so even at the pump, it really isn't all that bad. While the '86 never burned a drop of oil between 6000km oil changes, the performance of the '94, even with it's much smaller motor, is vastly superior.

This car seems like it can run forever, but in the end, lots of little things will spell the end of the road.

My '86 had a carbureted 351w. With vent windows. Best. Feature. Ever.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 29th September, 2008

1994 Mercury Grand Marquis LS 4.6 281 from North America

Summary:

Good old fashioned American Iron

Faults:

Window motors - front first (repaired for 1010 bucks at dealer) - then rear a year later.

Before I inherited it, the rear windows had broken about 2 years before that).

Cruise control failed shortly after I got it.

Emergency flashers are dead aside from one in the front.

Air bag light 5-1 sequence been on for about 2 years.

General Comments:

My Grand Marquis I inherited in 03. I didn't use it as a "reap the benifits" situation. Rather I had always loved it, and was familiar with its regular maintenance and careful driving.

The basic setup is great for a conservative person like myself. It has all the standard equipment you'd expect in a modern car, along with some good extras like above average front / back seat illumination. The digital dash is great too. It has some nice displays like average and instant m.p.g., outside temp, tach and distance to empty. It's not "loaded" as in todays standards with extravagant features like GPS, MP3 input and other lavish unneeded adds. I prefer it this way, although I may throw in a CD player in the near future.

Also a great thing most people don't check for on cars is the EDR blackbox. My year doesn't have one and I'm happy to be able to say Ford or Big Brother can't watch my moves.

The additions are great. The A.C. is nice and cool, while the heat is perfect. All the controls are again conservative in appearance, but do justice for being within good reach of the driver.

Road feel is a little loose at high speeds, but its great for parking for its abundant size.

Performance is great. While I'm very light on the throttle, it's very easy in return. But if you throw it down, this car will run! After some moderate wheel spin off the line (dual traction in these conditions), the engine note through its long gear ratios, makes good music all the way to 100. I really haven't gone past that. But the torque supply is there all the way.

Braking feels tight. Almost as if there's no ABS. And aside from pretty noticeable brake fade, it's great!

The ride isn't really wallowy as you'd expect. Turning the air suspension off makes a little more pillow feel out of the road.

Gas mileage used to be 19/23 for me, which is dead on with the EPA estimates. Now with some research into the right additives (acetone/xylene/pri-g fuel additives) (tufoil engine additive) I get 23 city and 29 highway. Winter gas brings both down about 2 1/2 mpg's.

Either way it's a superb car and really faithful. While most describe it as a boat or granny car, I kind of turn off those comments. I look at it in terms of old fashioned quality engineering (iron block V-8 / body - on - frame structure!). I would hope more go for these cars as they are very much underrated!

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 27th January, 2008