1996 Mercury Mystique V6 2.5 from North America
Summary:
Troublesome little vixen
Faults:
Water pump impeller broke - I knew this was a problem and first time I revved it to 6K it let go. At least it did it for me, and not when wife or daughter were driving.
Lower control arm bushings got noisy. Miserable critter to change right side.
AC quit. The drier was rusted through.
Transmission pan gasket leaked. Miserable thing to replace as it is on the front of the trans, under the battery and behind AC receiver drier, which all had to come out.
Front suspension noise. Sway bar links were worn out, as well as right inner tie rod.
Had a lean running condition. Replaced leaky intake gaskets, and then found a defective air hose on the intake that collapsed on decel, and cracked.
One front O2 sensor went bad.
The heater only worked on high - the connector on the fan switch, and the switch itself, had overheated and burned - I replaced both.
The center brake lights worked, but the regular (signal) brake lights did not. The connector on the signal switch was overheated-corroded. I cleaned up the connection and it is working (for now)
The cup holders disintegrated. Not going to bother trying to fix what is a terrible design.
The clock display has lost several segments.
The shift interlock would not allow shifting out of park when cold. I snapped off the lever in the console so the interlock is no more. - solved THAT problem!!
Power antenna quit - replaced it with a standard non retractable one.
It "mooses" in cold weather. Have not fixed that yet.
Brakes corroded badly - spent $750 on parts alone - put in Kevlar pads - see how they stand up.
General Comments:
A joy to drive and a pain to work on. And I work on it too much. It is said any "car nut" worthy of the name needs to own at least one german and one british car. With a Porsche designed engine with Cosworth heads and what appears to be Bosch designed electrical connectors I think this car qualifies as German Enough for me - I've owned British cars before.
It rides and handles very well, with more than adequate performance.
It is NOT a cheap car to keep on the road.
I likely would not buy another one.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know
Review Date: 15th March, 2008
19th Feb 2008, 16:55
Its odd that you didn't fill out the mileage part of the survey. Is it that the car might be over the mystical 100k mark? If it is, you have no one to blame, but yourself. Almost every Ford seems to have electric problems, which only get worse with high mileage. Maybe you shouldn't rely on cars the girl friend buys.