26th Jun 2007, 22:33

1996 Mercury Mystique (MISTAKE), GS 2.4 Double Overhead

Lesson learned: check your carfax report.

Should've known there was a problem when I test drove the car and the check engine light was on.

My transmission blew in November, I bought the car used in August. Only 62,000 miles on it. Really scary when your car speeds up on the highway-- even though you have CRUISE CONTROL on. Yep.

My window fuse blows all summer long and after every repair on the car. One of my back windows doesn't open most of the time. Sometimes, when I pop in a new fuse it'll work. Sometimes of course, the fuse immediately blows when I replace it or blows after a couple of hours.

Had to fix my alignment last summer.

And let's not forget the check engine light that comes on randomly. Mostly in the summertime of course.

And as someone else said, the button to pop my gas cap sticks. I spent five minutes pounding on it the other morning.

Long story short, this car is a mistake. Less than 100,000 miles and I can't wait to get rid of it. I doubt any dealer will buy it from me at a decent price, and I have too much conscience to pawn it off on some innocent person. Much like me.

27th Jun 2007, 23:01

Oh, and I forgot to mention: when they replaced my transmission they said they found metal in it. Yeahhhh.

And the only thing that helps is not using cruise control. And I totally hear the humming noises.

And the car generally dislikes the heat. Ailments including revving repeatedly when I start it.

19th Sep 2007, 00:09

I have had a 1998 Mercury Mystique LS for a little over a year now and despite the problems I love the car. Nobody looks at it and thinks it has any power until they are left in my dust. Right now I am currently replacing the upper intake manifold gasket along with a new PCV valve. This all came in to play when I saw the intake manifold runner rod was not connected. I have to take off the upper manifolds so I can get to it to reconnect it. Hopefully will get to it in a day or so. Other than that it leaks a little oil and I had to replace both rear struts and all 4 rotors. I love the car and will keep it until it dies.

4th Oct 2007, 03:35

'There has also been a loud vacuum noise coming from the hood, which has been happening since about 110K. I asked the mechanic to look into it, and they could not figure it out, so now I just ignore it.'

My 96 GS also has this problem.

And to fix your check engine light, you just need to hit the right bump in the road, works for me ;-)

15th May 2008, 07:47

Holy crap! Yeah I had a 1996 V6 Mercury Mistake. Man I put more money into that thing than I spent on myself. There were so many problems with the damn car all the time. Like the engine light always coming on. Taking it to a mechanic and couldn't find a problem. OR they find one, but it's so much $ to fix it. The only thing good about that car was the sound system I put in it, and how fast it would go before it would die out on me. Damn that car!