As I made my rental reservation a couple weeks ago, I decided to splurge and spend the extra $10 / week to move from a mid-size to a full-size vehicle. This includes vehicles such as the Acura RL, Dodge Charger, Nissan Maxima and the like. As I remembered when I walked to my space in the rental lot, it also includes the Ford Crown Victoria. That's right, I had the opportunity to play police officer for a week!
Throwing my travel bag and computer into the enormous trunk (which, for some insane reason, has a spare tire right in the middle of it taking up a ton of space), I hopped in, slid across the fine plastic front seat, and was thrilled to find that my paperwork was not in the car as it should be.
I returned to the counter and explained my plight - how could I possibly leave the lot without papers? Naturally they had them handy, but I persisted and talked my way out of the Crown Victoria and into a 2008 Mercury Sable.
Now, as some of you may know, the Sable wasn't always a Sable. It started life as the Mercury Montego a few years ago as an all new platform while the "old" Sable was still in production. A reasonably sized sales disaster, along with her sister vehicle the Ford Five Hundred, the Montego was rebadged a Sable after the old Sable bodystyle (and President of Ford!) were discontinued. The new President, Alan Mulally, determined that a) making all of your vehicles start with the same letter as their brand (Ford Fusion, Five Hundred, Focus, Mercury Monterey, Montego, etc) was assinine, and b) so was dropping the car with the most recognized brand name in your lineup. So the Montego because the Sable, and the Five Hundred because the Taurus.
I've driven the "old" Sable and old Taurus, and now that I've driven the new Sable, let me tell you, this is a completely different vehicle that is nicer in every single regard. This particular vehicle (VIN 1MEHM40W08G620299) had a nice interior, was well put together, and best of all, was functional. Although it rode a bit soft for my liking, I could see this as a very workable vehicle for our family if we moved away from our existing vehicle. So let's get at it in more detail:
Exterior: Well put together, broad appeal
As mentioned above, this vehicle is a couple years old, but has seen a couple minor updates and while not striking, it is far from stale. It is more accurately described as "appealing to a broad audience"; it won't knock your socks off, but you'll be hard pressed to find anything repulsive.
The fit and finish of this vehicle was excellent. The body panel gaps were consistent, although a bit wider that need be in some spots - tighter tolerances at sheetmetal intersections would help make this vehicle a bit cleaner looking.
While not technically part of the exterior, I should point out that the moderate sized rear decklid houses an enormous trunk. The used to advertise that this car will hold 10 bags of golf clubs (or some similar number that was significantly more passengers than will ever fit) and I don't doubt it. I'll bet in a pinch you could probably get 6-7 golfers to the course - 5 in the interior and the other one or two in the trunk with all the bags.
Interior: Excellent Fit & Finish
This particular unit had leather seats and a two-tone interior. As a long time Bass and Guinness fan I have a definite affinity for black and tan, so perhaps that explains why I liked this interior. I suppose the wood trim is more accurately called "blonde" as it is very light in color. And yet, unlike other vehicles this wood doesn't appear fake, it just looks nice. Perhaps it is a very good replica, but in any case it at least looks real!
The remainder of the interior materials were equally well chosen, although my standard complaint was again present - lack of padding on the door upper where you rest your elbow. Maybe I've just been spoiled with my previous vehicles (ok, I have, but that's a different story) but since spending significant time in rentals I've got a constantly sore elbow. I've got other things I could whine about as well, but I don't get to write for a blog related to those...
The seats were supportive, but not overly sculpted - hard cornering will leave you sliding around a bit so ensure you have a good grip on the wheel. Or stay off the race track, which is probably a decent idea with this vehicle anyway.
The steering wheel and controls were well placed and easily reached. Volume, station/track change, and cruise controls are within easy reach on the wheel while the center stack houses the radio itself, manual HVAC controls, and the requisite hazard light switch. The instrument panel includes all the usual suspects: a large, easy to read speedometer (unless you need to read your speed in km/hr, in which case you are out of luck), a large tachometer (why? it's an automatic!), temperature and fuel gauges, and an LED readout.
A minor irritant that seems to be present in most automatic vehicles these days are the steering wheel radio and cruise controls are reversed. "What difference does it make?", you may ask, "you have both hands available...". And this would be true, while driving an automatic. But if you look at most manual vehicles, the cruise controls are on the right, underneath the hand that is only the wheel while not shifting. Why is this? Because you can't use the cruise control while shifting, so there is no reason to access it with anything other than your shift hand. You may want to change the radio station, volume, etc, by contrast, and thus those are located underneath your hand that is always on the wheel. Somewhere along the line someone reversed these and thus I find myself jabbing away at the "Accel" button while trying to change the radio station. Well look at that - I found something else to whine about after all :)
Powertrain: Wow! Have you driven this Ford lately?
Powerful. Responsive. Smooooooth. Words you typically don't hear in relation to Ford vehicles, and certainly not from me. And yet this car shifted so smoothly and effortlessly throughout my trip that I found myself wondering, on the Friday trip back to the airport, whether or not I was driving a Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT). As it turns out, the answer was no, but I had to actively pay attention in order to figure out this was a conventional automatic, and I'm still not sure if it was a 5 or a 6 speed. Major kudo's to the engineers who programmed the powertrain in this vehicle for a job well done. Whether upshifting or downshifting, the engine speed matched the driveline speed and nary a jolt was felt.
Acceleration was brisk and dependable. Push on the gas pedal and off you go and yet the the throttle was not all front-loaded; push a bit harder and you get faster acceleration, push a bit harder than that and a clean downshift occurs to move you up into the powerband.
Steering was tight with a good on-center feel, but as we already determined in the seating section, you'll again want to stay away from the racetrack as the suspension simply won't put up with being thrown around in the corners. Body roll is abundant, as expected in a vehicle of this size and weight, the tires are already scrabbling for sufficient hold, and the car wallows a bit over dips.
Lastly, in the fuel economy arena, the Sable averaged 22 mpg during my 180 miles using just over 8.5 gallons of gas. Pretty respectable given that my morning commutes average about 30 mph in 20 miles of stop and go traffic and my evening commute is spent testing the vehicles capabilities.
The Verdict:
This car is an excellent highway cruiser and more than capable of hauling a family or group of friends around town while getting pretty good gas mileage to boot. It won't set any land speed records, but you can certainly get yourself some speeding tickets if you aren't careful (although I'd bet that you could outhandle the LEO if he were driving an Impala).
I'm generally pretty hard on vehicles and tolerate few flaws - you know a vehicle did well when the biggest complaint is that the redundant radio controls on the steering wheel are on the wrong side.
For those of you looking for a new family mobile, you need to add this one to your consideration set - you won't be disappointed.
Next week: 2009 Saturn Aura
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