Mercury Mystique

Price Paid:  $11000.00 from advantage ford

Year / Model Reviewed:
2000 mystique

Strengths:
Look

Weaknesses:
The engine

Summary:
I thought I was buying a pretty good car. 4 months after I purchased this vehicle the vacuum hose broke. The dealer said it wasn't covered under the waranty but fixed it any way. They couldn't understand how it could just break off. Two months later I needed a new fuel pump. Now a year and 5 months later the vacuum hose just broke off again. Mercury says they won't repair it unless there is a recall on all of them.

Price Paid:  $11000.00 from advantage ford

Year / Model Reviewed:
2000 mystique

Strengths:
Look

Weaknesses:
The engine

Summary:
I thought I was buying a pretty good car. 4 months after I purchased this vehicle the vacuum hose broke. The dealer said it wasn't covered under the waranty but fixed it any way. They couldn't understand how it could just break off. Two months later I needed a new fuel pump. Now a year and 5 months later the vacuum hose just broke off again. Mercury says they won't repair it unless there is a recall on all of them.

Price Paid:  $0.00 from Program Car

Year / Model Reviewed:
2000 Mystique

Strengths:
COLD AC! This car blows cold. Looks sporty. relatively cheap. hmm, I'm really trying here. I've always been a Ford girl.......

Weaknesses:
See above, I really wanted to like this car. My first almost new car... It sucks and I'd be hard pressed to buy a new ford.

Summary:
Grr, wish I'd read here before I bought this car. This car sucks. I had it in the shop for repair to the water-pump (went out on my way to my wedding), a leaky door (still leaks), AC blower malfunction, and parking lights that mysteriously flash. Now that it is no longer under warranty, at 45k miles, I have a door that leaks, DS power window that is tempermental about closing, crappy gas milage, poor acceleration, interior light doesn't come on when ds door is opened, but the lights on alarm sticks even when all lights off and doors are shut, and now my dash is warping, popping out the vent on top. Car vibrates at 80mph and rattles. People who say problems with this car are owner related are smoking something. Dad is a mechanic and this car has recieved only the best care. I change the oil myself regularly and use best products. Recently changed spark plugs and that helped gas milage some. Will trade in as soon as possible!

Similar Products Used:
81 Thunderbird, 86 Mustang, 89 Ford Probe, 90 Ford Probe

Price Paid:  $15000.00 from Highland Mercury

Year / Model Reviewed:
2000 Mercury Mystique

Strengths:
Shiny when new, comfy leather interior (which by the way has to be detailed cuz the guy that worked on and botched the dashboard replacement wore greasy clothes and stained up the leather.)

Weaknesses:
Basically everything about the car is weak, the quality is poor, and the service even worse, I will never buy another ford product based on the problems ive had with this car.

Summary:
Where do I begin with the Mercury Mystique? Lets start with the name. It should be called the Mercury MISTAKE! This is the biggest piece of junk ever to roll out of Ford's assembly line. Lets see, first the brakes are recalled, then the thing starts making some noise like the power steering pump was going bad, which of course they denied a problem with it for over a year, until finally it was loud enough that you could hear it from fifty feet away. Next the instrument panel recall, when they fixed the recall they tore up the dash by the defroster vent. Spent an hour at Highland Mercury arguing with Dave (HI DAVE!) the service manager about whether or not he was gonna have it replaced. Finally he agreed to do it (2 out of 3 service managers wont talk to me there anymore) When they replaced that they screwed up the radio wood grain plastic panel, so now thats on order, as well as the panel under the steering column that they scratched up badly, and somehow they knocked the weather stripping loose on the passenger front door (its a 4 door). So now 2 pieces of trim and some weather stripping have been on order for a month. Also the linkage went bad in the gearshift, they took it apart and tore up something else and had to order a whole new gearshift kit, and now its slamming into reverse really hard. OH and just today, after about a 1 year break in this intermittent problem, it started dying from time to time. All I can say is if your thinking about buying it, go to the grocery store and just buy one of the lemons there, they are cheaper.

Similar Products Used:
A bunch of ford loaner cars which also ran like **** while this was in the shop

Price Paid:  $15000.00 from Santa Maria Ford

Strengths:
The interiors are really comfortable, with bucket seats that are really soft. It has a good soundsystem too, and even the 4-cylinder automatic has some good acceleration in first gear, but the power ends at first...and the defroster is really good.

Weaknesses:
It has really horrible gas milage, the brakes get really shaky and weak when pressed too hard (like with antilock brakes activated), the recalls are irritating, the cupholders are useless, the gears shift in a weird pattern, and the gears shift at unnecessary times. The AC isn't cold no matter how many times I fix it, and the car spontaneously shuts off while being driven, which can be potentially dangerous in city traffic.

Summary:
This car is a junk trap. It was bought for me by my parents, and they thought it was some great deal. It not only has more recalls then humanly possible, it rattles, has really bad gear-shifting, and eats gas like mad. The gas-milage is horrible. The recalls make me so angry, and cost me a lot of money, since the warrenties don't apply to anything that needs to be changed. The dashboard got recalled, and replaced, and now is a different color than the rest of my interior because they don't have the same color anymore. Further inconveniences regard the gear shifts, which are slow and cumbersome. The brakes basically gave out a few days ago. The most annoying part of the car is how it shuts off from time to time while it's being driven. While in a different city than I live in, in main-stream traffic, the car shut off, losing all power, but still in gear. I had to push it to the side so that I didn't get rear-ended. It has done this shutting-off number a few times, and each time makes me dislike the car more and more. Oh, it has 3 cupholders, which are virtually useless. They are all too small and have little space above them, which means that drinks from fast-food restaurants are too tall to fit. Yeah, that really bugs. Even still, the AC was defective, and the car would surge forward when I was stopped, which was a hassle when I almost hit the car in front of me a few times. The AC had to be serviced, which wasn't under warrenty. Besides that, the main problems are the recalls.

Similar Products Used:
1993 Ford Explorer (the best car ever) 2000 Ford Mustang (the second best car ever) 1994 Pontiac Sunbird (second worst car)