2008 Mercury Mariner

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To make sure everyone know Mercury is a live, Ford just revealed pictures of the new Mariner. Ahead of the Escape clone…

It looks like what we thought. Basicaly a new front, new rear and interior.
Unless I am wrong (is that even possible..)

I am not sure the interior is an improvement over the current model. Maybe materials are better.
The buttons on the console seem lost in a see of plastic and these door panels are pretty square.
But the outside looks nice.
And the Hybrid model seems to be pretty popular, at least around here…

Conversation 19 comments

  1. i do like the interior better but that dash IS nasty like you said, spider. all those black buttons look really busy and detract from the improvement i thnk were made.

    part of the problem is that it’s one long panel with lots of buttons. there isn’t any real separation. maybe the layout’s better with a nav screen in there???

  2. I’m not sure why anyone would buy this over the Escape. This is supposed to be an upscale small ute? Why aren’t the dash materials very rich looking? Why aren’t the back-up sensors not painted? Why isn’t the door keypad painted? Where’s the Nav screen in this “upscale” SUV?

    Why is this vehicle so damn dated? I like Ford, but c’mon on dammnit! Mercury is going down the tubes quick, and this stinks!

  3. Q: What is the difference between Chrysler & Ford?
    A: Chrysler outsources its interior design to Rubbermaid while Ford employs Maytag stylists.

    Jeez Louise, GM used to be the car company with crappy interiors. Now I look at the new Tahoes and Auras and say “about time!”
    Ford has lost its way.

  4. I’m so glad that Ford Motor Company is reminding us that Mercury is still alive, but it’s too late.

    Mercury has been dead for so long, that these badge-engineered, Ford knockoffs look increasingly silly with every passing attempt to prove that the Mercury brand is still around.

    Ford should end the Mercury joke.

  5. One has to wonder why J Mays left VW, since so much of what Ford seems to have done since he arrived is very VW-inspired. The big chrome face now appearing on their trucks (like this one), the Five Hundred Audi/Passat lookalike, the Thunderbird that looked like it was run through the same retro-izing computer program as the New Beetle, etc.

    While I approve of the cleanliness of design that also followed him from VW, the three-bar grille thing seems to be the only semi-original thing to appear at Ford in the last 5 years. And even that doesn’t seem to be aging all that well.

  6. I think it’s a good freshening of an aging vehicle. I hope the quality of the plastics is an improvemnt over the older design. They were flimsy and had a very poor feel to them. The 2008 Mariner is still a reasonable alternative for its class.

  7. Wait, so is this an all new redesign? It looks identical except for the equinox tail lights. How boring.

  8. it looks like a new suv, just a cautious redesighn, i think its nice looking better looking than the crv or rav 4 or to me less wagon more small suv and more cohesive, why doesnt the grill on the crv go with anything else on the car it looks like an after thought (but than again i dont have any grudges against any car company lol) not sure what they were thinking with the dash, but at the price they will be sold i think its not bad overall

  9. It’s not all new.
    just like other Ford trucks, they’re almost never all new.
    New front, rear, interior. Same engines and still a 4 speed auto.
    I just saw my 1st 2007 CRV in the streets and I thought it looked really nice, by the way.
    Just like what it is, a nice car with an SUV look.
    And much more upscale than the RAV4.

  10. vince i still think your wrong here…not that it matters but just like to be right when i acutally am. the rest of the body is new as well, it may share parts and whatever with the old one i would assume but this car has different door panels and overall has a more squared off look than the old mercury, again a conservative redesighn, but still thats what it is a redesighn

  11. Vince is right, this isn’t at all a full redesign. Sure they changed the door panels, the front fascia, the interior and some other superficial changes, but any consumer will look through all that and see that this is the same for escape that has been on the market forever and will certainly value the car at less than what ford will be selling it for.

    They just never learn. They think they save money by not going all out with the redeisgn but people see right through that and for roughly the same price, people buy the brand new asian models which feature nearly total redesigns each new 4-year model cycle. They can’t yet compete with that.

  12. “autoweek.com” backs up my statements. again not that it matters but if im right im right. they said all new sheet metal, ugraded chassis new transmission and new interior,

  13. hey, I agree… 10% shared parts with last year MAX! and the best part is how it’s much more distinguished from the next-gen Escape… except both still ofer hybrids!

  14. One of the ugliest SUV interiors I have seen in a long long time. This is an embarrassment to automotive interiors. Ford should be ashamed of themselves. This is 2006, not 1986.

  15. An argument about the *buttons* elsewhere demanded careful study of this large pic – – After looking at it, I find the layout to be very straight forward. And ‘prettier’ than I thought at first. Vince, can you find a night-shot for us??

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