2009 Mercury Mariner Hybrid Review

2009 Mercury Mariner Hybrid Review Ford got out early on this idea of Hybrid SUV’s. Remember the Escape Hybrid low in those many years ago? Well, here its upscale twin sister, the ‘09 Mercury Mariner Hybrid. Let's check the tech and see how the Hybrid part has evolved. Now, when you buy a Mariner Hybrid, even if it’s just bone stock, it’s going to have sync. You'll have a much simpler, that’s code for uglier, black and green display. It’s much harder to deal with. We have the optional Nav, so we get the LCD screen. But let's start with the map. Graphics quality is pretty darn good on this car, definitely better than some Ford’s a couple of years ago. As you can see, we have live traffic on here because this vehicle has Sirius Travel Link. Now, we've shown this to you before. You’ve got weather and you’ve got the fun stuff here, fuel, movie listings, sports info. Now on to the media, regardless of whether you get the Nav package or not, it’s kind of the same stereo system, six-disc in-dash CD that can also digest MP3 CD’s. So, that’s nice. It’s hard drive based. When I put a disc in here, I can rip it to the hard drive and of course, sync systems have USB. There's the USB jack there. I can put my thumb drive in there but for some reason, this thumb drive full of MP3 files doesn’t read. This is also going to be able to control a smart player like an iPod and next to that, the good old- fashioned line in if all these high tech stuff just gets annoying. Now, as I’ve often pointed out in these reports, I’ll like a technology. I think a year later, I won't. A year ago, I was in love with SYNC, I still like it a lot but it’s getting annoying. Let me show you why. You hit the button here to talk to it, “Navigation. Destination.” That’s what I get sick and tired of and I've got this thing set up to the least amount of annoying back and forth and it still makes you wait for the little sound, a pause, the ding then you can talk. Let's cut to the chase. How’s the MPG? It’s rated at 34 city, 31 highway but we saw more like 28 miles per gallon in mixed driving. If you get a kick out of driving a hybrid in the silent electric mode, you're not going to get a lot of kicks here, unless, you barely feather the accelerator pedal. This powertrain quickly goes from EV mode to running on the gas engine. I did find that turning off the AC kept the car in EV mode a lot more during low speed driving. I think it is fair to say this engine is a Ford that delivers the power of a V6, just not the smoothness. There's nothing really silky about it though it’s not bad and you have to get used to high RPM’s which the CVT gearbox eagerly seeks as it tries to keep the gas engine running in that sweet spot between 3 and 5,000 RPM. Our car was a tail dragger, so we didn’t get a chance to try out the unusual electrically powered all wheel drive. Let's price this ‘09 Mariner Hybrid. Now bear in mind, the hybrids come relatively well trimmed, so 30,500 base with destination charge. On top of that, $2,000.00 for the navigation with Live Traffic and Sirius Travel Link, another 2 grand will get you a dual head rest, rear set entertainment system. That’s the way I like them to be done instead of a dropdown from the ceiling. $800.00 for that moonroof by the way and if you want all wheel drive, the MSRP goes up by 1,800.