Used 2002 Mercury Sable for Sale

I bought this car almost new. It was actually a rental car for a year and a half. While the car was big and actually handled quite well, it did have a soft feel on cornering, but was big and relaxing to drive, kind of like a poor man's Cadillac. The CD multi speaker sound system was fantastic, and it had ABS which really saved my skin a few times trying to stop on ice during the winter. Plenty of room for the family.

I bought my Mercury Sable used and as is from a car lot. That was my first mistake. The engine had terrible issues regarding overheating. I had to sink another $2500 into it before it was drive-able. That really put a bad taste in my mouth. Now that the engine overheating problem is fixed it idles very strangely and makes odd creaking noises when I push down on the break. My problem is, my last two cars were made by Saturn, I do not know if this is indicative of all older Mercurys or if whoever owned my car last just ran it really hard before using it for trade in value on something new. Assuming the problems I experienced are just isolated to this one vehicle I would say the things that are not messed up about it are pretty nice. The interior is very nice and the faux wood panels as well as strong air conditioner system are all things for the plus category. The ride is very smooth and even takes bumps with relative ease. One con, and I think this is just the fact it's an older car, is the comparatively poor gas mileage. My last car (a 2004 Saturn Ion) got about 24/30 mpg respectively this one does more in the realm of 20/25 mpg which gets noticeable on long trips. If I drove a version of this vehicle in mint condition and it didn't have any of the issues I encountered with my used Sable I would recommend it. Otherwise? Keep looking for something with better mileage.