2002 Mercury Mountaineer Review

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You know and I know that the image Mercury wanted to conjure by giving the name Mountaineer to its sport-utility vehicle several years ago had everything to do with suggestions of "ascendancy," "superiority," "derring-do." From the outset, Mercury Mountaineer has been promoted as the upscale sport-ute for upscale folks whose chief transportation requirement is upward mobility.

I am no mountaineer myself, but I suspect everyone engaged in scaling steep rocks expects to fall now and again. Dragged down by its belay-partner—its nearly identical twin Ford Explorer—Mercury's Mountaineer has indeed taken a tumble since last year's Firestone tire/rollover debacle engulfed both vehicles in a public relations inferno. To make matters worse, the economy has slowed just as the next generation 2002 Explorers and Mountaineers are hitting showrooms this spring. Demand for any vehicle almost always softens just before it's about to be replaced with a significantly revised version.

But can that tendency account for all of Mountaineer's discouraging slide in sales? According to Automotive News, Mercury sold 40 percent fewer Mountaineers in the first quarter of this year compared with the first quarter of 2000. (Explorer sales are likewise down about 25 percent.) In these circumstances, last week's recall of 56,000 Mountaineers and Explorers to repair brackets that might shatter the rear "liftglass" hatch is fully consistent with that other notorious hazard of mountaineering, the avalanche.

Yes, Mercury's Mountaineer is in a fall; but it is not a free-fall. The ropes will hold. And as more people become familiar with the changes and improvements to this vehicle—some of them positively dramatic—it's fairly certain that the Mountaineer/Explorer duo will climb back into public esteem and even fortify its status as the best-selling sport-utility vehicle platform in the world.

Serendipity and change

An interesting serendipity lies beneath the major and minor changes embodied in this new Mountaineer. Take four-wheel independent suspension, for example. Sure, for enthusiasts it's a performance feature, since it improves handling significantly. Commuters and carpoolers probably don't much care. But they should. It's thanks in part to the compact dimensions of the new independent rear suspension that rear seat legroom grows by an inch and shoulder room by almost 2 1/2 inches. Then, with no beam axle to contend with, designers were also able to lower the Mountaineer's floor enough to accommodate a hidden third-row bench seat that pops up like a jack-in-the-box to seat two adults. Despite the lowered floor, independent suspension geometry also allows an inch more ground clearance than before (to 9 inches). So this one important suspension change that most people may not even notice makes possible the Mountaineer's seating for seven, roomier passenger space, and better off-road capability.

The seven-passenger issue, moreover, has become the new benchmark for midsize SUVs. Acura fired the first shot with its clever MDX. The Mountaineer has followed suit with its own rear bench that disappears into the floor, but I actually prefer Mercury's strategy for reaching the rear-most seats. The second-row bench split-folds 40/20/40 so that not only is access to the far back available from either rear door, the middle row layout can be configured to accommodate different variations of people and cargo.

With 81 cu. ft. of maximum cargo space behind the front seats, the Mercury and Acura are similarly capacious and versatile. But the Mercury costs thousands less than the MDX. The two-wheel-drive Mountaineer with a 4.0-liter, 210-horsepower V-6 starts at $28,630; an all-wheel-drive version starts at $30,610. The Acura is AWD only, and starts at over $34,000. I tested a 2002 Mountaineer with the optional—and currently scarce—4.6-liter V-8 ($695). Even with thousands of dollars' worth of luxury and convenience add-ons, the 240-horsepower V-8 Mountaineer still cost almost $1500 less than the 240-horse V-6 MDX ($37,450 with options) that so tickled my fancy in this space mere weeks ago.

The 2002 Mountaineer is both muscular and relatively nimble, and this makes it far more enjoyable to drive around town than the full-size Chevy Tahoes and Suburbans or Dodge Durangos that heretofore represented the only reasonable choices for seven-passenger seating in an SUV. Mountaineer's AWD system is new and exclusive to Mercury. It replaces last year's ControlTrac system with its locking four-wheel-drive capability. It also takes Mountaineer out of the running for rugged trail-blazing, but it's clear that Mercury has targeted an urbane, commuter-minded audience with this vehicle anyway. The interior is too chichi and leathery; the optional 290-watt sound-system with in-dash six-CD changer too self-indulgent; the fashionable two-tone paint and plastic body cladding too precious for anyone to imagine this Mountaineer busting a gut in some rock-strewn mudhole miles from nowhere.

What one can imagine, however, is the importance many SUV shoppers will attach to Mountaineer's "Safety Canopy" that safeguards against rollover injuries. This optional system incorporates the only side-impact airbags of their kind for front and middle-row occupants. These curtain-style airbags are integrated with a rollover sensor that can detect vehicle lean angles and the rate at which tilt is changing. If the sensor diagnoses an impending rollover, the side airbags deploy preemptively to prevent occupants from being ejected. Ford and Mercury are at pains, of course, to remind the public that SUV rollovers remain statistically rare. Nevertheless, they admit that "approximately half of all SUV fatalities involve a rollover"—regardless of the make or model of vehicle.

With its Safety Canopy for the new Mountaineer and Explorer, Ford hopes to offer peace of mind to SUV owners that, so far, no other manufacturer can match. Whether the public is reassured by this bold, exclusive feature or put off by its implications for all SUVs in general will have much to do with the success of Mountaineer's steely-eyed determination to reclaim the high ground.

2002 Mercury Mountaineer
Base price: $30,610; as tested, $36,055
Engine: 4.0-liter V-6, 210 hp; 4.6-liter SOHC V-8, 240 hp
Transmission: Five-speed automatic, all-wheel drive
Length x width x height: 190.7 x 72.1 x 71.1 in
Wheelbase: 113.7 in
Curb weight: 4411 lb
EPA City/Hwy: (est.) 14-16/city; 18-22/hwy
Safety equipment: Front airbags, ABS, ControlSlip telescoping rear driveshaft; Safety Canopy side-curtain airbags w/ rollover sensor (optional), Personal Safety System dual-stage front airbags (optional)
Major standard equipment: Seven-passenger seating, HVAC, six-way power driver's seat, remote keyless entry, power windows/locks/mirrors, AM/FM/cassette/CD stereo, four-wheel independent suspension
Warranty: Three years/36,000 miles

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