Why you should buy this car:
You want a luxury SUV that isn't blinged out or foreign. Your expectation of what luxury entails is fairly low. You don't like driving but you're too lazy to ride a bicycle. You give money to groups that support eco-friendly candidates but you don't actually vote.

Why you shouldn't buy…

Exterior Design:***
Whereas the platform buddy Ford Escape never manages to look tough enough and the other derivative, the Mazda Tribute, looks like a child with some sort of neurological condition, the Mercury Mariner Hybrid appears exactly as it should. By far the best looking of the trio, the conservative looks…

The full title of this review is "2008 Mercury Mariner Hybrid, Part One or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love my Yuppie Ass" but the kicker wouldn't look good on the page. I do my best to pass myself off as anything-but-a-yuppie. Preferring to rock cheap chinos, a hoody and an Astros cap over J. Crew sweater vests…

Now that the tax incentives to on the Toyota Prius have run out, the new king of the road for deductions are the hybrid offerings from Ford — the Hybrid Ford Escape and Hybrid Mercury Mariner two wheel drive. The taxman will be giving buyers of the twin hybrids up to $3,000 in deductions in an effort to offset the…

We'd forgive you if you didn't know that anything would be happening at the Washington, D.C. Auto Show this year. We'd also forgive you if you didn't know there was a new 2009 Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner on the way. Finally, we'd forgive you if after looking at these photos of the 2009 Ford Escape/Mariner you were…

As if there was any remaining question Mercury's become Ford's chick brand (Jill Wagner, call the front desk) it's gone the way of the tube dress. That message's been strengthened by the introduction of Mercury's new VOGA-edition vehicles. It's the latest in a long line of Ford's designer-edition models, starting with…

If you're one seriously fly mofo looking for a special limo that doesn't gulp unleaded like that blond from Omaha put away bottles of Krug Grand Cuvée, you might consider putting Mercury on your list. At least, that's what the company's beseeching. Ford's promoting a new livery package for the Mercury Mariner Hybrid,…

We just got the latest press missive from Ford on the 2008 Mercury Mariner in both hybrid and non-hybrid flavors. The release, headlined "2008 MERCURY MARINER IS A HIT WITH ONLINE CONSUMERS" is a list of supposed owner comments culled from the posts of consumer auto-site forums. As you can expect, the remarks provide…

Yes, not as much Jill Wagner as we'd like, but hell, we'll take as much of her as FoMoCo will give us. In this episode of Blade commercialism from the not-Ford brand, our fair heroine is explaining how she can single-handedly re-badge a Ford product as a Mercury by placing the badge in the middle of thin air,…

Looks like Al Gore's decided that it may be a bit inconvenient for him to be telling all this truth on the environment while driving what we're assuming is a non-hybrid a Lexus. The former Veep's following his boss and thinking Ford first. Gore's trading in his ToMoCo-made Lexus for a brand-spanking-new 2007 Mercury…