2011 Mercury Mariner Preview

Review of 2011 Mercury Mariner

Mercury Mariner is not considerably changed for 2011; this is a small sized compact sport utility vehicle and shares its basic design with Mazda Tribute as well as Ford Escape. This vehicle is a 4-door wagon that is designed to accommodate five passengers. It is available in up-level Premier and Base trim levels. Each trim is designed with a 2.5-liter 4-cylinder engine to develop 171 horsepower. Moreover, both trims have an optional 3.0-liter V6 engine to churn out 240 horsepower. Each engine works on E85 ethanol-blended fuel. These two engines are mated to an automatic 6-speed transmission.

In addition to all these, the vehicle is also available as a hybrid variant, which is designed with a 2.5-liter 4-cylinder gas engine with a battery-powered electric motor to churn out 153 horsepower. This hybrid system doesn’t require plug-in charge and works by using either one or both power sources. The hybrid models are designed with an automatic Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) that behaves much like an automatic mode. Each engine’s towing capacity is 1,500 pounds. All models are produced with either all-wheel drive or front wheel drive.

Salient Features

Coming to standard safety equipments, 2011 Mercury Mariner includes antiskid system, curtain-side airbags, an antilock braking system, front-side airbags, and traction control. Both Base and Hybrid models get optional leather upholstery that is standard on the Premier trim levels. Moreover, the vehicle has rearview camera, rear-obstacle detection, a navigation system, dual-zone automatic climate control, a hands-free parallel parking system, and hard drive for storing digital-music files.