2006 Mercury Monterey Review
The Mercury Monterey is essentially a Ford Freestar with a higher level of equipment and some Mercury styling cues. The Monterey offers luxury touches such as a dual climate control system, wood-and-leather steering wheel with built-in cruise and audio controls, and power adjustable pedals.
Safety is its strong suit, with both active handling safeguards and comprehensive passive passenger protection. Its third-row seat folds flat into the floor, offering lots of cargo space for a family of four, and it can carry up to seven.
On the road, the Monterey is smooth and quiet with responsive steering and handling. Parking is made easier by its front and rear park-assist system. The Monterey comes with a big 4.2-liter V6 that packs a lot of torque, giving it good performance. It's rated to pull trailers of up to 3,500 pounds when equipped with the optional Class II towing package.
The Monterey stands out with its three-row Safety Canopy airbag system designed to offer head protection for passengers in all three rows, an occupant-sensing front-passenger airbag, and four-wheel anti-lock disc brakes. The optional AdvanceTrac stability control with traction control and panic Brake Assist can help the driver maintain control. Also available are a tire-pressure monitoring system and self-sealing tires. With a reinforced structure to absorb offset frontal impacts, Monterey earned the highest possible score (five stars) in government frontal crash tests. The Monterey comes recommended by the insurance industry for its offset-frontal crash performance.
The 2006 Mercury Monterey comes in only one trim level, the well-equipped Luxury edition, previously the designation for the mid-level version of the Monterey. The manufacturer's suggested retail price for the 2006 Monterey Luxury ($28,930) is reduced from the 2005 price.
It comes with front-wheel drive, the 4.2-liter V6 engine, a four-speed automatic transmission, and anti-lock brakes (ABS).
Interior equipment includes first- and second-row captain's chair seats, and a cloth-trimmed third-row seat that folds flat into the floor or tilts back to form a convenient tail-gate spectator seat. Cloth upholstery is standard. Also standard: dual-zone air conditioning, tilt leather and wood-trimmed steering wheel with cruise and audio controls, a six-way adjustable driver's seat with lumbar adjustment, power-adjustable pedals with memory, power sliding doors, third-row reading lamps and roof rails. Securilock anti-theft system, overhead and front floor consoles with storage, and a park assist system that works going forward as well as in reverse are also standard.
The Mercury Monterey is a traditionally styled minivan that blends in with the scenery. Most of its bodywork is shared with the Ford Freestar. The vertically textured waterfall grille and more restrained headlamps distinguish the Mercury and suggest a family resemblance to the bolder Mountaineer sport-utility.
Satin-aluminum accents and a monochromatic color scheme hint at the Monterey's upscale ambitions. The optional liftgate spoiler adds a sporty note.
One unusual design feature is the way the front side windows lower below the inside portion of the door trim. When the window is fully down, the inner door panel sticks up above at a comfortable armrest height.
Turn-signal repeaters in the outside mirrors are a nice feature, helping to warn other motorists of your intentions, which can be particularly helpful when someone is in your blind spot. An interesting safety feature we noticed was that whenever one of the sliding side doors is open the mirror signal on that side blinks. It's a clever idea, and could help alert passing motorists that people are getting in or out of your Monterey.
The Mercury Monterey features the same interior as the Ford Freestar, but with more upscale materials. The focal point of the interior is a watch-like clock in the middle of the center dash. Both wood and bright-metal accents add richness.
Heating and air conditioning controls offer three zones of control (driver, front passenger, and rear) to tailor the temperature for your individual passengers. The rear A/C works well and can be a critical feature for kids and pets on hot days. The audio controls work fine, but don't exude quality. No navigation system is available.
Given Monterey's luxury aspirations, its seats could be more comfortable. The front seats are like bar stools, with narrow bottoms that lack side support. However, they do offer the option of cooling and heating, a nice feature on hot summer afternoons and cold winter mornings.
The Monterey seats seven: two in front, two in the second row, three in the third row. Like the front seats, the second-row captain's chairs are narrow and lack support, but there's plenty of room for two adults. The third-row bench seat works for pipsqueaks, but its short seat height makes it cramped for teenagers. Getting to the third row is relatively easy. The second-row seatbacks can be folded with one hand, which makes life easier when loading stuff in back. And the seat bottoms can be tumbled forward for crawling into the third row.
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