Mercury Mariner Hybrid 2007 - A Hybrid as a Dog Vehicle? You Bet!

I have had my eye on this SUV for quite some time. Mercury is the "upgrade" to several Ford models and the Mariner is a nicer version of the Ford Escape. I wanted something with better gas mileage than my 1996 Explorer, feel like I was contributing to a better environment and still not pay an arm and a leg for the features of my Eddie Bauer model.

I saw another review on the Mariner HEV, which didn’t give it high marks as a dog vehicle. Admittedly, it is *not* the best in its class for that purpose. It seems not much can match the Element as a medium-sized dog vehicle, but I wanted some features the Element just didn’t offer – electric moonroof w/shade in the front, leather seats, fully adjustable driver’s seat, navigation, light tan interior and of course, a hybrid electric engine. Oh – and my MUST-HAVE: a flip-up window in the back. For some odd reason, most vehicles do not have that feature, and it is something I use a lot while traveling with the dogs.

I wanted to build a riser in the back and use crate panels and dividers to separate the dogs, so I had to carefully measure the vehicle to get my dimensions accurate. In order to make everything fit, I chose to remove the bottom cushions of the back seats which gave me a lot of additional space behind the front seats. I was then able to closely mimic what is in my Explorer with a few modifications to a 2-part riser. It’s about a foot shorter inside and a few inches narrower, but I’m still able to fit three medium sized dogs safely. A recent trip to Scottsdale, AZ, proved that. Of course, there are ongoing tweaks to the set-up but it really does work as I’d hoped.

The Mariner has nice pick-up from a stop but of course that’s where a lot of gas is wasted so I’m trying to avoid the jackrabbit starts and ease up on the gas a bit. Once the vehicle is warmed up (about 5 minutes) the electric engine will assume its duties. At low speeds, you can travel in all electric mode, which is pretty neat. On really hot days or stuck in traffic you will have to put the A/C at MAX which will result in the gasoline engine kicking on, but it’s a small price for keeping the dogs cool.

The Navigation works great! I played with it a bit before my trip, but from CA to AZ, I had no problems. You can choose all freeway, no freeway, fastest route, etc. and if you get off track, the navigation re-directs you to your destination. It would be nice to not have a bunch of regional CD’s (other NAV systems use a DVD) but it’s really not that much of a hassle and you can plug in a destination and change your CD’s without cancelling the travel instruction. What’s also fun, typical to most hybrids, is a graphic readout of how your engine is functioning, your gas consumption and average miles per gallon. It becomes somewhat of a game to try to increase the miles per gallon, much to the chagrin of those impatient drivers behind me. (If everyone had this little readout, I'm betting even non-hybrid drivers would take note of what really consumes fuel and how to get the most out of every gallon of gas.)

The extra 6-CD-Changer in the Mariner is located underneath the passenger seat, so you have to load it up before you head out on your trip, but it’s handy to add a book on CD or music CD’s in addition to the NAV CD location on your dash. I continually flipped from radio to NAV to mileage readout to CD with ease. I have not added the parts for Sirius satellite radio, but that is also an option.

Overall I’m really pleased with the Mariner Hybrid. Time will tell how well it holds up and if any problems develop, but I’ve not experienced anything negative so far!