Driving Impressions

The new 3.5-liter engine is extremely quiet and smooth at idle, and uses a pendulum mounting system that effectively separates its motions and vibrations from the rest of the car. It sounds healthy, powerful and smooth at full throttle, makes the Sable much quicker in acceleration and passing situations, and settles down to a whisper in sixth gear, as it should. At freeway speeds, the Sable is very, very quiet inside. If you were blindfolded and taken for a ride at full throttle in the new Sable, you'd never believe it's basically the same car as the old Montego. The engine's power, thrust and torque are of a much higher order than the weak old 3.0-liter V6 engine, and the six-speed transmission shifts very quickly with very little time lapse or power loss between gears. It sounds much more powerful without being harsh or intrusive, and it provides some real driving joy when the accelerator pedal is pushed all the way down at the flash of a green light. The ABS disc brakes were equally powerful, with easy modulation and a very nice, powerful progression at the pedal, and not a lot of dead space at the top of the pedal's travel. Braking starts right at the top and gets progressively better, with electronic brake force distribution to keep the car stable, and full ABS whenever you need it. These brakes are not sports-car large or thick, they just do their job very well for regular passenger car brakes. The normal front-wheel-drive Sable carries a 3.16:1 final drive ratio for acceleration performance, while the all-wheel-drive version uses a substantially higher ratio of 2.77:1, presumably to keep powertrain noise to a minimum at highway speeds. That was perfectly alright with us, and the car turned out to be a very enjoyable traveling companion in terms of noise, vibration, harshness, and powertrain intrusion. With traction control and optional AdvanceTrac stability control, the computers take over whenever there's a negative encounter with rain, snow, ice or mud, to keep the car going in its original, intended direction, flat and stable, and we count that well worth the additional $1850 for the AWD system. The new electric power steering system is overboosted at parking and low road speeds to suit the tastes of most American customers who like effortless steering, but it is also accurate, with good feedback, and is not overly assisted in high-speed or highway driving. The new Sable's ride is soft and compliant, with 10 percent more suspension travel built in, with some body roll in the fast corners, and it has a noticeable upward pitch of the front end on hard acceleration, but most of the time, the 2008 Sable is a very pleasant car to be in. We found the Sable to be very quiet and smooth on the open road, with excellent outward vision in all directions because of all that tall glass, with a nice, high seating position, very comfortable and supportive front bucket seats, and instruments and controls that were easy to look at and easy to use. The navigation system was easy to learn and use. The gray graphics of the system don't match the blue-green graphics on the rest of the instruments, however.

Final Word

The Mercury Sable has class-leading passenger and cargo room inside, when you count the trunk, the folding rear seats, and the legroom-heavy interior, and that alone may be a reason to buy for a larger family. The AWD models have a very capable computer-controlled all-wheel-drive system for all-weather driving. The Sable comes with a brand-new powertrain with competitive power and mileage in this segment. The Sable is big on the inside, big on the outside, and it rides taller than most of the sedans in this segment with its raised seats. Jim McCraw filed this report to NewCarTestDrive.com from his base in Dearborn, Michigan.