I recommend going to the Ford and Mercury web sites and doing a comparison. This will answer most of the questions you have regarding the fairness of the comparison. At best there are a very few minor differences (in the Mercury's favor) and the Mercury will cost more.

 

When building my 09' I noticed they changed alot of the packages around for 09' between the mmh and feh....I almost bought an 08' just before they shut down ordering so I had a mariner all spec'd out and ready to buy, it had the packages I wanted and worked out better in price to get what I wanted....the 09' changed so much that I ordered an Escape...the 09' mariner seems to have lumped alot of packages together...can't remember exactly what but there was only a couple things I really wanted (sunroof, NO nav etc) and the mariner ruled itself right out...can't remember but I think to get the backup sensors and better seats you had to get the nav or something like that....I got exactly what I wanted in the escape, the mariner only had a couple packages actually, you basically get it loaded or you don't get it at all...

 

I average 38 mpg in the spring summer and fall and 32-34 mpg in the real cold weather. 95% of my driving is semi-urban and parkway type roads. My mileage is about the same in either the '05 or the '06.

My wife does all the grocery getting and running kids around town and she is up to about 34 mpg in the summer and 30 or so mpg in the winter time. 95% or so of her trips are less than 3-5 miles.

Over 30,000 miles on both of mine and the mileage is still improving.

(mileage shown below not current)

 

Hi all --

I've had my 2005 FEH for a little over 3yrs. now, & my FE is *still* improving This past winter, I only had *1* tank under 35mpg This spring, I started seeing tanks in the 40's earlier & at cooler temps than I expected And this summer, I've already had *2* tanks over 50mpg

 

Wasn't a new 08 FEH is no options only like $26.5K MSRP?

 

I know my almost fully loaded (only minus the chrome package) 2WD 08 FEH was right at $28,800 (before any discounts).

I would check the online car vendors and eBay to get a good feel for what the market is bringing for these vehicles. Resale value on anything hybrid is high at the moment.

 

MyPart, do you have Nav?

 

Yes.

My order included these options:
18M - Premium Package
60N - Navigation System
17M - Moon roof/Sat Radio

Sale price was $28750.58 + $98 (dealer fee) - $1000 (Ford/dealer incentives) = $27,848.58 (out the door).

 

Nice. No Sales Tax?

 

Gonna have to dig up another document for that, but the sales tax number will vary from state the state and really doesn't reflect on the FEH itself.