Mercury Mystique - Should I buy?
 

Hello all,

I just made this profile tonight and asking for some advice. My family owns a 1999 Ford Contour SE V6 and I have always enjoyed the car, even though it now has 126,000 miles. It drives like a much newer car than it is, I even prefer it to my own 2008 Ford Fusion SE. It feels far more controlled and sporty. And the engine in sound from the Duratec is excellent!

Well, my lease is up soon on my Fusion (Feb 2010) and I have been looking at cars. I want an older car because my job is now only 2 miles from house. I found a 1999 Mercury Mystique LS V6 for sale at a dealership about 20 miles from me. It has only 50,300 miles on it! It has a black exterior that was garage kept and in great condition. It has a leather interior and it seems to be in good condition. The leather is a little wrinkled but not bad, and there is a few scratches near the shifter. Overall, it is in pretty good condition and much better than I would expect for a 10 year old car. I really would like to buy this car. I am just afraid to buy that old of a car. I am going to test drive it on 09/29. I need some advice though.
Fisrt, do you think it is a good buy? It is listed at $6,000 and I offered a quote for $5,000. We will see if they accept that or not tomorrow when they email me back. Next, If you were to buy this car, and you test drove it and it seems to be in good shape, what would you do with it as far as maintenance goes? I figured I would get an engine tune up, replace the spark plugs, change the oil, and all that. Anything else I should do if I get it? I just want to make sure it lasts for as long as possible especially since the mileage is low.

Any thoughts/advice would be greatly appreciated!

it seems like to it sounds like a good car (without looking at it) and i think mercury vehicles are very decent and dependable vehicles so i say you go for especially since it has low mileage on it... i got my 1993 mercury grand marquis in the late spring and it had 49000 miles on it and its a good car... as far as what you should do it when you and if you buy it i think you should change the oil even if the oil has been changed recently and all of the fluids should be checked and changed.... I would run fuel/gas treatment in a new tank of gas.... and possibly rotate tires....

99 was a good year for the contour and mystique. Ford had worked most of the major bugs out of the design by then. The first few years (95-97) were real hit and miss. I knew some folks with first year models that had no problems with them, but more was the case of major issues after the first few years. The later models seemed to get along a lot better though. Sounds like a good buy to me, though I would try to talk them down some more than you are, but that's cause I'm cheap :D