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.