wheels
2010 Mercury Milan Hybrid –
A good
looking
car
Driver
the car, the computer readout dis-
But don’t get it twisted. The Mercury Milan,
played a range of almost 600 miles.
Frank S. Washington
which is a five-passenger family sedan, is most
As the price of gasoline climbs so
fuel efficient when it is driven with some sensi-
should Mercury Milan Hybrid sales.
seats and a navigation system. The SYNC
Vehicle
bility. While following someone who was trying
system had a blue tooth which could and I did
to be on time for a radio interview, there was a
In short?
connect connected intuitively. In other words, I
2010 Mercury Milan Hybrid
bunch of lane switching, pedal to the metal ac- Anyway, most manufacturers load up their
didn’t have to pull out the manual.
celeration and some maneuvers that I wouldn’t hybrids with options to try and offset the price of
Type
With all its creature comforts, my Mercury
try in a Porsche. batteries, electronic motors and other technolo-
Milan Hybrid was priced at $33,735.
Sedan I couldn’t so I didn’t try to keep up. During
gy necessary to keep a hybrid rolling and it was
this thankfully brief episode, the 2010 Mercury
no different with the Mercury Milan Hybrid.
 Frank S. Washington is managing part-
ner/editor of AboutThatCar.com and About-
Horsepower/Torque
Milan burned more fuel that I would have ex- My test vehicle had a sunroof, blind spot de-
ThatCarBlog.com.
156/136 lbs.-ft
pected. That was on a Sunday. By the time the tection, rear-view video camera, heated front
car was picked up on Friday, I had barely edged
under a half a tank of fuel.
The 2010 Mercury Milan Hybrid is impres-
During my week-long test drive, I found the
sive.
Mercury Milan Hybrid to be road worthy when
driven sensibly. Quick acceleration was not its
My test vehicle caught a bunch of eyes
strong suit. It really was a family sedan. It cor-
simply because of its black metallic paint job.
nered well, the suspension was firm but the car
A couple of guys even stopped, spotting it
felt a little heavy going over sharp bumps in the
parked at a meter, and commented to each
road. That’s the case with most hybrid sedans
other that it was a “good looking car.”
that carry the extra weight of the electric motor
That doesn’t happen all that often, even and the batteries which are usually housed
here in the stronghold of domestic automak- under the rear seat.
ers. After all, Mercury is not known as a
The front-wheel-drive Mercury Milan Hybrid
beacon of style. Still, this particular Mercury
weighed 3,729 lbs, and had an EPA rating at 41
Milan did look good.
mpg in the city and 36 mpg on the highway. The
Besides the really slick paint job, my test reversal of fuel efficiency is because hybrids are
vehicle had a rear spoiler and 17-inch alumi- especially effective at saving fuel in city driving.
num wheels. But it was not the exterior attri-
Full hybrids shut off during stops and the elec-
butes that made the Milan Hybrid special. In
tric motor kicks in to assist the gasoline engine
an overused phrase, it was what was under
during acceleration. The Mercury Milan can op-
the hood, as well as under the back seat, that
erate up to a certain speed using just its electric
made the Milan special.
motor. The driver information says EV mode is
The Milan was powered by a 2.5-liter four enabled only under 47 mph.
cylinder engine that made 156 horsepower
Geared for engine shut off when stopped,
and 136 pound-feet of torque. It was mated to
obviously, the Mercury Milan Hybrid was best at
a continuously variable transmission but the
saving fuel in stop and go traffic, and stop and go
gas saver was the electric motor rated at 106
traffic is prevalent right here in the Motor City as
horsepower. The power package produced a
well as any metropolitan area. When I first got in
net 191 horsepower.
6 The Michigan FrontPage • July 0, 2009
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