yeah mercury was supposed to be like Buick, ie the poor mans Cadillac. And there are a few little things on the Villager that set it apart from the quest. It's a shame the quest wasn't a more popular rig, there's a lot of ingenutiy built into it. Of course it weighs in at 2 tons and has a 150 hp 3 L which paled in comparison to the Voyager and the GM minivans of the time; both had more power, less weight, and more recognition. And to be quite honest, the 3 L used in the Villager is a bit old school, and the EPA listed economy isn't all that great; chock it up to a low geared tranny. But it is quite reliable, and the engine has been around in one form or another since the early 80s so if I wanted to I could turbo the thing cheaply using parts from other Nissan VQ30 engines.
One thing I like is that ford insisted on making the oil filter easier to get to and making the engine non-interference in case of a timing belt break. sounds like a great idea to me
