Mercury Sable

The Mercury Sable is a mid-size (model years 1986–2005) or full-size (2008–2009) upscale sedan car model created by the Ford Motor Company and sold under the Mercury brand. It served as a rebadged variant of the Ford Taurus, with a few cosmetic changes.

The Sable was a milestone design for both Mercury and the entire American automotive industry, as well as a very influential vehicle in the marketplace, with Mercury assembling 2,112,374 cars during its first 20 years of production through 2005. The Sable's design was so futuristic, that it was called by the press "The car that came from the moon". An important feature of the Sable's design was its front "lightbar", a low-wattage lamp between the front headlamps. This later became mainstream for Mercury's line-up, and was copied by many automakers in the early nineties.

The Sable was refreshed in 1992 and received its first complete redesign in 1996. The 1996 model remained the basis for the vehicle up through the 2005 model year. A major sheet metal and interior redesign occurred in 2000, softening some of the controversial design vestiges of the 1996 model which the Taurus also endured. Minor styling changes in 2004 further refined the car.

The Sable station wagon ended production in 2004 and sedan production ended on April 29, 2005. The Ford Taurus remained in production through the 2007 model year, primarily for service as a fleet vehicle. Taurus production ended on October 27, 2006.

At the Chicago Auto Show on February 7, 2007, Ford CEO Alan Mulally unveiled a refreshed version of the Mercury Montego sedan and announced that the new name of the car would be "Sable," due to customer recognition and dealer demand.

However, sales never met expectations and the full-size Sable ended production (permanently, this time) on May 21, 2009. Its Taurus counterpart continued on and was redesigned. The Sable's second counterpart, the Ford Taurus X, ended production on February 27, 2009.