Used Mercury Montego Buying Guide: CVT, AWD and Recalls

A used Mercury Montego is always a 2005, 2006 or 2007 car with the same 203-hp 3.0-liter V6, and the drivetrain tells you which transmission you get: front-drive Montegos use a six-speed automatic, all-wheel-drive Montegos use a CVT. For 2008 Mercury gave the car a 3.5 V6 and renamed it Sable, so anything wearing a Montego badge is at least 19 model years old. Buy the one with service records and finished fuel-tank recalls, and treat the trim level as a tiebreaker.

On Sunday night, October 18, 2026, I pulled each Montego model year through NHTSA's recall API and read Consumer Guide's 2005-07 Montego review plus the IIHS crash-test page for the car. Everything below comes from those pages or a Ford service bulletin NHTSA hosts. I left out forum horror stories I couldn't tie to a source.

What Mercury actually sold

The Montego was the dressed-up version of the Ford Five Hundred, built on a platform that came from Ford-owned Volvo. Consumer Guide says it was the first Mercury car in over a decade with all-wheel drive. Two trims existed: Luxury on 17-inch wheels and Premier on 18s. Xenon headlamps and LED taillamps were standard on every car, leather was standard on Premier and optional on Luxury, and the seats sit about 4 inches higher than in a typical sedan, which is why older buyers liked getting in and out. For 2006 a DVD system became optional and navigation arrived as a Premier-only option. Satellite radio showed up for 2007.

Side and curtain airbags matter on a car this old. IIHS says side airbags were made standard on all 2007 Montegos; earlier cars needed the optional Safety Package. The IIHS Good side rating was earned by a test car with those optional airbags, and IIHS rated the car without them separately. So on a 2005 or 2006, check for the airbag tags on the seats and headliner before you assume.

Six-speed or CVT

Neither one earned a rave. Consumer Guide says the CVT has good highway passing response but lets engine speed race ahead of road speed under hard throttle, while the six-speed hunts between gears on hills and has no manual-shift mode. Its front-drive six-speed test car averaged 15.9 mpg in a test that included acceleration runs. EPA ratings in that review are 21/29 mpg for the six-speed, 20/27 for the CVT, and 19/26 with AWD. Testers also heard the AWD powertrain whine in modest acceleration. Honestly, I'd pick the cleaner car over the gearbox you think you want, then budget for fluid service either way.

Trouble spots on the record

Consumer Guide's trouble-spot list is mostly nuisance stuff, but it adds up. Rear brakes can drag and get noisy after the car sits a few days (2005-07). Cold-weather long cranking needed a PCM reprogram on 2005-06 cars. The tank can fill slowly with repeated nozzle click-offs (2005-07). Steering can squeak at low speed, and the rear suspension can clunk below about 15 degrees F on 2005-06 cars. A 2005 CVT car can have idle speed wander 50-100 rpm until the PCM is reflashed. Ford's later TSB 11-10-21 covers idle fluctuation on 2005-2007 Montego, Five Hundred and Freestyle 3.0 cars with a PCM update and throttle-body cleaning. Ask whether that was done.

Recalls I found by year

• 05V515 (2005): fuel tank straps can break and drop the tank and heat shield onto the driveshaft on AWD cars or the exhaust on front-drive cars. Dealers replace both straps.
• 06V383 (2005): water can get into the side door latches and freeze them, for cars registered in a long list of cold states. Dealers add shields and grease the latches.
• 11V355 (2007): fuel tanks on cars built September 5-11, 2006 may have weak welds at the filler neck. Dealers replace the tank.

The API returned zero results for the 2006 Montego when I queried it. I wouldn't read that as clean. Run the actual VIN through our Mercury recall check by VIN steps or NHTSA's 2005 Montego recall data, and decode it with our Mercury VIN decoder guide so FWD versus AWD is settled before you drive it.

Montego or Five Hundred

Mechanically they are the same car, and IIHS applies one set of 2005-07 ratings to both. Our used Ford Five Hundred buying guide covers the Ford's SE, SEL and Limited trims, where the transmission split works differently from the Mercury's. The Montego gets you standard xenons and a little more trim for similar money; the Ford is easier to find. Consumer Guide's good-condition range for the Montego was $5,300 to $10,500 when I looked, which is a guide, not a quote. If you want the same era with a smaller footprint, our used Mercury Milan guide is the other Mercury sedan worth a look.

Before you hand over cash

Cheap old sedans attract curbstoners and title washers, so look up the title brand history on NMVTIS and pull a real report instead of trusting a seller's PDF. CARFAX's overview explains what feeds those reports. We are a licensed CARFAX and AutoCheck reseller and have no affiliation with CARFAX, AutoCheck, Experian, Ford or Mercury. In mid October 2026 our guest price runs about $5.50, members pay about $4.50, and the two-report bundle sits near $6.75, compared with roughly $39.99 to $44.99 at retail. Those numbers drift, so check the total at checkout.

Sources

• Consumer Guide: 2005-07 Mercury Montego; IIHS: 2007 Mercury Montego ratings
• NHTSA recallsByVehicle, Montego 2005-2007, queried Oct. 18, 2026; Ford TSB 11-10-21 (NHTSA file); NMVTIS