This past week marked the assembly of Mercury’s final Sable. Ford has discontinued the 23 year old model. As nostalgic as one can get I figured it would be an opportune time to give my personal run-in with a friend’s 2002 Mercury Sable.

It was 1 am in Northern New Jersey – and we gathered at the local Wawa for supplies – Red Bull, chips, hoagies, coffee and gasoline. We were driving the 7 to 8 hr ride up past the US/Canada border all the way to Montreal, La Belle Province.

You wouldn’t expect a Mercury Sable to comfortably seat 4 people, luggage and all that gas station convenience store food. Not only did we plow through the snacks, but the Sable went up I-87 at speeds upwards of 100 miles per hour. You wouldn’t know it sitting behind the driver, because its smooth ride was so comforting I fell asleep at least twice during the trip.

We rolled into the city of Montreal roughly 7 hours later, and after driving around the old port, a little lost, we reached our first sit-down destination and long break from our travels – a topless breakfast place, which MTL is famous for. I don’t recall much of the trip back in our fair Sable – I was probably very hung over. They love strong beer in Canada, as much as we love the Mercury Sable. You will be missed, dear automobile.