well i am going to be getting my licence soon, and i have a choice of two cars to get. My parents are thinking of getting a Ford 500 or Mercury Montigo and they are thinking of giving me their Mercury Sable, while my sister is leaving for the Air Force soon and she has a VW Jetta that she is willing to give me while she is away. Now before you judge the cars right away i got some specs on them

1999 Mercury Sable LS:
200 hp Duratec V-6 3.0L
sedan
red
all power/ and leather
and it has alot of interior room (which i need since i am a tall person)
and it is in perfect condition

2001 VW Jetta:
174 hp V-6 2.8L
sedan
gray
all power/ and leather (heated seats)
it is smaller than the Sable for interior
and it is in almost perfect condition, the shift kind of sticks when shifting from Drive to Park

Take the one that consumes less gas. My guess is VW, so I voted for it.

How many miles do the cars have?

I am not sure on the Jetta but the sable has under 90,000 suprisingly since my parents never go anywhere with it

Sable.

I said the Sable because I'm all about late/mid 90's sedans. They are accually more fuel efficient than you'd expect, I just filled my tbird up for $25, that'll last me about a week and half of driving to Heavener (about 10 minute one way trip @ speed limit.) almost twice a day. It''s your car, but a bit of advice, if you live in a warm climate, ditch the leather. It's super nice and stuff, but it gets way too hot. It's your car though.

all else being equal, as it seems to nearly be with your stats, take the foreign car, especially the german car. better reliability and resale value.

jetta for sure.

From J.D. Power Initial Quality:

Industry Average: 147 (lower is better)

2001 VW Jetta: 165 (tied 128th place)
2001 M Sable: 135 (tied 53rd place) - (Couldn't find 1999 rankings)

In general, I've heard more bad things than good things about VWs in terms on maintainance and reliability. I don't know anyone with a Mercury.

Are they both automatics?

yep

I work on these cars all day long. I hate every VW that comes in. Almost every one has an oil leak from at least one place. 2 out of the last three that have been in this week have had the dipstick tube broken off (and of course oil squirts out). Parts are much more expensive too. The Sable is easy to find used parts for since it's a Taurus, they're everywhere. The Jetta isn't a BAD car, it's just a pain to work on and expect to be told you have an oil leak pretty soon if you get it.

I say Sable.

edit: In case you didn't know, oil leaks SUCK and are usually pretty expensive to fix.

Sable is an old peoples car, and will drive somewhat like a boat. The Jetta will be much more fun to drive, those things handle pretty great.

actually the sable is not that bad to drive, but the Jetta is fun to drive

The Jetta has the advantage cause of the gas for sure, but if you are going for power the other car is the better choice it has the bigger engine. But if you aren't a speeder or not trying to show off I'd choose the Jetta it moves and it's good on gas definatly.

I voted for the first option because I like to vote.