One element that hasn't changed much is the exterior styling. This could be good, too, as it ensures retained value in new Mountaineers as well as those already on the road. Though attractive, the styling is not terribly exciting, however, tending more toward country-club sleek than off-road robust. And after four years, what once looked fresh and new doesn't any more. Minor tweaks here and there let cognoscenti distinguish last year's from this year's but the differences will slip right by most folks on Main Street, U.S.A.

The Mercury Mountaineer is, of course, a higher-end, paternal twin of the Ford Explorer. This is both good and bad. Overall, the Explorer is a superb product, but some of what isn't executed so well in the Ford version is shared with the pricier Mercury.

The interior door handles, for example, are so awkwardly configured that they immediately come up in conversations about these vehicles, and Mercury has already announced plans to redesign them. It's not all bad news for the 2006 Mountaineer cabin, however. In fact, there is much to love here. The dash is trimmer, more elegant, and it communicates essential information cleanly. Multi-adjustable front seats make for comfortable commutes. Passengers consigned to the third-row seats enjoy more legroom than their counterparts in other, seven-passenger SUVs in the class.

As for the mechanicals, everything works fine. The V6 returns essentially unchanged, although earning an extra mile per gallon in city and highway driving in the all-wheel-drive configuration according to government (EPA) estimates. The new V8 loses a mile or two per gallon in the rear-wheel-drive Mountaineer, but gains a couple miles per gallon in the all-wheel-drive package. This suggests the AWD versions are even more compelling than last year's.