Mercury Mariner Hybrid gets tech upgrade

Wayne Cunningham Managing Editor / Roadshow

Wayne Cunningham reviews cars and writes about automotive technology for CNET's Roadshow. Prior to the automotive beat, he covered spyware, Web building technologies, and computer hardware. He began covering technology and the Web in 1994 as an editor of The Net magazine.

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Wayne Cunningham

Oct. 6, 2006 11:38 a.m. PT

2006 Mercury Mariner Hybrid

In our reviews of the and its slightly rougher twin, the 2006 Ford Escape Hybrid, we criticized the poorly implemented cabin tech. The unveiling of the 2008 Mercury Mariner Hybrid this week shows that Ford seriously upgraded the cabin. The press release about the new Mariner Hybrid mentions only the standard iPod/MP3 player jack in the cabin, visible at the bottom of the stack in this photo. Also obvious from the picture is that the CD changer moves from under the seat into the dash, making it much more accessible. The CD control buttons look humongous in this picture, but easy to use, especially while tooling down the freeway.

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