Before the market turned on a dime and buyers bailed out of SUVs as gas prices rose to the $3 level, the Ford Explorer and Mercury Mountaineer sold well. In order to keep their lead over the competition, Ford poured a lot of money and effort into redesigning these vehicles to be quieter, more capable, and more luxurious than their predecessors. The resulting vehicles are – though timidly styled – almost everything Ford set out to make them.

I say “almost” because there are things about them that are irritating. Like the inside door handles that have a large chrome handle at their rounded leading edge – you get used to it, but it’s not intuitive at first – and a separate door pull below the arm rest. This is because the arm rest itself is used as a side-crash energy absorber (a good idea), and putting a finger cup in it to assist in closing the door might have compromised its function. All of which forces the occupants to reach below this rather large piece to grab the real door pull in order to shut the door (a bad idea). However, Ford is aware of this inconvenience – though you have to ask why it took complaints from the customer to make it register enough to make a change – and the finger cup will be added to the arm rest and the separate door pull removed.

Another irritant are the power running boards. While they make entry easier, even for tall people (the Mountaineer has the kind of ground clearance you’d expect from an off-roader, though most will probably never see as much as a dirt road), egress is usually a case of stepping past the board and dropping to the ground. Of course, this is a $695 option that can easily be left off the options list.

More disappointing was the 15.8 mpg average I saw in a pretty even mix of city and highway driving. The Mountaineer is rated at 14 city/20 highway by the EPA, but while no one expects to replicate these numbers in the real world, these numbers are not unreasonable for a vehicle that can tow nearly 7,000 lb. and weighs 4,742 lb before you begin ladling on the options . Of course, try telling that to folks who see these things as upmarket station wagons, not highly capable trucks. It’s just another reason they are fleeing to crossovers.

In many other ways the Mountaineer shone. It drives much better than its predecessor. The NVH levels seem to be exponentially lower than before. Ride and handling are vastly improved without adversely affecting the off-road performance. The audio system, heated leather front seats, power moonroof and DVD navigation system (a $1,995 combined option) raise it to a near-luxury equipment level. With a base price of $35,500 base price ($39,845 as driven), that’s not too far from the truth.