The Sable is the Mercury version of the Ford Taurus. It debuted in 1986 as the longer and more luxurious cousin of the 1986 Ford Taurus. Replacing the Mercury Marquis , the Sable was available as a 4-door sedan and station wagon. The Sable featured a unique fascia characterized by the full-width headlamp. Mercury would later adopt this design feature for other vehicles, including the Mercury Villager, Mercury Topaz, and Mercury Tracer. The design feature would later be dropped in the mid nineties.

Ths Sable was very ahead of it's time with futuristic looking styling parts including full wrap around rear glass, headlight bar (which was just for show really, the middle bar's bulbs were very dim) and the fact that it was one of the most aerodynamic cars on the market at it's time.

The Sable, unlike the Taurus, was mostly only available with V6 engines, as the 4-cylinder was dropped after the first year.

in 1992 the Sable got a face lift along with it's Taurus cousin. This meant that it would get a more powerful engine, new wheels, a smaller light bar, and the front got more straight and fit and finish was improved by a WIDE margain. the interior also got a facelift. with a new dashboard and the new option for a center console. After the redesign, the Sable's sales went up even though it still lagged behind it's twin the Taurus by a very wide margain, which was normal for Mercury vehicles, which always lagged behind their Ford twins for the longest time. In 1996 the Mercury sable got a full redesign, along with the Taurus. The only diffrence was unlike the Taurus, the new Sable wasn't composed entirely of ovals. The Sable continued selling strong. In 2000, the Sable got another facelift with the Taurus losing the oval design and got a classier look. Again in 2004 When the Taurus got new bumpers, grille, wheels and bolder Badges, the Sable got a new grille and bumpers.

in 2004 The Montego was introduced with the Ford Five Hundred with the Fusion and the Millan planned to follow in fall 2005, which were intended to replace the long running Taurus and Sable. in late 2004 the Sable wagon was killed, in January the Taurus Wagon was killed, and in April 2005 the rest of the Sable lineup will be killed, it is still on sale as long as the Mercury dealers still have Sables left in stock, after every dealer has sold it's last remaining Sable it will be offically "dead"

The Ford Taurus is heading for a simular fate but it will still be produced until the end of the 2006 model year when production will also be halted.

The Sable was on Car and Driver magazine's Ten Best list on its release in 1986 and again in 1990 and 1991 after the redesign.