My car ran great on ATF+3 for a lot of miles before I got around to using Ford Honey.

If you drained the original fluid out of it, it would have been Mercon. ATF+3 is very similar except that it already has a higher level of friction modifier and needs no additional. Shift quality is greatly improved over Mercon (some have said better than MTL). You can get it for less than $3.00 a quart. It should serve you well until you can afford some Ford Honey, which is really probably the best answer.

Jim Johnson 98 SVT 03 Escape Limited