Faults:

160,000 miles; front and rear wheel bearings.

General Comments:

This SUV looks like a newer model even at 8 years old.

The body has no rust issues or moldings falling off.

It runs great and is very roomy and comfortable.

I drive over 1,000 miles per week in this car and have never had any mechanical issues; very reliable car!

Tires did wear unevenly after about 180,000 miles miles on the car.

The ABS light came on at around 190,000 miles miles.

Faults:

I am not having the transmission rebuilt on the 2002 Mercury Mountaineer. I have NEVER had a transmission go out in a car.

I have a Honda, Toyota Tundra, and a Chevy Malibu; all of which are older than the Mountaineer and have many more miles. The Honda has 170,000 miles, and I have never replaced anything major except a drive axle.

General Comments:

The Mountaineer has never ridden smoothly, and the transmission always had an awkward or rough shift to it. I simply took car in at 89,000 miles for its 90,000 mile major service. I had not noticed anything unusual prior to the transmission service the dealer performed on the transmission as part of this major service.

When I got the car back, not only was there extreme delay as it shifted from one gear to the next, but it "clunked" very loudly into 3rd gear. I returned the car to the dealer the same day. They examined the car, and determined that it suddenly was in need of a new transmission because the "servo-bores" had worn out. I now have the car in an independent transmission shop. Several shops that I visited indicated that this transmission has a history of servo-bore failure, which Ford is aware of, and has issued a Technical Service Bulletin (TSB) on. I asked Ford to share in the cost of the transmission repair. After all, they know that this is a poorly engineered transmission, which will likely soon fail again because it is poorly engineered. I was told by the lady I spoke with that there was nothing Ford could ("would") do. Nor would the dealer take any responsibility. No more Ford products for my family!

Faults:

Hello everybody. I am the (not very proud owner) of a 2002 Mercury Mountaineer AWD. It has a 4.0 liter SOHC engine. When I bought it at the dealership, about a week later I started to notice some leaking on the bottom. I took it back and the CSR told me that it was the transmission leaking. He said I needed a new torque converter at a tune of 400 dollars... So I got it fixed.

A couple of weeks later, I was towing my friends Civic and I noticed that the tranny was whining. Took it back and he told me that I needed a transmission flush.. at the tune of 60 dollars... Did that!

Now the thing leaks about 2 quarts of tranny fluid every month... 20 dollars a month to refill or else the tranny starts to slip!

General Comments:

Very comfortable. Spacious.

Faults:

Where do we start?

The transmission kept shuttering. We took it to the dealer three times during the warranty with them not fixing anything.

At about 3,000 miles after the warranty goes out... so does the transmission. The dealership jerked us around until the warranty ran out. That wasn't cheap, but they didn't get the job.

During that time the front end had something wrong, and they replaced the axles or bearings or something in both sides of the front, plus the struts.

The back glass lift broke loose, and that still isn't fixed to this day.

The bracket in the window is messed up, not the shock, but that has since gone bad on the back door.

The interior trim has came off and broken several times; we glue it back on.

The back door developed a crack right after we bought it.

Here lately it has been just dumping all the coolant out; Matt thinks it is the freeze plug. Nobody is allowed to sell the freeze plug according to three auto parts stores.

Take note Ford. In 1987 I bought a GMC Jimmy, which was much like this junk for dependability. I swore I would never buy another GM, and to date I haven't. Now I tell you the same. Since you've added 3 new factories to Russia, pedal your crap over there.