2002 Mercury Mountaineer AWD V8 4.6 V8 from North America
Summary:
I beat the crap out of it, and tow cars with it, and it's still going
Faults:
I am hard on this SUV... An ABS sensor in the rear differential at 60,000 miles.
Front differential seal blew out, draining the diff at 75,000 miles. Dealer took out the front drive shaft to get me home. When I got home, I put a used front diff in myself. AWD worked fine. I tow heavy cars on a trailer a lot. I am an abusive owner of this Mountaineer... poor thing.
6 disc CD changer jammed at 80,000 miles. Replaced and is working fine. Don't put MP3s on cheap burned CDs in it, and it will last.
Center differential chain drive went bad at 102,000 miles. Dealer took out the front drive shaft to get me home, and I left it out rather than fix the center diff. Still works great, just no AWD. I did pull out a huge tree stump with a chain a week before it went out. That may have pushed it to expire.
Check engine light finally came on at 122,000 miles... first time it ever came on! It is an EGR carbon buildup issue.
General Comments:
I beat this car hard. I am brutal to it. I bought this Mountaineer for my company car. Company paid for it. Had trailer brake controller installed. It had 16,800 miles on it and now has 122,000. Other than losing AWD a couple times because of front and center diff failures, it has been a very reliable suv. It always starts and the V8 is quick. The trans works excellent.
I haul a car trailer with dual axles that weighs about 2500 pounds. I pull home cars that weigh 3500 to 4000 pounds regularly. I pulled a 1960 Cadillac home from Marshaltown, Iowa to Omaha, Nebraska and it worked well. I even pulled home a 2006 Ford F150 crew cab on my poor little trailer. I only managed 35 mph. I took it home on side streets, no hwy.
I don't see anybody else having front diff and center diff failures like me, so it must be my horrible abuse to the SUV that caused it to break.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 9th July, 2010