2002 Mercury Mountaineer AWD review from North America

The leather seat are not wearing very well. My previous Ford Explorer's leather looked great when I traded it in at 137K miles, the Mountaineer's seats started looking bad at 50K miles, perhaps the Explorer's seats came from a tougher cow.

At 100K I replaced the transmission. I have pulled my boat a total of 12 times since I've owned this truck, other than that there has been very little stress put on this transmission. I followed all of the guidelines in the owners manual, but still lost the transmission.

About 3 weeks after the transmission I started having problems with the fuel injectors. Another huge bill.

Then 2 weeks later, new wheel bearings! It just keeps getting better, I'm well on my way to buying this truck again.

All told, I've spent approx $7000 on this SUV since the first of the year.

When I first bought this SUV I was thrilled. My father-in-law was a Ford employee and not only did I love the truck, but I got a good deal. In the last 4 months I have more than made up for that discount in repairs. I'm actually nervous driving it for fear something else will go wrong. I travel all over the Midwest fly fishing. I rarely have to go off road and when I do it's VERY tame. This SUV just doesn't do it. I have been spending a great deal of time researching my new truck, and it's name is Toyota. This has been a real disappointment for me, my Grandfather owned a Mercury Dealership, my first car was a Mercury Montclair, and as I mentioned before my father-in-law is now a retired Ford employee. I'm afraid I will never purchase a Ford product again.