Mercury Mountaineer

Which Mercury Mountaineer years should you avoid?

Going by 1,992 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, the Mercury Mountaineer years to avoid are 1998, 2000, 2002, 1997 and 1999.

• 19982.9× the usual share of fires, crashes and deaths for a car of its age (23 fires, 22 crashes, 1 death).
• 20002.7× the usual share of fires, crashes and deaths for a car of its age (12 fires, 15 crashes).
• 2002372 complaints, 2.5× a typical Mountaineer year, most often about the transmission.
• 1997328 complaints, 2.2× a typical Mountaineer year, most often about the tires.
• 19992.0× the usual share of fires, crashes and deaths for a car of its age (5 fires, 13 crashes, 1 death).

How this is worked out: each year is compared with a typical year of the same model, which takes most of the difference in sales out of it, and its share of serious failures is compared with every other car of the same model year, because older cars were complained about differently. A year needs 25 complaints to be judged at all. Complaints are unverified owner reports. Full method →