Second Ford SUV that has done this to me after 80k. The first time was for me 2002 Explorer. I posted on here several years ago and eventually was contacted by the NTSB. Well it has happened again. I really hope the dealer works with me on this versus sticking me with the total repair costs. I will update once the repairs are done.

Update from Jul 15, 2014: First a correction to my earlier complaint. I was contacted by NHTSA regarding the first gear shift break for the 2002 Explorer that I owned.

Update: The second gear shift break with the 2002 Mercury Mountaineer will cost $977 to replace the steering column with a used one from another Ford vehicle. That will will be $1600 in total to replace both steering columns. It would be nice if Ford stood behind their vehicles and offered some assistance with this expense. This just doesn't happen with any other vehicle. Google the generic term "gear shift break" and the first vehicle to pop up is the 2002 Explorer.

My husband is a volunteer fireman and was responding to the fire station to answer a call for a stabbing victim. When he arrived at the station, he went to put the car into park and the gear shift lever broke off in his hand. Boy, was he pissed. After the emergency call and needing to have the car flatbedded home, he didn't get home until very late (or should I say) early the next morning. He thought I would raise the roof. Not only will it be an expense we hadn't budgeted for but we have doctor appointments and meetings all this week. My husband's friends at the fire department said this was a common issue, in fact another member replaced their broken gear shift lever just one week ago. Seems to be an issue.

Well, I was pulling into my drive-way after returning from shopping, went to put the truck in park, and the gear shifter just SNAPPED in half. It is currently stuck in R, with the key still in the ignition. It is literally snapped in half and hanging on by a wire. This is a very dangerous situation, I am a woman and didn't know what to do. I had to keep my foot on the break, until my husband was able to get outside to help me, thank God he was home. In all of my years of driving, I have never heard of this. Ford needs to step up to the plate and issue a recall on this. I am taking this issue including my pictures directly to Ford Motor Company! I don't know what the outcome will be, but its worth a shot.

I was sitting at a Valvoline Instant Oil center waiting to pull into bay behind another car. The employee gave me the okay to pull in soon as I stepped on the break and pulled the handle to go from park to drive it snapped (went limp)in the reverse gear so I had to hold my foot down on the break because I couldn't get force the car back into drive or force the handle back into the gear. I had cars behind me waiting too, luckily I honking my home the employee from Valvoline came out and had all cars move from behind me he got into my car and lead it back to parking area. Midas car place was right next door, the guy went under the bottom while the other guy stepped hard onto the break and forced the car into drive. However they had not ever seen anything like it before they thought it was funny but not me, I had just left from the grocery store and it was 90+ weather, I a female not knowing how I'm gonna get home.

Called local Ford the guy in service area laughed thinking I was playing around but I was very serious and they couldn't get me in until 3 days. Has someone gotten this fixed for cheap? if so please email me the details of a cheaper fix, based on what i'm seeing people were qouted very high but I need cheap fix. thank you wiley.ruby@yahoo.com

OK.. so I go to dinner on a friday night to come home at approx. 10:30pm & pull into my driveway like normal, SO I THOUGHT. Well, needless to say, it never made it out of D let alone into Park. I have no idea what happened to make the shifter break off, but it did. Not to mention that it was so late that I was not even able to get a rental car for the weekend. On top of that I had an appointment that was NOT able to be rescheduled that I needed to be at as early as 8am, which was 70 miles away.! Nice huh. Thank god for my family members who seem to be there when I need them the most. Monday morning..took this POS to a FORD Dealership, yep, as another fellow pissed off person mentioned..they want $1,400 for a new Steering Column. HA..! Glad they all have that $ laying around cuz i dont. They offered me a used one for $250. GREAT..Yeah go ahead and do it. What will be my final bill.? Matthews Ford says- approx $600.00.WTF FOR.? Ohhh.. thats right.. 3 times as much for the labor. DUH.! NO THANK YOU. So I ended up calling a small shop here in town & had them fix it. Which obviously I had to pay Matthews Ford $48.00 just for them to say, hey, your steering column is broke. Call another tow truck cuz roadside assistance only pays for 1 tow per issue, so that was another $35. Thankfully, the shop I took it to isnt only out to make a buck. They got my truck 4-27-10 approx 1pm & I got it back 4-28-10 by 4:30pm. DONE.! I say keep using the mom & pop shops & tell these big corps to go to hell on the horse they rode in on.! Oh, and by the way... That small shop... only charged me $366.00. Its called MORANS in Newark,Oh. Their good people & have been around for about 30 years. Thanks a bunch you guys... you have yourself a new customer.! ;)