5.0

fairly significant
Crashes / Fires:
0 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
20,000 miles

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problem #1

Oct 051973

Sable 6-cyl

  • Automatic transmission
  • 20,000 miles
2003 Mercury Sable with 20,000 miles on it. While driving at 60 mph, I stepped on the accelerator to pass a truck, I heard a thump and then the engine went to idle and we lost all power. We pulled over and found that the accelerator cable had snapped. I found a small piece of plastic on the floor that came from the mechanism. We were stranded 100 miles from the nearest city on a Sunday night. I subsequently asked the rental car manager if he had ever heard of this before and he said the same thing happened to a Taurus he was driving. This, as I am sure you know a very dangerous situation - if we had been on a crowded interstate there would have been serious problems. We were lucky. Is there any record of this problem occurring. Judging by the plastic linkage I bet it has happened a number of times. Please let me know.

- Lake Ridge, VA, USA