My radio lost all the lights to it..the display lights for the radio no longer works. Apparently Ford knew of this defect as hundreds of owners complained as early as 2001 (one year after the car was sold). I complained and they said I would have to pay for a new radio. Seems they should have replaced the radio back when they saw the problem in 2001 while still under warranty.

- Raleigh, NC, USA

While driving the airbag light came on and stayed on. I took it to a Ford dealer the same day and was told it was the side airbag problem. The testing code was 1998. They charged me $903.45 to fix it on August 30, 2007. On August 23, 2008 the airbag light started flashing while I was driving. I called the Ford dealer and took it right in. Was told the part they replaced had gone bad and needed to be replaced again. Of course they had to order the part and that took three days. I was told that when the light is on the airbags don?T work. This happened six days before the one year warranty ran out and the vehicle had only been 4,100 miles since the part was replaced. The part was replaced for the second time on August 27, 2008 under the one year warrant period. The work was performed so poorly that I have no faith the airbags will work if I ever need them. I took it back to the Ford dealer and showed them that the wiring for the side airbag was poking out the back of the seat and the air bag really wasn't on the side it was more of a backseat airbag now. Needless to say I have to leave it with the dealer again to fix it. I have seen the numerous complaints about the airbags and would like to know when Ford is going to step up and admit there is a problem.

- Chesapeake, VA, USA

1.shift lever would stick on occasions had to jiggle shifter to put it in gear. 2.while putting vehicle in drive, shift handle broke off, locking the key in the ignition switch. 3. dealer replaced steering column was told by dealer maintenance that this was the third one this year for that particular dealership.

- Rineyville, KY, USA

When I bought my 2000 Ford Explorer XLT 4dr the radio display on the mach rds cd/tape radio did not light up. The dealer said he fixed it and indeed it worked for about five minutes after I drove off his lot. I did some research into this problem and have discovered that it is a common problem with this type of oem radio. Supposedly, fixes are available from technicians advertising on ebay or at this internet site: www.shareamemory.com/radio/ (the radio pictured at this site is exactly the one I have). I am a qualified electronics technician and discovered the details of the suggested do-it-yourself repair from an internet news group. I followed the procedure to reflow the solder joints on the smt resistors and common grounds on the diplay driver board but it did not fix the problem. I quess I will be sending my radio off for "questionable" repairs from one of those ebay technicians gettting rich off of Ford's poor quality radio. This is a known common problem, yet the Ford Motor Company refuses to recognize it as such and make the neceassary repairs free of charge (or even at a reasonable cost).

- New Ipswich, NH, USA