In the past two years, I have replaced the gear shift (on the column) for my 2003 Mercury Mountaineer a total of 3 times! You will drive it, put it into park, restart the vehicle and then literally, the gear shift will fall out in your hand!!

I have had to pay for it to be towed, (you can't get the key out, you can't lock the doors, and sometimes you can't turn it off) because it is out of gear. It did this with less than 100,000 miles on the vehicle and casual driving only.

I have had to have the entire steering column pulled 3 times in order to repair. This is obviously a huge design flaw and I am very fortunate it hasn't happend while driving down the road! I have spent thousands of dollars repairing. Ford/Mercury needs to recall this vehicle as I have seen that it has happend on other year models. What's the deal?