1998 Mercury Villager problems
NHTSA has received 100 complaints about the 1998 Mercury Villager, and 14% of them involve cruise control. Next are body & structure (13%) and brakes (11%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 100 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Cruise control 14% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 14 and 0
- Injuries and deaths
- 4 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 82,000 miles 21 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 1 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 4 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 1 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 3 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 4 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 2 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 0 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 2 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 0 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 3 |
| 200k+ miles | 1 |
What the data shows
Of the 21 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 82,000 miles.
Safety-related details: 14 complaints mention a crash; 4 injuries reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 1998 ranks 8th most-complained-about out of 8 model years of the Mercury Villager with enough data (52 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 2 safety recall campaigns.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
While stopped at a red light, dual front airbags deployed, causing my car to lurch forward into vehicle in front of mine. Very little structural exterior/interior damage was done to my car which indicated that the airbags may have either caused the accident, or gone off unnecessarily at too low a speed. On the very same day, a safety recall notice from ford motor co. Arrived in the mail indicating that there is also a defect in the filler pipe vent hose of my vehicle which could cause a fire.
Consumer was sitting in vehicle when she put vehicle in drive with foot on brakes, and suddenly vehicle was moving full throttle ahead. Vehicle crashed into the garage, exiting the garage on the other side, then went through a 4 1/2 ft. Drop to the lower yard and then 25 feet before stopping.
Dt: contact put the vehicle in park and exited the vehicle and it rolled backwards. The door pulled the contact under the vehicle, and both sets of tires ran her over. She sustained a broken pelvic bone, a broken hip, a broken femur, a broken knee, a broken ankle, and a broken back from l1-5. As a result, she spent the summer in a nursing home. The vehicle has not been to a mechanic for this problem.
The vehicle was in park when a small child mistakenly knocked gear shifter to reverse. The vehicle rolled backwards onto the grass which helped it come to a stop. *nlm
Passenger side coil spring rusted in half and broke. Spring came down onto tire. I had to buy new spring,coil,and strut.