Table 1 shows two common structure related problems of the 2007 Mercury Mariner Hybrid.
| Problem Category | Number of Problems |
|---|---|
| Structure problems | |
| Body problems |
The contact owns a 2007 Mercury Mariner Hybrid with 80,688 miles. The contact owns a britax boulevard CT rear facing child seat. The child seat would not properly fit in the vehicle unless a noodle or towel was being used. The owners manual stated that no object could be used between the child seat and the vehicle. The manufacture was contacted in regards to the failure and they informed the contact that the wheelbase of the vehicle was too short for the child seat to fit properly. The manufacturer also informed the contact that the seat was not tested to determine if it would fit properly in the vehicle. The contact stated that VIN listed on the driver side door panel was different from the VIN listed under the front windshield. The vehicle was never involved in a crash.
Passenger side rear inner fender well rusted completely through above the rear shock causing the shock to potentially break through and drop the whole suspension and cause and accident or flip over if it broke through during a turn. The rest of the vehicle hardly has any rust on it. The mariner shares the same inner sheet metal as the Ford escape and there have been many complaints of this happening to escapes. My vehicle was studied at a Ford investigation about 4 years ago for this problem. I was told they were working on a solution and nothing ever happened. The employee told me that the undercoating they used of these years of escape/mariners was faulty and broke down prematurely causing the inner fender exposed to the elements. This is also happening on the driver's side where the undercoating is start to break down. This is not a case of misuse by the owner but an actual design flaw and a big safety issue as this could cause a lot of harm. Luckily I heard the loud knocking from the rear end and stopped driving it.