Unclassified problem on the 2005 Mercury Sable
1 crash 1 injury 2 of the 6 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
Only 5 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When unclassified problem gets reported
There are 6 reports of unclassified problem on the 2005 Mercury Sable, 5 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
It is the 27th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 69,000 miles | — | — |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 1 a crash and 1 an injury are mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 10 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2000, at a median of 45,000 miles, and latest on the 2008 at 150,000 miles.
By volume the 2000 carries the most reports, with 29; the 2005 has 6. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
Dt*: the contact stated the third row seat was installed without seat belts. The dealer and manufacturer have been alerted. The consumer is waiting on parts from another dealer. Updated 07/13/06. *jb
I was traveling in the passing lane of a highway when the vehicle in front of me slammed on her brakes. I slammed on my brakes but skidded into the back of her vehicle at approximately 50 MPH. I was thrust forward and back in my seat and suffered injuries to my neck and back. I went to the hospital by ambulance because I could not move from the head down to my waist. I thought I broke my neck. The whole front end of my car is smashed in and the airbags did not deploy! I have torn ligaments in my neck and numbing in my hands and feet due to injuries. I am diagnosed with sprained ligaments and whiplash and luckily no breaks. I have advanced degenrative cervical disease in my neck which now makes the pain unbearable since the crash! It's only been several days but the issue of the airbag is really bothering me! I can't believe I have airbags installed and they didn't work!!! What good are they??? *tr
This was the third incident in which the car stopped on me. (one other time when I was leaving my apartment and one wednesday evening on my way to bible study; both times had to coast to the road side and try and get it to start again). The third time I was driving down the highway at the speed limit of 40 MPH. The car's dash board lite up; gave me one message that said "low pressure. The steering wheel locked and the gas pedal locked; I was able to coast to the side before it completed locked up and stopped one me. Had my year old grandson in the car with me. I let the car sit for a while and was able to get it started again. Drove it back to my apartment and parked it. Have not driven it since then - had it towed to a repair shop where it is right now - they want too much to have it repaired; they say there is a problem with the cylinder inside the ignition and that I also need a new key - want $1200 to repair it. I have been having problems trying to get it to started for about the past 6 months - have taken it to several repair shops; paid them but no one has solved the issue. Ford states that my car is not included in the…
Also reported on the 2005 Mercury Sable
Other speed control problem
Cruise control failure
Other powertrain problem
Torque converter failure
Other engine problem
Other brake problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 6 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 6 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does unclassified problem happen on the 2005 Mercury Sable?
Across 5 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 70,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is unclassified problem on the 2005 Mercury Sable?
6 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 3.1 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed