2002 Mercury Tracer: what breaks, and at what mileage
What breaks on the 2002 Mercury Tracer
No owner has filed a defect report with NHTSA about the 2002 Mercury Tracer. That is not a clean bill of health — it usually means few were sold, or the year is too new for problems to have surfaced.
Recalls on the 2002 model year
NHTSA has issued 1 recall campaign covering the 2002 Mercury Tracer, affecting an estimated 27 vehicles. A recall is a different kind of evidence from a complaint: it is the regulator and the manufacturer agreeing that something has to be fixed, and the fix is free for as long as the car exists.
The campaigns cover seat belts:front. Whether the work was actually done on the car in front of you is a question only the VIN can answer, and the manufacturer or NHTSA will answer it free.
One caution about reading these together: a recall usually raises the complaint count for the same part, because owners who read about it go and file. The mileages stay informative; the counts get noisy.
SEAT BELTS:FRONT
388 vehicles 2004-07-12- Defect
- Certain trw driver's side seat belts manufactured on december 6 and 9, 2002, for use as replacement equipment for 1997 ford escort 4-door and station wagon platform vehicles, ford's p/n f7cz54611b09aac. The seat belt assemblies exhibit a no-lock condition which does not comply with federal motor vehicle safety standard no. 209, seat belt assemblies.
- Consequence
- In the event of a crash, the restraint system may not provide adequate protection to the seat occupant, which may increase the risk of personal injury.
- Remedy
- Trw will notify the customers who purchased the replacement seat belt assemblies free of charge. The recall began on august 27, 2004.
Recall work is free at a franchised dealer regardless of the car's age. Check the VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls before assuming it was done.
Every year of the Mercury Tracer
Scores compare each year against other cars of the same model year, so a low number on an older car is a real result and not an artefact of age.
Shorter is better. Years with too few reports to score are shown without a bar rather than as a zero, because no data is not good news.
Within the 1996-2003 generation, 1997 Mercury Tracer scores best at 59 and 1996 Mercury Tracer worst at 70.
Why this page is short
A model year needs about 8 reports before percentiles mean anything, and this one does not have them. Complaint volume tracks how many cars were sold and how long they have been on the road, so a thin page usually means a rare car, a new car, or a car whose owners do not file.
Other years of the same model do have enough: 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999. The mechanical parts are often shared across those years, so their pages are the better guide to what this one is likely to do, with the caveat that a shared part is not a shared production line.
Where this comes from. Every figure above is computed from NHTSA owner complaints and recall records for this exact make, model and year. Complaints are voluntary and self-selected, so treat counts as a floor. The methodology page writes out each formula, and the same numbers are available as JSON.
What breaks at my mileage Compare with another car
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