Good Morning - I seem to be having a similar problem. 2001 Tribute. Drove to my friends house everything working fine. Went to get in to drive home and the shifter will move up and down freely but it just stays in park. I've checked the 15 amp fuses - they all seem to be fine - any ideas?

 

Likely the cable has snapped or come unhooked. Are you sure it's in park? Not just that the trans has failed? This vehicle (which I own one of) is known for trans issues...at least with the V-6.

Moving these posts to a new thread,

 

Got a little behind in my reading, but Vic's correct. Most likely not broken cable, but broken cable end. Very common, in fact I've towed two vehicles this month for that problem. The cable ends are typically plastic and eventually they get brittle and break or the little teeth that hold it onto the ball on the tranny lever break out so it won't stay on.

Hint: Before you shell out $2-300 for a cable replacement check around with tranny shops; some of the shift cables can be repaired with a little inventive engineering. The GMC Envoy I towed last week for this problem I was told could be fixed fairly easily and cheaply; don't know about a Tribute.