I'm trying to help a friend out with his car, and I figured I would post for some advice.
It's a 2001 Ford Focus SE SOHC automatic transmission.
He cut the car off went into the post office came back out and now the shifter release button will not depress and the shifter will not move out of Park.

There are 2 switches located on the brake pedal one for stop lights the other I'm guessing for unlocking the transmission linkage so it can be shifted. I haven't determine that's the cause of the problem yet, and wanted to make sure I wasn't just focused on on thing.
So, does anyone else know what else would cause the shifter to be stuck in Park? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you

 

Take the shifter handle off. There will be somethign sticking out of the shifter shaft. Press it down and it'll shift out of park. Then figure out whats wrong with your shifter handle.

^ Thats one possibility. Sometimes something is broken inside of the handle which won't depress the thing which you'll see sticking out of the shaft. If you don't depress it it won't shift out of park.


If you can reach into the base of the shifter, you can also manually unhook the linkage which locks the shifter up until you've depressed the brake. This will allow you to shift the car into or out of park regardless or whether or not your foot is on the brake.

 

most cars have a small slot next to the shifter that you can use the key to get it out of park.