Problems with going into Drive Gear
 

wow.. and 39,000 miles? they hardly drove it!

I had this exact problem, I removed the gear lever cover, I inspected how the whole gear lever things work. If you look closely, you can see that when you change any lever position that a long metal pole moves too. it has no obstruction from P to N, but when going into D, it has to fit inside a black plastic clip. I realized that the metal part was hitting the edge of the clip first, as I added pressure it would slip in properly. All I did was dremel that edge of the clip a little, and this made that metal pole slip in easy again.

Thank you, I think you are right. I noticed if I move it to the left a little it would go into drive. How hard is it to remove the lever cover?

Yeah, this drives my family crazy, buying a car and not driving it alot. I love cars alot but don't have a chance to drive it much since drive to my bus stop is 2 miles away. I don't want to drive the car to my work since you have to leave your keys in the car for the parking people to move around.

just pull up. its only clipped in.

The clips are very delicate, I broke 1 of mine just by pulling it out. Be careful. There should be 2 on the front and 3 on each side.

Does the leather boot and black plastic surround pull up or only the leather boot?

only the leather boot

Nah the whole black plastic piece will come up