How about instead you mail me the $75 you will pay for the cd player as well as your 5 favorite cd's? It all comes out the same in the end for you and at least I can enjoy your music and cash... Seriously the indash changers have always had a bad loading mech and been touchy on how thick the cd's are(not using burned disks with labels are you?) and are little more then a hand grenade waiting to lock up when it knows it has your fav disks in it. I am sure there is/was a conspiracy between the music recording artists and ford to help them both sell cd's and more changers.
If you are stuck with the stock look(some people like that I know) or like changers then I would probably recomend getting an aftermarket changer to play through the stock radio. If you just want something easy/cheap then get an aftermarket indash unit as almost anything aftermarket is more reliable the ford changers.
99.9% of them lock up from what I saw, 2 weeks after the warranty was up(and your fav disks). Save your money its easy to go into the mach system with aftermarket stuff if that is what scares you as well.
Ironically I'm switching my 96 to the newer style radio bezel so I went ot a local yard to get a 6 disc to get it all converted until I decide on a radio option. Wanting $60 for it. F that..