this is my fourth Ford and my last

[SaleenEXP]

Originally posted by haktmal
my friend's honda has 175,000 miles on it and the only thing he ever replaced is the water pump.

yes, true that every car breaks or is a lemon. but you find more in ford than any other make. thus, ford delivers the term: found dead on road or fix or repair daily.

If you look at the statistics though, you'll see Dodge and Chevey and quite a few other makes that have more quality problems and recalls than Ford. Also, a friend at my college, his family owns the largest Dodge Dealership in the US, the only Dodge his dad said he'll ever drive is the Viper ACR they have, every other car is a pos, guess what he drives, an 02' Explorer Limited. But his son (my friend) just ordered a Dodge 3500 dually because his lifted Denali took a complete crap on him.

Really, it's just the Firestone thing that makes everyone think every Ford is crap. Fords recalls are normally for minor things, what about BMW recalling almost all it's cars because the engines were blowing up and catching on fire, same thing with the new Trailblazers and Envoys and their engines catching fire, ect., a girl at my college had her new Trailblazer for less than 4 days and the whole front axle assembly fell off her car while she was comming up the street to our college.

Like the others said, every manufacturer makes lemons, you'd be suprised at the amount of people that have problems with their Lexus, Toyota or Honda, the numbers are right up there. A friends grandparents just had the engine for their LS430 replaced with only about 10000 miles.

 

[asp84]

My Taurus on the other hand is another story...it's becoming a pain in the neck. The AX4N (AOD descendant) is a piece. The transmission works but it's so dang rough from 1-2

The AX4N is not a descendent of the AOD. (AOD is a rear wheel drive F-150 fullsize transmission) I believe you are thinking of the AXOD?

 

[Tango40]

My wife traded her 95 Mustang GT in on 2001 Sebring fully loaded every option last year and shes ready to give it up on another Explorer,my 95 Explorer has a little over 150000 miles nothing major to fix on it yet,other than a pontiac grand prix i owened the fords have been the most reliable,as far as the sebring seems to always be something wrong with it,it is a great looking car though.just my opionion.

 

[SaleenEXP]

Dude, on your Sebring did you ever get a sloshing sound like water in the doors? My Aunts 01' Sebring was somehow retaining water in the doors and you could hear it slosh around while driving, happened to another Sebring that I've seen also there was a recall for it, whatever the problem was. And yeh, she also has nothing but problems with the Sebring, they just bought a 00' Explorer Eddie Bauer for something different (1st suv they've ever had) and to pull their boat. The Sebring just sits there now.

 

[ahhjaws]

it was meant in an extremely sarcastic way. sorry, guess you couldnt see my facial expression when i was typing it.

Yeah, I wasn't sure if you were joking or not. Or I was just being stupid.

 

[mrboyle]

Craig- Personally, I wouldn't take anything JD Power & ***** say very seriously. Half the vehicles they "recomend" for highest initial quality are some of the biggest lemons produced. Also, what will complaining to the center for auto saftey do? Its not like the timing chain guide problem is a saftey issue!
If you don't like the vehicle you own, get another. Besides, if you look at the big picture, the price to repair your X is barely .05% of its retail value (based on Kelly Blue Book value of $19,200).

 

[diablo5969]

I don't know.

Before the Explorer, my mom bought a '91 Jeep Cherokee that was in the shop forever. She decided it must be a lemon, sold it, bought a '92 Cherokee. The '92 was also in the shop forever. So then she bought a '93 Honda Accord wagon, and the Honda was just an all around terrible vehicle.

Sold the Honda, bought the '94 Ex. She drove it until 2001 (75,000 miles), and gave it to me when she got a new car. I've had it since then, it now has 93,000 miles, and I love it.

So what can I say? Our Explorer beat out our Jeeps and our Honda. What does that say about domestic vs foreign?

 

[VOATMJ1]

Originally posted by diablo5969


So what can I say? Our Explorer beat out our Jeeps and our Honda. What does that say about domestic vs foreign?

A fluke!

 

[zavetsky]

I have a 92 Dakota 4x4 that started shedding its skin several years back, at 90k or so....

Chrysler refused to do anything about it, so I pushed and pushed some more.....Threatened lawsuit....

They eneded up paying about 2/3 of a repaint at a dealer with a real paint booth

Turned out great, although a repaint is STILL a repaint.....door jambs, etc are a little f-ed up, but I can live with it I guess...

But my point to them is that a vehcile is not supposed to shed its paint...mileage be damned, a 6 year old truck that is pampered to hell should not lose its paint.

They argued that ALL makes/models made in the 90-95 timeframe had problmes, due to EPA rules....I said BULLSHIT and threatened lawsuit.....

What REALLY pissed me off is that a month after I got the truck back with the brand new paint, I backed into a Penndot sign that was hanging over into a parking lot, and I dented the tailgate --- then a couple MORE months later, I was helping a buddy move and he dropped a heavy barbell weight against the side and it chipped the paint.....

Ah well.......

Now, the truck pretty much sits in the garage and goes out on nice days....

DZ

Originally posted by Bottomlesspit
I think it is sometimes just the luck of the draw. I bought a new Dodge conversion van many years ago. One week later the paint started peeling off, the oil sender quit working, the speedomoter cable jammed up, and the alternator went bad. Dodge would not touch some of it because it went 'beyond its' warranty...or it's some conversion companies fault."

 

[zavetsky]

I think you would have a hard time proving this....

My 92 Dakota 4x4 went thru some major operations (under warranty) when it was just a couple years old.....

4x4s in general have more repairs because they wear parts quicker...

My wife drives a 98 Malobu that (knock wood) has seen the inside of a dealer garage only 3x....2x for faulty AC switches and 1x for a bad tailight assembly that leaked water into it.....

No vehicle I have ever owned didnt need some sort of repair.

I own a Honda Shadow motorcycle...my pride & joy ...

http://home.attbi.com/~zavetsky/shadow01.html

...I have had many problems with it, though overall it is a good bike....but it is Japanese.....so shouldnt it be bulletproof?

It all boils down to how a vehicle is used , serviced, etc........

Yes, some are worse than others.....but I dont think any particualr company has a lock on crap cars.....'cept maybe the Yugo....now THERE was the biggest case of the lemons I ever saw. And the company is out of business because they were so bad....

DZ

Originally posted by haktmal
my friend's honda has 175,000 miles on it and the only thing he ever replaced is the water pump.

yes, true that every car breaks or is a lemon. but you find more in ford than any other make. thus, ford delivers the term: found dead on road or fix or repair daily.

 

[bob1]

I have to agree with everybody. Every car copany has made junk or had problems. I went to school to be a mechanic(wate of money make more at the factory)but imports have justa s many problems,but it will cost usally 2-3 times more for the same part. Your problem seems to be a 50 dollar part. Try 150 for a honda or yoter.I've had 3 gm's and I'm on my second ford. the gm's were junk.Gm is worse than anybody about addmiting mistakes.The reason for these problems is there is so much competition in auto's. the pressure to come out with the most powerfull cheepist ect...The manu's try to save money useing cheeper( usally china or mexican parts) that are junk to stay competitive.I work for whirlpool. We make all of there topload demestic washing machines. You see this even here. They use the cheeper parts and remove inspecters to save money to stay competitive. I think foring companys are to have better cars because there are less of them.
I wonder if in those countrys if they think the same about those vehicles because there more comon. But if ford didn't make good quality vehiclas, why do they have the best selling vehiclas there is.

Keep America running by american made. Because stuff made overseas is cheeper because it is junnk

 

[cmayna]

I've had my 91 Ex Eb which is now at 135k since 29k mileage. Can't say anything which would not want me to buy another. Infact I just bought a 96 EB so I can give my 91 to my son. The AC sucks but living in calif, who needs one anyway???

 

[bigbadfred]

I love my X

I got my 93 with 54,000 on it and I had a few problems like my 4x4 motor went, my abs brake system had to be fixed, my fuel pump went, and my alternator went. This was all covered under warranty and didn't cost me anything but the deductable. Since then and that was about 2 years ago nothing as gone wrong with my X. It rides good and everytime I get extra cash, I add new things and my good buddy Brad(88vert) comes up and helps me install whatever I get. He is a very smart and friendly guy who knows a lot of stuff. His nissan is an awesome little car that gets great gas mileage and he can just pound on the miles on that thing and save mileage on his badd azz X. Not all X's are bad it depends on who had it first and how they took care of it. I got a buddy who has a Chevy Blazer 4x4 V6 and it has been in the shop several times costing him around 3,000 dollars to fix it . He had sensors go, he had other things go and total cost of fixing them at the ford dealer ship was almost 3 grand. Heck, I haven't even spent 1,000 on fixing my X yet. I replace parts before they go faulty. 115,000 miles and still looking really good and still running strong

 

[Doug]

Ive owned 3 ford trucks and ive been happy with all of them. I owned a 90 bronco II and i didnt have many problems with it. i sold it to a friend of mine and he absolutley beats on it but its still going. the motor has over 150k miles on it and it still runs like a champ. ive owned 2 explorers and both have been great trucks. if they where so bad i dont think there would be a site with 10k plus members.

 

[Haggard]

GM has one to be one of the most unreliable companies around.

#1-One of my friends has a '99 GMC Jimmy, with 75000 KMS it blew the transmission, 98000 kms the front left wheel bearing completely disintagrated causing over $700 worth of damage to the front end, it has non stop hatch glass rattling, more modded then my Ex but I pull 5 lenghts to 100 km/h with my heavy 20"s

#2 Another friends dad has a '97 Chev Z-71 with a 305, the rear end howls like there is a cat clinging to the driveshaft. There has been some other stuff but I don't recall what it is

#3 Back in '94 my parents bought a brand new '95 Z-71 Ext Cab fully loaded. Fuel pump died at 50000 kms, most gutless vehicle ever and it had a Vortec 350, blew the motor at 100000 kms, rigged it back together and took it to the dealership immediatly it sat spewing oil in the lot parking lot while we drove away in a '98 GTP. Truck wasn't on the lot for 3 weeks

Compared to my old '97 Splash that was raced, fully airbagged which was in the dealership once over the span of 125000 kms for the dome light of all things

 

[tkauf]

Ford products vs. other makes

I have owned 40 plus vehicles American and Foreign. I have been in the car business. It's all about maintenance. Change the fluids, pay attention to what the vehicle is doing and sounding. I owned a Toyota 4 runner for over six years it was the best vehicle I ever owned. But the Japanese use high carbon steel and it rusted out; way too expensive to fix.
I buy used cars; you take your chances. I have a 1994 B 4000LE Mazda stretch cab 4.0 Litre, same as a ranger but more trim. Love the truck but last week it ate a wheel bearing and a rotor. So in addition I had new front brakes put on and the hubs serviced to the tune of $342.00. I don't mind because a new pickup payment is pushing $500.00 a month and they depreciate at an astonishing rate. My cost per mile is always low.
I bought my wife a nice 94 XLT Explorer off a pot lot for a good price, love the way it drives. Why did I buy a Ford after such good luck with the Toyota? Money; the XLT's go for about $4,000 less than a 4 Runner here. That will pay for a lot of work, if we are so unfortunate. I expect the XLT to last about the same time as the Toyota but it may take more of an effort to get it there.
I worked for a large Chev dealer here. I would not own a Chev. Their service writers were thieves. They could blow out a good customer in seconds; the first words out of their mouths was "NO". I guess it's all about personal experience and the way you are treated.
My advice is buy used, shop around, don't fall in love with a vehicle, go looking when you don't need to, and most important; ask around about a good local independent shop and stick with them. Take vehicles to them before you buy and have a creckride done. Any reputable dealer will allow this.

Good luck,

Tom Kauffman

 

[gard_mc]

keep records!

I keep a note pad with stuff like this, who told me what and the time a date. Its helped ALOT when I can put somebody on the spot with specifics.

Just something I've learned the hard way!

 

[csj]

latest update from disgruntled ford owner!

My wonderful experience with this 01' Sport continues: Brought the beast into the same Ford dealership this morning because the "check engine" light was on since they replaced the cam chain tensioner, and also the a/c blew sometimes hot and sometimes cold air.
My service advisers news: the cause of the check engine light is a bad "exhaust gas pressure sensor", which will be $235 to fix. Also, the a/c plenum chamber is cracked, that'll be $891.
Am I unreasonable to expect a 1 year old vehicle to last a bit longer without major repairs?
My original point of this post was that everyones personal experiences will vary, naturally some of you dislike Fords or other brands, and some of you have had great experiences. The real test is the independant quality surveys, and by those Ford's mostly pretty bad.
Again, I know it's my own fault. I strongly believed in buying american, I wanted a 2 door 4wd suv, inexpensive enough to pay cash for, there's not a whole lot of choices.
I'm a very patriotic american, and have always believed in supporting my fellow american workers, but right now, my view is I haven't abandoned them, they've abandoned me. I'll probably keep this piece of junk for a couple of years, if I can stand it that long, but God help me, I will never, ever, buy another american made car!

 

[Jason_25]

So isn't it still under warranty?? If so, why does it matter so much?

 

[Doug]

Im not trying to be an ass but why come onto this board and tell us how much you hate what it is we're into? You say youre trying to "inform" fellow consumers. if you hate the maintenance and cost associated with vehicle ownership maybe you should ride a bike or take public transportation. That way you do not have to worry about expensive repair bills.