It's been my habit to buy the best one I can find & afford and then keep at it until it's not worth fixing. I'm talking 300,000 or more miles etc. As long as the sheet metal is in great shape and the vehicle hes not been wrecked & pieced together I will buy it if I need a vehicle.
My 95 RWD 4.0L XLTN with 2+2 Interior was just such a vehicle. The body is close to pristine, suspension is great & so on. Since it's 4.0L it's a bulletproof Cologne built engine and has one of the better A4LD A/T's in my opinion. I have had XLT AWDs & SWB Aeros with 3.0L but a clean tight XLTN with the 4.0L is the best I have found, of course where I am Winter is what sends the tourists here, so AWD is not what I need. I get better Mpg with the RWD.
I prefer 95 because it's still OBD-I and (IMHO) a more reliable, simpler and less troublesom Op Sys. I dislike OBD II which I find to be Overly complex & complicated only to suit a federal regulation. So I keep doing & redoing my 95 and we are right at 1/4 Million Miles on the same engine & Unit Body. I pull a 16' -2 axle Flatbed trailer. It's been as heavy as 13,780 GVW on a return trip from Norfolk VA to Central FL about 900 miles.
I modify things I don't like, for example I run 15 X 8 Alloy Turbine OEM Mercury Grand Marquis wheels with Michelin 215-75-R15 LT Radials. I also have gone to progressive sensatrack shocks up front & rear has the overload coils for 1,000 lb rating, they are the Sensatrack Loadlevelers.
I also trashed the OEM Halogen Headlamps in favor of a set of sealed beam headlamps from a 1985-1990 model but I run HAlogen Sealed beams in them. Mush cleaner & better nught lighting, and more easily adjusted to perfection. No bubble levels either. AND replace ment Sealed beams are 1/3 the price of 1 replacement "bulb" for the OEM set up, also there's no need for $225 dollar peplacement plastic housings every 85K-90K miles.
This '95 is my 4th & probably last Aero unles something catastrophic occurs to it which I can not avoid. Obviously this is my "work truck". I've instructred my wife to put silver handles on it & bury me in it when I die. I don't care if I put $1000 to $1500-yr in it. I lost 3-4 times that just driving disappointing
"new Vehicles" out show room doors in the past. The newer they are more complex & less reliable & costly to repair they become. . . Who needs that?
At $1000 a year I could drive this Aero 40 years & still save money & finance charges over a new vehicle with not nearly same advantages, Right?
I may be wrong, but not about this. I've 3 more 4.0L engines & an A4LD waiting in my shop, along with ECMs, door window switches & motors, sliding door buss connectors and so on and on and on. . . I am preparing to trim a Front end from an AWD (I've 2 complete AWD K Frames) for use in a RWD. It's bigger brakes, more swept area & Larger calipers + rotors are 1/2 price of those itty bitty 2wd Aero Rotors new, now is that a no brainer, or What?
So My reply is No You'd be crazy Not to if it is clean & solid structurally. The mechanicals are easy to R&R it's the bodies they qwit Making doncha see?
FBp