I’m in the market for a new car. My current car is a Honda Accord (1998). I’ve gotten 12 years and 320,000 miles out of it. The only problem other than standard maintenance(timing belts,water pump,brakes,tires etc) has been a cracked radiator at around 250,000 miles.
I test drove a Ford Fusion and liked it. Base price is about $3000 lower than a new Accord.
I’m 38, so I still have a bit of a bad taste regarding American cars. A leftover from the 80’s and 90’s I suppose.
I’m no car expert, but I get the impression from auto mags and word of mouth that Ford is not the same company from the late 80’s.
Are my odds of getting 300,000+ miles from a new Ford as good as they are from Honda?
Anecdotal evidence: I’ve got a 2000 Honda Accord (with 150k miles), hubby’s got a 2006 Ford Taurus. So far, both his transmission and his exhaust system’s been giving him trouble; the only thing 've ever had to replace on the Honda was the battery, and that’s after 6 months of it sitting out in the open and not being used.
If we were to do it all over again, he’d get a Honda. Though maybe Ford’s made a significant leap forward in terms of quality, these past two years… who knows?
Depends a lot on the specific model. I had a 2003 Crown Victoria that had just under 300,000 miles on it when it got totaled last year (not my fault), and I had never had a problem with it. Ford E-Series vans and F-Series trucks have a near-legendary reputation for durability. Their economy cars OTOH, what I’ve heard is they’ll be great up until about 100,000-150,000 miles then all kinds of things start to go wrong with it, BUT the same thing could be said about a lot of other companies’ economy cars. In other words, if that’s what you’re looking for I’d spring for the Honda or a Toyota.
We’ve had a couple of F-150s that have been great, our current one, a 2001, has 170K miles on it and no problems. However, I rented a Mustang a few months back (free upgrade when the rental co was out of the economy cars I requested) that couldn’t have been more than 2 years old, and the interior was absolutely falling apart. I know rental cars get beat up a bit more than average, but door trim was falling off in several places…my overall impression was that it was very cheaply made. The interior of our truck still looks great, so I don’t know what the inconsistency there is.
My Ford Focus was going strong at 160k miles with nothing wrong but a dying AC unit. It was super-reliable and the others I know with Focuses all had excellent experiences. I traded mine in for a Prius and doubled my mpg but I got a good 8 years from the Ford.
Overall their ratings have been solid. The Fusion has been getting really high marks and of course their trucks are generally considered the best.
Ford’s problems (in my experience) in the not too distant past have been with specific components. For example, the AXOD/AX4S transaxle had a lot of problems over the years, and Ford used that transaxle in almost everything, so multiple nameplates would get a rep for transmission problems. Same for the head problems on the old Essex V6. One specific problem with one engine tarnished the reputations of the Taurus, Sable, Windstar, Thunderbird, Cougar, and Mustang.
I just sold my 1997 Aerostar with just over 231K miles. It looked a bit raggedy inside, but we’d used it as a hauling/towing vehicle. The compressor on the a/c cracked and I never bothered to replace it, but everything else seemed to be doing fine. I was meticulous about maintenance and except for a cruise control issue under warranty, I don’t think I had any non-wear-and-tear issues.
I really hated to sell it, but we needed a truck. My daughter is about to buy a Fiesta - we’ll see how that goes.
My dad worked at Ford all my life so we’ve had nothing but Fords.
Tauruses have been absolute champs for our family. They run forever. In fact, other than the stable listed below and the Aerostar dad crashed, all of our family cars have been Tauruses. We’ve bought several as ex-fleet vehicles and ran them to the ground, often passing them off to other family members who got more miles before running to the ground.
My 2004 Escape is great. Only issues have been suspension related (cracked ABS ring, which is sadly on a part of the suspension, and stabilizer links went bad) and also my exhaust bracket rusted away. I can pretty much blame these issues on living in the pothole-infested, salt-covered frozen Midwest.
My brother’s 2004 Focus is good too. Last time I drove his car I suspected his exhaust needs re-attached too. He also lives near me and neither of us get winter car washes like we should.
Mom’s 2005 Five Hundred is fine. Only thing is that it has weird windshield wipers that are hard to get.
My best friend is in love with his F-150.
The only bad Ford I’m aware of was my 1998 Escort. The tranny died and then it died again. The guy who fixed it (who I assume fixed it improperly) said they used POS transmissions in those cars anyway.
I wish I didn’t have such a nice, solid, paid-off vehicle. The baubles Ford is adding to their new cars are really enticing.
The Fusion is one of the best domestic buys on the market right now, their quality reliability ratings are awesome.
My MIL was a loyal Honda driver for decades, but we convinced her to test drive a Fusion when she was looking for a new Honda last year and she fell in love with it. We’ve heard nothing but praise since then. There are a ton of features available if you’re buying a new one, she didn’t want or need a lot of bells and whistles but the Sync system is really cool if you are into things like that.
I will never own another Ford. I will own another Honda, if my current one with 120k plus miles ever needs replacing. It is my second Honda and nothing serious has ever gone wrong with it. The first one had a timing belt break and a radiator crack, both of which were minor repairs. (Although the timing belt could have been a disaster, so I get mine replaced way early). If my choice was a Ford or a Honda plus $5000, I’d pay the premium for the peace of mind.
Obviously I don’t know why he dislikes Ford, but it really only takes a combination of one or two bad vehicles and a dealership that is defecient in service and any of the car companies can lose up to ten customers by word of mouth.
Which is why we still have legacy distrust of domestic vehicles from the eighties. I drive an 07 escape and no real complaints about the finish or trim and this is the first Ford I have ever bought.
Not knowing anything about how the car was treated before you got it, that’s not necessarily a condemnation of Ford. (and ex bought a brand new Explorer, then changed the initial breaking oil around 7500 miles. I’m glad I wasn’t the second owner)