Does ford really suck that bad?

[johnc]

Really strange i have heard really bad and really good stories about ford vehicles, maybe it is the luck of the draw

 

That's true about EVERY vehicle manufacturer in the world. Statistically, over a large sample, some vehicles tend to be more reliable and have a higher quality feel. But individual vehicles even within a highly reliable and high quality OEM line can be Pieces of S***.

 

Your odds of getting a POS Toyota are less then getting a POS Chevy, but there are still plenty of POS from every car manufacturer to go around. A blanket statement like "All [place vehicle manufacturer name here] Suck!" just shows ignorance.

[auxilary]

John: what if you get a toyota cavalier?

 

(they do exist!)

[74_5.0L_Z]

I love Fords, but I am slightly biased.

 

I have owned the following:

 

1966 mustang fastback

1965 mustang coupe

1970 Mach 1

 

I currently drive a 1995 Ford Ranger (2.3L) that has never given me any problems even though I abuse it like an ugly step child.

 

My wife currently drives a 2005 Mustang V6. Even though this is a V6 it runs very strong.

 

Of course my favorite Ford is my 1974 5.0L powered 260Z. The engine came out of a wrecked 1989 highway patrol mustang with a bazillion miles on it. Since installing this engine 5+ years ago, I have never even looked at the bearings or rings. I have installed Edelbrock aluminum heads, a crower 15511 cam, FMS 1.72 roller lifters, Cobra intake, 24# injectors, 73mm MAF. The car has made ~75 1/4 mile passes (best of 12.42 @ 113), has made several hundred autocross runs, and has been driven several thousand miles without any engine related problems.

 

Do I love my Fords? HELL YES:-D

[Brad-ManQ45]

Having growen up with a '65 Mustang, and having had a '72 351CJ stang, and a '72 Capri V6, a '75 Town Car, a '79 LTD and currently have a '96 Town Car, I feel I can state that aside from the lousy intake manifold design (coolant xover) in the 4.6 intake manifold, I have had very few problems other than normal maintenance with the cars from Ford that I have had.

 

I have during this time also had three Mitubishi's, two Datsun's and 1 Infiniti.

 

I still have two Datsuns and the Infiniti.

 

I regret selling the Mustang, sold the Capri to my brother (12.5:1 compression, Isky full race cam and valvetrain, Offenhouser Dual Port Intake).

 

Sold the LTD to my brother-in-law when he needed a car and I was getting the Infiniti Q45a.

 

My brother and sister and parents have had bad luck with all GM cars and have stayed away from Chryslers since the early 70's. Don't have anything good or bad to say about them, just don't want one - they are ugly (hemi vehicles anyway) - JMO.

 

I tend to keep cars for a long time and the whole family does too. We doi not purchase FWD cars, and that pretty much shuts GM out. We also will not buy SUV's, thinking that if you need to haul peopole a minivan is the safest way to go, and if you need to haul cargo, a truck is.

 

The family has one of each. Toyota and Ford repectively. I personally stay away from Hondas, as I believe their engines are built a little towoard the light side compared to Toyotas.

 

After my fiasco with the fiance's (now wife's) '90 Stanza, I don't care for Nissans much, but do like the Infiniti Q45a, which started as "our weekend car together" when we had the Stanza and '83ZXT, using it for road trips and traveling across town for family visits here in teh Atlanta area. It is now the wife's car, I use the Lincoln, and the 'ZXT is a weekend fun car (5 speeds are no fun in weekday traffic here). The other Datsun is a '75 that is being torn down for a complete ground up and tt small block Chevy.

 

Once that cart is complete, the '83 will get torn down and redstored, but I will put in a 4l60e tranny in and sell the T5. I'm through shifing in the Atlanta area. It will then become my daily driver again. I bought it when I only had to drive at moswt 15 miles/day, and at one point (for 3 years, 3 miles).

 

I think vey highly of Toyotas.

[Guest goldraven]

I've owned a Ford Explorer...basically couldn't get it to run consistantly for longer than a 3 week period...it was the biggest piece of crap. Everything failed on it.

 

Mercury sable was almost as bad, another sob story of rediculous failures at inconvenient times, leading up to a trip to the junk yard.

 

My buddy has a Ranger that has 390k on it and it is running fine, origional engine/trans...almost everything, he just visited me and I was glad to see the 'ole girl still running.

 

My grandfather has a mid 80s Ford Truck with like 200k on it. It is a total farm truck, transmission works 40% of the time...but the thing still runs.

 

So I guess I am going to leave it as, I've had terrible experience with fords, and I've known people to have great Fords. I put a 1 on this pole just because of what an incredible pain in the arse they have been to me. I hate them, and compared to the almost problemless experiences I've had with chevy/VW/Toyota/Nissan, I'd say they suck.

 

Nick

[SuperKid]

My experiance with Ford is that A. their trucks rock. and B. everything else sucks. lol. I want an '06 F350 King Ranch so bad! But $45,XXX is a bit much for me. Not to mention the tree huggers all over me for driving such a beast of a truck. I mean, look at this thing:

 

[dr_hunt]

Unless it massages the ol' scrotum, I wouldn't pay that much money for something to get me from point a to point b.

[JMortensen]

That is the funniest thing I've seen in a long time Doc!!!

[randy 77zt]

i work as a ford dealer tech.ford's problems come from telling thier parts vendors(they dont build the parts to avoid union labor)what thay will pay for the parts.and an acceptable failure rate.like that cruise cancel pressure switch that mounts to the master cylinder.it leaks brake fliud into the wires and has burned a few garages down.or focus front brakes .the pads are designed to wear the rotors out .so when you mic the rotors when the pads are gone the rotors are at or under spec.i have done many $500 dollar focus front brake jobs.biggest fiasco lately is all the recalls on 6.0 liter diesel trucks.like the trans recall that pays 3.5 hours to install a new reverse planatary gearset in the trans.if you get a flat rate tech that does this to your truck in 3.5 hours i would be certain that your truck will never be the same again.my brother has a 2003 diesel truck with 7.3l and it has never been back to the dealer -except for a tire recall but he had 40k on old tires so he got a set free.most shops are flat rate pay system.so cars get butchered up becuase the techs cant make the time limit.do some research on flat rate pay system for techs sometimes.i worked at a flat rate shop for years.2 monthes ago i switched to a union shop.but the contract is up so if it goes flat rate i will be driving a truck instead.i am totally burned out and my z is in pieces and it might be for sale becuase i hate working on anything now.in 20 years i have had 3 hernia surgeries,dislocated knee,and arthritis in my hands.but my 96 e150 van runs strong.

[jonzer12]

I have a 2001 f150 supercrew 4x4 w/ the 5.4l engine. I have burried this truck in mud more times that i can remember, I have towed boats, trailers, pulled loggs anything you can think of. It might still be pretty new at 67k on it but it has never given me a single problem, not one. This truck is my first ever domestic purchase and so far it was worth every penny. I am not a Ford fan per say but so far Ford has yet to let me down.

[WickedWild]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/AUTOS/09/07/ford_recall/index.html

Anyone who uses a brass plug in an alluminum housing for a water separator in a diesel truck sucks in my book.

[dr_hunt]

A friend of mine, Detlev Gottschalk, owns a die making business (large) in Detroit and he makes the dies for stamping out FORD parts as well as GM and Chrysler, like the hood, hinges, brackets, etc. He said that he bought a ford because "Ford was so damn picky" about the tolerances on the dies. They take the dies and provide them to their manufacturers of metal hard parts. He got one, it lasted a year, had alot of problems, so he went dodge this year. Ford does outsource it's parts to avoid union labor, almost all of the stampings are non-ford made according to my friend.

[GrayZee]

I've been known to help all of my friends with car problems (unless of course they happen to drive a ford) If that's the case, I don't even wanna hear about it and my friends know it.

[Guest bastaad525]

I've had a couple Fords ('68 Mustang, '64 Galaxie), a Chevy with two different motors (an '81 Camaro, first the craptastic 2.8L V6 than with a 350), and two Dodges (a mid 90's Ram truck and a Cold hatchback).

 

It is from the experiences I've had with ALL of those cars (ranging from 'classic' old to then-nearly-new), that I have formed the oppinion that American vehicles in general are just not very reliable. While I put some measure of faith in their engines (the 350 chevy and 302 ford) it just seems that even they are not nearly as reliable as many of the import auto brand motors. I can't say I know of too many people who put 200,000 miles + on chevy/ford/dodge motors and are still running them, whereas I know quite a few people with 200k + miles on their toyota/nissan/honda.

 

Those vehicles I listed that I owned were all pretty problematic in a wide range of areas, small problems to large to "okay it's time to get rid of the vehicle" problems. My '81 280zx had just under 300,000 miles on the odo when I got rid of the chassis, rebuilt the motor and switched over to a '71 240z chassis, and I had owned and daily driven that ZX for roughly 5 years, and only once did it ever strand me, when the fuel pump went out. Which was my fault, because I KNEW it was going out, I could hear it making funny noises when I'd turn the key on before starting the car... but I delayed and delayed and one day it just stopped working stranding me at a 7-11. That is the ONLY time that car ever 'broke down', and whatever money I put into it (not counting performance upgrades, of course) were just regular wear item replacements.

 

But to get back to the main question... maybe it's an unfair oppinion, since I have only owned two very old Fords, but yeah, based on those two vehicles, I'd have to say Fords are pretty crappy On the other hand, I tend to hear nothing but good things about Ford Trucks (NOT suv's, but specifically TRUCKS).

[patzky1]

270,000 on an 88 chevy tbi 305 Silverado without anything more than changing oil and tuneups, brakes, shocks, exhaust, etc. But, it is definitely not on its first 700r4 tranny, more like the 3rd...And it still gets about the same gas mileage it got from the factory. I seem to like it.

[zguy95135]

My sister's neighbor had their new Ford F-150 truck catch on fire in their driveway...

[Guest bastaad525]

270,000 on an 88 chevy tbi 305 Silverado without anything more than changing oil and tuneups, brakes, shocks, exhaust, etc. But, it is definitely not on its first 700r4 tranny, more like the 3rd...And it still gets about the same gas mileage it got from the factory. I seem to like it.

 

You know, I should correct what I said. Because truth is, I HAVE heard of a few guys running american made cars past 200,000 miles with little or no (engine related) problems. But, it almost always seems to be TRUCKS. Like I said, I hear great things about Ford trucks though it seems their cars have a not-so-great reputation... same goes for Chevy... I hear fantastic things about their trucks, everyone who's ever owned one seems to love them, and they always seem to last to some really high mileage.

 

So why can't they make their cars as good as they make their trucks?

[CruxGNZ]

My sister's neighbor had their new Ford F-150 truck catch on fire in their driveway...

Speaking of F-150 and fire, my Ma' just sent me this:

 

"Mat - take a look at the attached pictures, especially the 2nd and 3rd pics. This is a house that started on fire around 2am in the morning. A person I work with - it was her sister's home in IL. This happened about 3 weeks ago.

Preliminary reports say that his F-150 Ford started on fire (probably because of the cruise control recall). They had about 5 min. after their fire alarm started, to get out of the house before it was engulfed in flames. Their 3 year old son's room was right above the garage, and they grabbed him just in time before the flames were inside his room!

This makes me want to get Mike's truck in for repairs, and make sure our smoke detectors are working!

Mom"

 

Here's the pictures:

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

 

!M!

[Tim240z]

Why would a F-150 owner not have the recal work done IMMEDIATELY after the notice came out? What are they waiting for.......

[randy 77zt]

the f150 recall takes about 5 minutes to do.it is a new design pressure switch and a new harness plug for the master cylinder.if you dont have time then unplug the connector on the master cylinder.