You're talking to someone who thinks that the Hyundai Genesis Coupe looks nice...

 

Ford made some real progress, but you can't change your reputation overnight after building crap for 30 years.

I'm more interested to see how good Fusion hybrid and the rest of Ford's lineup are going to be on the long run. It's easy to compare new vs new, but on the long run none of Big 3 can really compare with Toyota or Honda.

 

So Buick is better than Toyota (using the chart you provided) and Mercury, Lincoln and Cadillac are better than Honda?

 

I wouldn't say "better", but more reliable.

And another thing is, Buick's and Mercury's (and often Lincoln's) owners are usually older people who tend to drive like ... older people so that might be the reason why they're so high on the list.

 

I agree with this. Most old people I know drive Buicks or Lincolns. My grandmother drives her Buick like she is in a drag race though.

 

COOL

 

Well I've only personally purchased 2 Ford's - both brand new (83 & 08) - and both of them flawless.

I also had over a half dozen company vehicles thru the 80's & 90's - 3 were brand new. All Ford's (vans, cubes, Super Duty; 350's, 460, 414 V10) - all were driven hard, put away wet, and traded at 100k - and all of them flawless.

What did I get lucky or something?

 

Our first car in the USA was '92 Escort (this was in '99). Junk, always problems.

Our next Ford was my '00 Mustang. Right now, at 54,000 miles, there is something wrong with it which mechanics can't figure it out. Sometimes it just wouldn't start, but few hours later starts with no problem. My brother drives it and I had to pick him up from school many times because Mustang wouldn't start. At 20,000 miles anti-theft system was activated somehow while the car was in a garage at home. I had to tow it to Ford's dealership, they charged me $350 to un-block it. At 50,000 miles brakes were completely blocked, again had to tow it to dealership to get that fix.

'05 F-150, less than 14,000 miles on the odometer, there is a whistling noise coming out from the engine when it's really cold outside (which, in Wisconsin, it's pretty much the entire winter). According to Ford Trucks web-site, the problem is alternator. I took it to Ford's dealership, they couldn't find anything wrong.

'08 Fusion and '08 Mustang, so far so good.

 

Wow - that's a string of problems. Frustrating I bet.

 

Sometimes.

But I know I wouldn't be happy with a Japanese car, no matter how good they are.

So overall I'm happy with Fords. There are problems every now and then, but unlike Toyotas they do put a smile on my face.

 

Does your grandmother own a 1970 GNX or an '80s vintage Grand National?

 

No she drives a Buick Le Sabre. She also has a early 90s F150 that she drives like crazy and I want to say it only has like 60k on the odometer.


We have had some problems with our Toyota 4runner. It is a 95 model with over 223,000 miles on it. I received it after my 67 kept breaking down. I know back in the 90s it had to get the top end rebuilt due to a faulty head gasket which was replaced under warranty. Now I have problems with it leaking water(even with new radiator), losing power steering fluid, it used to lose/burn oil, now it starts up weird(acts like it runs rich), transmission has vibrations that cause u-joints to go bad in just a couple months, and every so often the transmission won't go into 1st gear to start off(I have to get the RPMs up to like 3k before it will downshift into 1st and get going good again). They won't let me sell it . I'd love to get something else especially with it getting only around 13-14 mpg. I keep getting told "We've had it in the family for 13 years and we aren't getting rid of it anytime soon."