DrunkenDragon713

I changed the belt on my old 91 f-150 myself. Took 30-45 minutes and costed about $20. My mom's 03 accord before she traded it for a Dodge Caravan, engine bay way too crammed to do anything in, costed $200 to change a belt and add frion.

SonicBlue2005GT

American cars are getting nicer, but there have been so many ****ty quality vehicles with hardly any resale value in the past from 'the big 3', of course people are going to be bias AGAINST them... I'd hate more than anything to see them all go down, but they can't continue to lose billions every year.

PACETTR

Resale value, much like prices on GT500's, are based largely on supply and demand. Toyota trucks don't have a high resale value b/c they are the hot ticket; it's b/c there aren't alot of them out there for someone who wants one. I'm sure Kev will back me on this one: Rangers are one of the best vehicles out there. We trade for them all the time with 150, 200, 250 k miles, but b/c Ford sold so many of them, they are for sale everywhere which in turn drives down resale.
I am sure the new Toyota drives great (what new truck doesn't) albeit the ugliest of the full-size contenders (subjectively speaking). The Ford is a better built truck, although as previously stated, most will never push the trucks to the limits it would take to show it. When the F-150 is freshened with a new powertrain, it will once again claim its spot at the top of the truck game.

FWIW, Toyota Tundra will sell about as many trucks in the entire model year as Ford will sell in 3-4 months, IIRC.

SonicBlue2005GT

st06vert

Believe it or not in asia japanese cars don't last but 2 years. You get 3 years out of it your lucky.

st06vert

japanese USED to make good cars. NOW their car has alot of issues after everyone believes they are good cars. toyota sludge, honda accord oil leak, transmission. etc

hi5.0

Depending on which Asian country it is, it could be because of the tougher driving/traffic conditions they are subjected to.

GT_350

Oh like what the 2001 Bullitt?

added a cast aluminum SVT Cobra intake manifold, plus a twin-bore 57mm throttle body and port-matched heads to the existing 4.6L SOHC V-8. There's also an alternator and windage tray from the Cobra, plus a high-flow exhaust system with special tailpipes. Power is up just 5 horses over the standard GT, to 265. Torque comes in at 305 lb-ft at 4000 rpm versus 302 at 4000 for the GT........

and sub frame connectors, special handling stuff revalved Tokico shocks different springs.......

What about the 2003-04 Mach 1?

32 valve heads, aluminum block, fresh air shaker hood, etc.......

What about that 2003-04 Cobra?

blown motor, IRS, 6-speed.......

Clean sheet '05 Mustang........

So before we give up and say it's all doom and gloom let's look forward and hope for the best from Ford......

Now if I were a betting man I would be looking at Ford having a 5.0-5.1 liter N/A motor forged bits, crank, rods and pistons. Might have say 400 or so HP and 360-380 Ft Lbs of torque..........

If Saleen and Steeda (Steeda just announced a blown 5.0 at Sebring this past weekend) did it Ford might......

st06vert

You can't say the same about american cars in asia. They last for years.

Cheese302

toyota only has one engine that sludges. and in many cases it was still caused by owner ignorance of maintnance. However toyota is still rebuilding those engines free of charge, so they are def. making good on it. Also the engine is no longer in use, it has been replaced and the sludge is not as much of an issue.

honda transmissions. well if you buy a proper trans, no problems its only those dumb automatics that have issues, and even in that i believe the only culprit was the odyssee. and oil leaks, c'mon man EVERY car will have oil leaks, it just depends on when they start. If i were to buy a brand new family sedan right now at this vey instant, it would be a vw, a subaru, or a honda. Its still just a better car. Although i have not had the pleasure of driving a new 5 speed fusion. My aunt has a v6 and i like it, but at the same time i am not a fan of the front end, if ford brings over the mondeo (read: european) i would be sold pretty much instantly.

now the subject of the initial forum topic. Honestly i see such a monstrous apples to oranges comparison of features you would like to see. i mean your looking at a huge fuill size pickup and asking for some features of it to be placed into a small historic bang for the buck sporty car. i mean yeah that 5.7 would be nice, but then again you can already get a 5.4 supercharged engine with 500hp. 10.5 rear, awesome, however there are plenty of 8.8's running in the 10's and 11's these days even without a ton of hp the forces placed on this rear to go that fast are insane. in the end, i see where you are coming from, i understand and feel that your points are very valid. however i dont really agree with you on them. i mean your never going to see a sports car that can go over railroad tracks without feeling them. and your not going to see that monster rear end put in a car that doesnt really need it for street use. in the end when it comes to trucks, toyota is no where close to meeting expectations, and when you throw down the options to get a tundra in the same interior league as a comparable mustang (leather, 4 seats, premium radio) where my stang with all that cost me 27k the tundra is getting over 40 and i mean the stinking 5.7 runs on premium. my 300hp stang thats most likely faster than said tundra runs on regular and can scrape 23 mpg in normal driving. and in the end my biggest issue with the new tundra, no availible manual trans, marks it off my list immediately.

st06vert

[quote=Cheese302;902032]toyota only has one engine that sludges. and in many cases it was still caused by owner ignorance of maintnance. However toyota is still rebuilding those engines free of charge, so they are def. making good on it. Also the engine is no longer in use, it has been replaced and the sludge is not as much of an issue.

honda transmissions. well if you buy a proper trans, no problems its only those dumb automatics that have issues, and even in that i believe the only culprit was the odyssee. and oil leaks, c'mon man EVERY car will have oil leaks, it just depends on when they start. If i were to buy a brand new family sedan right now at this vey instant, it would be a vw, a subaru, or a honda. Its still just a better car. Although i have not had the pleasure of driving a new 5 speed fusion. My aunt has a v6 and i like it, but at the same time i am not a fan of the front end, if ford brings over the mondeo (read: european) i would be sold pretty much instantly.


I wasn't really talking about a regular oil leak. I know of one person personally that drove a 98 honda accord. He told me that when he was getting ready to go to work there was no oil puddle under his car. As he was backing out of the garage the oil seal located near the timing chain pop out and there was a puddle of oil in his garage. About 3 quarts. As soon as he noticed this he turned the car off and called the tow truck to take to honda. Years later he found out there was a recall on this problem. After 3 years of owning the car he had radiator leak, blown head gasket and few interior problems. I heard of similar problems on hondas with the same year range.
I am not against toyota or honda but I disagree with people who thinks they are reliable. I have family members that owns them.

htwag

So, if Ford can build a hybrid Escape, then where is the hybrid Focus, Fusion,, even 500/Taurus? Toyota makes hybrid vehicles available in the Camry and the Lexus SUV. It's been a while, where's Ford's team that dreams up stuff for the future? If gas goes past $3.25, don't you think hybrids will get more popular? I drive an '05 Focus in town, and have come to consider it a gas hog - and I get about 28 mpg. City mileage below 22 isn't worth looking for in a car used to get to just places. Can't help but wonder if Ford will unveil something hot - and something that get better gas mileage. Honda and Toyota make hybrids cars. Ford only offers a small hybrid SUV. I want Ford to be succesfully, but the product has got to be there. My local Ford dealer has tons of used cars - mostly Fords SUVs.

theedge67

I'm wondering where the hybrid focus or fusion is at?? I mean, that would be the hot ticket if you ask me. A smaller or midsize American car that gets 40+mpg would sell faster than they can make them. Especially with the tax rebates and such, makes it very easy to pony up a few extra $$ to buy a hybrid.

Hstang

I can't believe your comparing changing a belt between a old truck and a fwd car.

Cheese302

[quote=st06vert;902294]
i would have to believe that outside of that one car and that recall, they are still very reliable cars. My family has had nothing but amazing service out of the 7 hondas that we have owned. the lowest mileage when getting rid of any of them was 195000. soo whichever, sorry to hear about your friends issues. but at the same time i wonder if its all issues with their v6's. we have only had 4 cylinders.

PACETTR

[quote=Cheese302;902780]I had an 82 Grand Marquis with over 200000 when I sold it in perfect running condition; high mileage is not exclusive to imports...
And it was a v8.

kepfordj

I can't belive it took 45 mins to swap a belt on a 91 F-150... j/k

htwag

More ads about quality - in major publications.

Cheese302

[quote=PACETTR;903321]
in what way did my post sound like i was saying that because its an american v8 isnt reliable? seriously, where? i would really like to know. since my family also had a 1988 lincoln mark vii lsc that had 245000 on it running extremely well when we sold it. only major thing that we needed to do was head gaskets. and they arent very hard to do on that car. i am not hating on anything, hell i have an 07 mustang gt.

kevinb120

For most cars, the owner makes it reliable. There is nothing special about Japanese cars, and a lot of time the use of materials in the important structural areas you don't see are inferior. There are certain brands that are consistantly crappier then average(Mitsu/DCX). I have never been impressed with any GM product down the road either. A 4 year old Malibu, cavalier, Trailblazer, Saturn, CTS, ect is just looking tired...

I finally got a look at the Tundra frame. Front suspension is actually quite beefy, about 75% of an F150, with bigger spring perches then the GM. Most of the attatchment hardware and bracket welds are pretty basic though. Frame is of noticeably thinner gauge steel(you can see it right away with the old eyeball), C-frame with a lot of rivets again which plauged the old frame(it was pathetic). No through welded crossmembers and very narrow leaf springs(about the same as a Ranger's). All hardware looks small-scale next to an F-150. On brackets, lots of smaller spot/short welds. I would say the front suspension is a little tougher then this gen Silverado, the frame is much less substantial then the last generation one. The Titan was a better attempt at copying the F-150. I would say in the frame the F-series has nearly twice the metal and 10 times the welding. If Ford ever gets the Hurricane done there's no reason why it couldnt tow 16000lbs. I would venture to say 10k is way overrated for the Tundra.

The new Silverado is a MUCH better built truck then the old model, just not quite a revolution. RAM has an excellent frame(toughest in the business), its weak point has been the front suspension is problamatic and outdated-the newest model has gotten much better. Don't get me wrong, I always hated the last generation F-150/Expy and thought they were turds trough 2003, and don't get me started on Ford minivans....

Toyota is master of buiding and promoting the paper tiger, and the American auto media is all in love with them. Toyota took cues from keeping the metal down so the truck is fast(ala all the kudos the Titan originally receieved) with better attention to details. But its really nothing special. The interior is very basic too, wasn't that impressed, and saw a lot of parts-bin hardware. In typicall toyota fasion, if I pulled a bolt from a major underbody component and handed it to you, you would never guess where it came from-"alternator bolt?"-no, lower control arms....They will pick and choose certain components to help in stats charts and magazines reviews, but skimp everywhere they can otherwise. The ring gear will be a certain size, the brakes will be a certain diameter, and the engine will have a certain HP. Nobody pays attention to the leaf springs, the mounting bolts, or the gauges of steel used.