“Oh no, not another story about Ford dying on the road!”- you bet! This is exactly what happened. “Not another story!” – yes, another story! I like everything American: I like Sam Adams Beer, I like US Airways, I can even consider drinking Bud, if the only other choice would be to own a Ford.
I bought my Ford Taurus 1997 in early 2005 for just $900. Yeh, I know, you will say it must have been dead piece of meat by then. Well, with 67,000 miles on it, it was, in fact dead. A year later I bought Camry for $8,700 with 74,000 miles on it and it serves me well until now. In fact I have no clue what is in there under the hood of this car – I never open it.
Why Are Cars So Crappy?
Lease-oriented Evolution
Car manufacturers have two different approaches: leasing oriented and value oriented. Basically the US is a major market for car lease, we, Americans like to take stuff now and pay later, we do not bother that it will cost us a lot more, we just evolved this way. American car manufacturers evolved with us with the same set of mind: they do not care what happens to the car in three years, it is none of their business. You may be surprised, but GM Financial is valued more than GM itself (including GM Financial)! As long as the major source of revenue is not a car sale, but 3-year lease, there are no incentives to make good reliable cars.
Value-oriented Evolution
Then came Japanese and Europeans – they evolved in a value-oriented system where people did care about what happened to their cars as they could not afford throwing money on the wind every third year. This is exactly why our cars are crappy and imported aren’t. In fact, there are more American details in Camry nowadays than in GM’s vehicles. Toyota is assembled in the US and does very well, so the problem is not that we cannot assemble or design a car – it is the companies mindset that defines their priorities.
Recent Successes
Recently Buick and even Ford Fusion made it to tops of the reliability lists. These are signs of a change, a change of corporate mindset. Hope it will continue this way and I can invest in Ford in couple of years.
Ford Taurus – The Last Maverick
Ford Taurus is famous for the fact that it is the last best-selling American car in America. From 1992 to 1996 it held this place until surrender to Camry in 1997. Taurus is Ford’s Flagship up until today and no major changes in its crappiness occurred. The major characteristics of Ford GL are Vulcan V6 engine with well-known catastrophic breakdown capability at 50,000 miles as a factory-installed option, with 145hp and 180 ft*lbf torque. It is roomy and heavy car that makes you feel like you drive a tank. It has 4-speed automatic transmission – the second major cause of Taurus’s breakdowns. Allegedly, Ford spent about $2bln on development of this car…
Back To Me And My Taurus
When I bought this car it had problems with break lines, with ignition, with break pads, with engine and with transmission. Well, it also had sneaky owner who was extremely excited of getting rid of pile of trash from his backyard. These problems were there after less than 70K on it. I spoke to a number of Taurus owners and mechanics after that and all of them agreed that transmission has to be changed generally after ~60K and major engine overhaul has to be done next.
As a very careful person, I fixed the car to the extent it started to move around. Just to find out that you cannot drive it less than 50 miles per hour (reminds you The Speed movie?). In fact it was not a bomb under the hood, it was overheating. Every time I stopped in a traffic jam for more than 20 minutes, the car was dying. Well, tell me about radiator, thermostat, coolant… Nothing worked! Not even any of THREE different mechanics I showed it to had any clue (they took the money though).
Well, I had to drive fast. Until, one day, I was in New Hampshire, two hours away from Boston driving 80 miles per hour. Unexpectedly everything turned off in the car immediately. Hydraulics, electricity, indicators, everything… “What the…?” – I though at that moment, trying to get out of the highway alive. It was an idle pulley that provides tension to the belt that broke. Thanks Ford, they have quite a robust design and I could fix everything next day myself.
Let’s say I am influenced by my negative experiences with this car. May be other cars are different? Consider this: Ford is the only modern car I owned that did not have automatic lights shutdown! I am far from being a dumb, but I had my battery dying three times because of that. I ask myself what really happened to those $2bln that were allegedly used for development of this vehicle?
At some point of time I suspected that there was another person sitting in the trunk and drinking the gas. I checked there and under the car - nothing. I was still making little over 22 mpg on a highway and 15 in a city.
May Be They Are Not Supposed To Live 67,000 miles?
After getting rid of the junk, I bought Camry and I had 74,000 on it. I still drive it and I never had any problems with anything at all, including automatic lights shutdown.
You can read my review about Camry here. But what I mean to say is that cars supposed to live long, they are supposed to be reliable and you are not supposed to get stuck in the middle of nowhere (sorry folks from NH), just because bearing on idle pulley got stuck.
Suggestions:
If you absolutely have to buy this car, make sure that previous owner changed: serpentine belt, water pump, thermostat and has serviced transmission recently (look at the service paper, make sure everything is clean, better look for a car with changed transmission), make sure it does not overheat and that break lines are not leaking. In fact, be prepared to spend a lot of nerves on this one, plus you will get a frequent customer discount from your mechanic. Better yet – get different car.
UPDATE: I want to specifically note that problems that happen to the car are not a function of its price at the moment of sale. They are a function of maintenance and mileage. Thus the only fact that car depreciates to $900 after 65K already means something about its quality. So it is not that I bought a lemon, IT IS a lemon by 65K miles.
Amount Paid (US$): 900
Condition: Used
Model Year: 1997
Model and Options: GL
