What Truck Do You Recommend

[cal828]

Originally Posted by Danzig

we had a freestyle. throttle body went bad. it was notorious for just making your car almost come to a stand-still. happened to tony one night going to work, car just lost all power/acceleration, dropped from 60 mph to about 20 just like that. just think if he'd have had someone right on his bumper. he went online, and found a bunch of others with the same issue. we wondered about a recall. he called ford, to ask how to order a new throttle body. they said 'well, you have to take it to service dept to make sure of what the problem was'. he said i know what the problem is, and mentioned the sites with the tons of comments from others with the exact same issue. said why do i need to pay over $100 diagnostic fee (ford has made it to where non-ford service techs computers can't 'talk' to the newer cars) if i already know the diagnosis? the reply? 'sir, if you aren't going to take it to a service dept, we can't take this call seriously' click'. unbelievable!
traded the car in on a chevy equinox.

Had to go to Little Rock one day. Truck starts making a little noise or at least I thought I could hear a little noise. Took it to a Ford dealer over there. They said brakes were going out and needed new 2 new tires on the front. Said it was "dangerous" to drive. Wanted $750 for the 2 new tires alone. I thought it was all BS, but was a little afraid to drive it. Took it to a mechanic I knew. He said absolutely nothing wrong with the brakes. Tires were worn, but not critically so. I think I put another 10k miles on them and then replaced all four for about $800.

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by cal828

Had to go to Little Rock one day. Truck starts making a little noise or at least I thought I could hear a little noise. Took it to a Ford dealer over there. They said brakes were going out and needed new 2 new tires on the front. Said it was "dangerous" to drive. Wanted $750 for the 2 new tires alone. I thought it was all BS, but was a little afraid to drive it. Took it to a mechanic I knew. He said absolutely nothing wrong with the brakes. Tires were worn, but not critically so. I think I put another 10k miles on them and then replaced all four for about $800.

that sounds right. par for the course. when we bought the truck we have now, it came with the door keypad. it didn't work with the combination that they gave us. made an appt to get it fixed. drove it up there, and the guy just kept typing in the same combo. hello. we did that already, many times. so now he has to 'order the part'. i was furious. ' i thought that was already ordered, to be put in today-which is why i drove an hour and a half round trip to get it installed.' oh, no. oops. previous truck....when you hit a pothole, the right side would bounce way more than it should, like the tie rod end was bad or something.
so i took it to the dealer where we bought it. sat there and waited a while...they said 'we looked it all over, nothing wrong'. yeah, cause women don't know when something's wrong. i told them i didn't appreciate them not taking it seriously.
a few weeks later, my husband was driving and i was with him. hit a hole, it bounced him all the way into the other lane. i didn't say a word, just gave him that 'i told you so look'. so he took it to them. 'oh, yeah. we just got a notice on that'. he let them know i didn't appreciate how everything happened. they apologized profusely and fixed it all. very frustrating.


he's always been a ford man. til they hung up on him. no more fords, which is good, cause i was always a chevy gal.



we had a recall on the freestyle for something else. took it to the local ford place, got a loaner. they called the next day. you'll have to take it where you bought it (an hour away) cause the part's on backorder, we can't be out a loaner six weeks. i said i was glad i didn't buy it in another state! so, brought their loaner back (with the gas we'd put in), drove to el do, got a loaner...car was ready next day. the local had lied about the part being on 'back order'.
also, local guy-took a work truck to them for engine work. they said it needed an all new motor, etc. about 10k in work. took it to a mechanic, said didn't need a motor, 1500. local guy's a ripoff artist.

I'm driving a 2004 Ford Ranger; like it a lot. Would recommend a Ford, definitely.

[bigrun]

Originally Posted by Ocala Mike

I'm driving a 2004 Ford Ranger; like it a lot. Would recommend a Ford, definitely.

Originally Posted by Danzig

but ford is on our 'list' (places we don't do business) so i guess it's the last of its kind for us.

My son works for Ford so i push them...Jus sayin.
I had a 97 Ford- Mercury Marquis LS for 12 years, loved it..till my grandson totaled it....Had two caddy's before that and liked the Marquis over them.

[GenuineRisk]

This thread reminds me of how grateful I am not to own an automobile. Not because I don't like driving; I do, but holy cow, do they suck up a lot of money, and for most of the country you don't have a choice; you can't even get to the grocery store without one.

My last car was a 1976 Caprice Classic. My dad was so concerned about any of us kids getting into a wreck that he would only let us drive boats. That thing was the length of a station wagon without actually being a station wagon. Too bad I was such a nerd in HS; it had an enormous back seat that didn't get nearly enough use.

By far, the best out of all of the behemoths we had was my granddad's old Buick. What a nice car. I was p*ssed when my brother totaled it.

Never owned a truck, but my uncle has a 92 Ford that is still kicking.

[hi_im_god]

Originally Posted by GenuineRisk

This thread reminds me of how grateful I am not to own an automobile. Not because I don't like driving; I do, but holy cow, do they suck up a lot of money, and for most of the country you don't have a choice; you can't even get to the grocery store without one.

My last car was a 1976 Caprice Classic. My dad was so concerned about any of us kids getting into a wreck that he would only let us drive boats. That thing was the length of a station wagon without actually being a station wagon. Too bad I was such a nerd in HS; it had an enormous back seat that didn't get nearly enough use.

By far, the best out of all of the behemoths we had was my granddad's old Buick. What a nice car. I was p*ssed when my brother totaled it.

Never owned a truck, but my uncle has a 92 Ford that is still kicking.

where do you live that you can get by without a car?

i just started driving to work on monday morning and then leaving it at the train station until friday night a few months ago. it cuts my commuting from 260 miles/week down to 82 but that's still a long way from zero.

[GenuineRisk]

Originally Posted by hi_im_god

where do you live that you can get by without a car?

i just started driving to work on monday morning and then leaving it at the train station until friday night a few months ago. it cuts my commuting from 260 miles/week down to 82 but that's still a long way from zero.

I live in Manhattan. And my parents (three hours away) are less than 5 miles from an Amtrak station so it's very easy to take the train to them. Anything not near a train station, we rent a car. Which, admittedly, costs a f*cking fortune to do in Manhattan- $150 a day and up, and that's before insurance and gas. But we don't need to do that more than once or twice a year.

There's lots I can bitch about re: living in NYC, but the public transit is really very good. A long subway ride becomes an opportunity to catch up on reading.

Aqueduct is easy to get to, but Belmont can be a pain when the Belmont Special isn't running. Doable, but it's a train to a very crowded bus.

[Sightseek]

Originally Posted by GenuineRisk

This thread reminds me of how grateful I am not to own an automobile. Not because I don't like driving; I do, but holy cow, do they suck up a lot of money, and for most of the country you don't have a choice; you can't even get to the grocery store without one.

My last car was a 1976 Caprice Classic. My dad was so concerned about any of us kids getting into a wreck that he would only let us drive boats. That thing was the length of a station wagon without actually being a station wagon. Too bad I was such a nerd in HS; it had an enormous back seat that didn't get nearly enough use.

By far, the best out of all of the behemoths we had was my granddad's old Buick. What a nice car. I was p*ssed when my brother totaled it.

Never owned a truck, but my uncle has a 92 Ford that is still kicking.

I moved out of Boston in '98 thinking it would save me so much money... While rent is certainly cheaper, factoring in car payments, insurance, gas, repairs etc. it makes it a virtual wash.

[GenuineRisk]

Originally Posted by Sightseek

I moved out of Boston in '98 thinking it would save me so much money... While rent is certainly cheaper, factoring in car payments, insurance, gas, repairs etc. it makes it a virtual wash.

So true. One of the smartest things I ever read about budgeting was not to separate taxes from rent from food, but to look at everything as "money in vs money out" because it gives you a much clearer picture of how much your life actually costs to maintain in different areas of the country.

[cal828]

Originally Posted by bigrun

My son works for Ford so i push them...Jus sayin.
I had a 97 Ford- Mercury Marquis LS for 12 years, loved it..till my grandson totaled it....Had two caddy's before that and liked the Marquis over them.

I had two caddy's before I had my truck and have to say I like my truck better. There was something perpetually wrong with the 2 caddys I had and they were expensive as hell to fix. One thing about a caddy though, not the worse thing to be in an accident with. I got broadsided coming home from work one day in the last caddy I owned. Was traveling westbound in one lane and ended up in the other lane headed the other way. Impact was so hard, it broke the rear axle, but I didn't have a scratch.