Hoser768

I don't hear many "meh" stories about the Tempo/Topaz. They were all either total pieces of crap that fell apart and were in the junkyard before 50k miles, or went 200k+ with the hood being opened to add a qt of oil every 25k, until the hood rusted shut and then they put a piece of electrical tape on the oil light and drove another 50k miles.

My experience with Vulcan Taurii says the heater core is plugged. It's a very common problem on these cars that have had their cooling systems neglected.

Am I the only one that read that in this voice?

I'm having a hard time making the leap from "Not allowed to modify the code in an ECU" to "The end of DIY car repair".

I thought all Freestyles were CVT?

No highs, no lows, must be Bose. The JBL sytems were very good. The JBL in my 96 Taurus stomps whatever Ford passed off as the best stock system in my Five Hundred.

I have a 19' that weighs about 3500#. I don't need to drive an F150 all the time. I'm looking at something Colorado/Sport Tracish to replace the overkill 7mpg 83 F250 I currently use. More than I want to throw at my 2.x Rangers but shouldn't require a 1/2 ton.

Most all of the DN101 (96-07) Tauruses around have the rear wheel-well rust. When you see it there, it's likely on the strut towers too. My '96 has 145k on it and I'm pretty sure the strut tower rust will send it to the junkyard before any mechanical failure

And if they called it "which 15 year old brands are more valuable" I'd have no problem with it, but it's a stretch to equate "non-zero value" with "most reliable." If Fords are zero value after 198k, lets's see, all my vehicles are worth about $27.

That means nothing to me. What did they do, go on craigslist and figure the new price of a vehicle with zero miles vs. the CL price with 200,000 and try to get to zero? Of course Honda and Toyota are going to win that, everybody thinks their used up Taco with 300k miles is still worth $3k. wallstreetcheatsheet.com? I would trust them for auto advice like I trust Road & Track for advice on my 401K.

Tell that to these guys. Trooper: "You got no outside mirror, you have no functioning gauges". Del: "No, not a one...... but however the radio still works."

The powertrain (engines) is actually a decent upgrade from last year, but nobody knows about it because they kept all the displacements the same. "4.3? I had one of those 10 years ago, it was a dog and got crap mileage." "5.3? Neighbor had one of those with piston slap, sounded like a damn Diesel." Meet the new truck, looks like the old truck, with the same engine choices.

Manager1:We got a problem guys, sales numbers say Ram outsold Silverado. Manager2:That can't be right, call IT and see what's going on DBA: Those numbers are correct. Manager1: We have computer issues! Get me somebody that can botch the SQL and get the "right" numbers. Jr. DBA: I fudged it as much as I could, couldn't screw it up bad enought to look good. Manager1: Release the numbers...... and get me a Maalox.

Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss. We won't get fooled again?

2008 is a lot different than the new ones. Once I checked out the inside of a 2010 Taurus I knew I wouldn't be replacing my '05 Five Hundred with one. 2010+ is form over function IMHO.