We have a 1999 Ford Escort with 85,000+ miles on it. It’s been good to us over the past several years. It’s not pretty. There are no bells and whistles. My father wants to give us his 2002 Mercury Sable with 101,000+ miles on it. This Sable is loaded. It’s also been a pretty reliable car. My dad has taken EXREMELY good care of this vehicle (new tires, new brakes, transmission flush, brake flush, power steering flush). The Sable has been garage kept. The Escort sits out in the elements 365 days a year. We’re wondering if it’s worth the gamble to replace our workhorse Escort with this Sable? We live in Chicago so reliability and longevity are the MOST important, however, it would sure be nice to have some legroom and leather seats. Should we ‘upgrade’ to the Sable, stay with our “Escort” or is it really just a lateral move? Anyone? I’ve got 2 weeks to decide.
If he’s going to give you the Sable for free then why do you have to ditch the Escort? Drop the insurance to minimum liability and keep the Escort around as a daily beater, thereby preserving the Sable a bit.
I’ve always had a couple or four cars around the house and it’s been pretty handy at times.
The Sable is good on gas too, when compared to the Escort. If it is comfortable, take it and just go on with life and don’t look back. I plan to run the Sable to 140,000 and then move on, but that doesn’t mean that you should set limits.
Sable
Thanks all for your input. We would love to keep both cars but we live in the city. We have only one ‘off street’ parking space and thus would have to park the other on the unpredictable streets of Chicago…but I’m hearing Sable from all even though it has more miles. Still taking comments if you have them.
For what it’s worth, I sold my '87 Sable about 2 years ago and it was still running and driving well along with getting about 24 MPG.
It was using some oil (a quart every 5-600 miles) but at 420k miles I can’t complain.
Only major problem in that time was the transmission going out and I think that was mostly due to the previous owner neglecting to change the fluid on a regular basis.
It got a 40k miles salvage trans and it was still shifting fine with approx. 300k miles+ on the transmission.
It had the 3.0 in it and that engine is pretty much bulletproof.
(Even had the original, and still tight, timing chain in it. Regular oil changes work wonders.)
One or the other, it would be the Sable no doubt.