Woah, we’re not talking about the Fusion here- just the Taurus. I agree the Fusion is a great car AND has good reliability-no argument there. I’m just talking about the Taurus. In fact, I tend to judge cars on an individual basis-not by the brand for the most part.
As for the dealer I worked for, you may be surprised to find out it was neither Japanese or American-it was German-BMW more specifically. Don’t worry though, I won’t dare suggest that they’re models of reliability haha. In fact I still cringe when I see a 7 series go by. I’m not an American car basher either-I owned a Ford Mustang many years ago. I just go by the data and general consensus with cars and I just can’t recommend the Taurus.
As for the Taurus being solidly reliable-it’s just not there in the survey’s (which are not biased I might add, and are spotless for the Fusion). Save yourself the trouble of digging through old issues and go to consumerreports.org and look up anything since 1998. The website contains lots of extra info that doesn’t make it into the magazines.
I respect your opinion though now that you’ve shared your reasoning.
I too have had a subscription to Consumer Reports for a couple of decades. It pays for itself. I recently bought a $50 vacuum cleaner that is as good as a $300 one. I have used it to purchase a Mr. Coffee (going on 20 years old, now), VCR, camera, TV, etc., etc. I love that magazine.
However, when I look my cars up in there (and I buy slightly used and drive til the termites quit holding hands)it just doesn,t jibe with their results. They seem to have a Japanese bias. Also I think they rate a squeeky brake pad the same as a caliper falling off or a weeping coolant purge valve (needing to be tightened) the same as a blown head gasket or bent crankshaft. they survey readers and all these things drop into a category like “engine problems.” I still read it for things about creature comforts, etc.
I will take Consumer Reports car surveys with a grain of salt and keep buying and running “American” cars. The only “Japanese” car dealer within a 100 miles of here is Toyota and that dealer is scary and where I live in salt country, they rust too fast. All the Ford, GM, and Chrysler dealers are local. Also, the salvage yards stock almost everything I need.
I’d look for the newest Hyundai Sonata that 12K could buy. It’s big enough to be comfortable with that kind of driving, has good reliability, and lousy resale so you should be able to find a fairly new one. The bumper-to-bumper warranty doesn’t transfer to a new owner, but I’m pretty sure the 10 year 100K mile powertrain warranty does.
I might also consider a Crown Vic. You should be able to get a pretty nice one for 12K.
Agree that Consumer Reports provides a very valuable service in shoppping for best value. We have used it since the late 60s for all major purchases. My hangups with their auto ratings are similar to yours; really bad design flaws get the same rating as nuisance items.
For years, US cars were so poorly assembled they were almost do-it-yourself kits. The average dealer had to correct 11 items on each car. Japanese cars, by comparison, were well assembled, even if some of them were not well designed for long life.
Although that has changed, CR still cannot tell you which car in any category has the lowest life cycle cost. The VW Passat, for instance, has a very good rating compared to a Taurus or Impala. Yet most posters have reported serious and expensive problems with all aging Volkswagens. If you want ot drive a car untill it finally wears out, get one of the 3 Japanese (Honda, Toyota, Mazda) brands; but avoid anything built in Europe, since it will nickle and dime you to financial death!
US cars fall somewhere in between, cheap to repair, average life span, and average reliability. The very large aftermarket for US car parts make long term ownership more affordable. A good examle are US pickup trucks that seem to go on forever, due to fewer design changes and good parts supply.
J D Power ratings are of little use to consumers; they cover intial (assembly) quality mostly, and are of great use to manufacturers and dealers. Their “Long Term” ratings are better, but not long enough to be really useful.
Consumer Reports tests products in a lab environment. They put stuff like Jockey unerpants in a jig, have a little mechanical finger tug the elastic waistband say 2.67 centimeters at 72F at 68% humidity and note that it fails after 111,619 tugs. Then they compare to Fruited Loom, Burger King, or Victoria’s secret, etc., to see which holds up best, VERY OBJECTIVE.
Doing car reliabilty studies (the little charts with car models & years and little pucks with various shadings), they send out surveys (you get them every year) and people tell stories about their experiences. Surveys are done by lawyers, proctologists, circus clowns, endodontists, I.R.S. agents, hair stylists, life insurance salespeople, young people, old people (hope I didn’t offend anyone), anybody driving! They find a loose window molding, at the dealer they pop it back in place, it goes in C.P. under Body Integrity Issues, like a door falling off, VERY SUBJECTIVE.
I know I’d rather get 25mpg in a car that’s comfortable for the long haul on the road than get 35~40+mpg in a car that has horrible seats and is cramped as all get out.
Last December we traded our 05 Chevrolet Malibu for a higher priced GM car. We got $9500. I should have known you; could have sold it to you for 10k and been money ahead. I hated to trade the Malibu as it was perfect; no warranty work, no recalls and the gas mileage was excellent. We got 32 mpg overall going to FL and back to the upper midwest.
Check 05 Malibu prices. By 05, they had them perfected in my view.
PS, the Malibu V6 had only 32K miles; burned no oil. It also had electric power steering, an excellent fuel saving feature.
Quote from Docnick: For years, US cars were so poorly assembled they were almost do-it-yourself kits. The average dealer had to correct 11 items on each car. Japanese cars, by comparison, were well assembled, even if some of them were not well designed for long life. Unquote.
This is a dishonest attempt at generalized innuendo. There are no specifics provided regarding years, brands or models for either US or Oriental cars. My 71 Toyota Corolla, for example, was a fairly complete piece of junk. You can read about it in CarSurvey.org. Things broke on that car that never broke before for me with older cars and have not broken since on newer cars including mostly US brands.
Docnick, what country do you live in and whose prosperity is it that you want to encourage?
I don’t want anyone to be immunized from reality but I consistently see a poor attitude in your posts toward our home country’s cars, our home country being the USA!
Agree with David; the Taurus at one time was a pretty respectable car (it was the best selling US car), but as Honda, Toyota and Mazda improved, Ford let the Taurus laguish! Ford put all its engineering effort into SUVs and pickups, even the large cars (like Crown Vic, Mercury & Lincoln) although reliable, were not technically updated.
Since reliability is a moving target, the 4 leading Japanese models Honda, Toyota, Mazda, Subaru) and Hyundai are now the best choices. I know there are a lot of happy Taurus (a friend of mine has a 1997 Taurus and is very happy with it), Malibu, Impala, and Pontiac owners out there. Mercedes owners are shocked when I tell them that Hyundai has passed Mercedes in reliability model for model in every bracket! Times change, and in the future we may see Korean and Chinese cars lead the quality parade!!
Wha Who; you just proved my point. My post stated that although Japanese cars in the past were well assembled and got good reviews, the design left a lot to be desired, and life expectancy was was short. A colleague of mine had a 1970s Corolla, and it blew head gaskets, rusted out and had a short and miserable life. The early Honda Civics were virtually biodegradable!
The reference to assembly quality of US cars is exactly that; it had nothing to do with design quality. My 1965 Dodge Dart had “factory preservice” since I did not pick it up at the dealer. The car still had 13 defects! US Buicks sold in Japan were virtually disassembled and reassembled to make them acceptable to customers. A GM executive admitted that “one day in ten we build (assemble) a car as good as Toyota”. US assembly quality has improved greatly in the last 5 years!!
In summary, I would prefer a sloppily assembled, but well designed car to a poorly engineered but well assembled car. The sloppy assembly can be corrected by the dealer; the poor design can’t.
Many US jobs now are in Japanese and Korean owned car plants, so it’s not important what you buy. Those cars have 95% US content.
OI just bought a large flat screen Panasonic TV; it was made in Mexico, I was glad to hear. Finally some jobs in this industry going to a NAFTA country.
From your post I surmise you had to trade the car for business reasons; employers often want their staff to drive late model cars. I would have kept a car I was happy with and ran reliably. The 32,000 miles is peanuts on today’s cars, and there was no doubt a lot of life left in it.
One of the nicest cars I had was a 1980 Olds Delta 88 with the 350 Rocket engine. This car ran flawlessly for 4 years until the company got me a Caprice, a good car but not as smooth and quiet.
That has a lot to do with the seats, and very little to do with the car’s size. I took a 200 mile trip in a client’s new Escalade, and was uncomfortable after the first hour. The seats, very soft, had no support. I’ve gone futher in an '83 VW GTI, great seats, felt as good at the end as I did at the beginning, and I’m 6’5".
I drove two Ford Focus model ZX3 1100 miles per week and they run fine with a 5 speed manual tranny. Great mileage no breakdowns with good maintenance and I live a high altitude and one of the cars is now going over a mountain pass of a 10% grade and still works great. You should be able to get one for under 12K easy! and I got 35mpg. I used it to haul airfreight. I went to a Prius for better fuel economy. Now I get 61mpg, my other driver is in the Focus. Nice car, good ride for someone who spends 8 to 14 hours in the seat.
The CR tests on low flow toilets was almost comical. The? flushed carefully rolled soybean paste cylindrical objects down the toilet to see how much water was necssary for “heavy” or “light loads”