8th Aug 2009, 13:43
We've had a 1996 Ford Aspire that has been part of our family since we bought it new 13 years ago. After eight years of my wife using it as a daily commuter/grocery car, we gave it to our son, who used it as a student car up country. In addition to daily trips to and from school, he would often drive down to the coast, a 600 kilometer excursion at high speed. After two years of that, it was passed on to our daughter, who again uses it to commute to work, plus as a weekend getaway vehicle with surfboards and friends.
In thirteen years and 180 000 kilometers, there haven't been any major problems - the ignition key design isn't the best, but once we learned to be careful, no problems. The glove box door latch has given up the ghost. Exhaust is original, we're on the third set of tires. I need to buy a new battery, again the third to go in the vehicle. The upholstery is kind of grubby, but there's only one place where the stitching is shot.
The engine starts first flip every time. The car is admittedly a little noisy at highway speeds, but so are a lot of other vehicles.
This just might be the best vehicle we ever owned.
22nd May 2006, 22:46
Ford parts really are through the roof. The smartest move I ever made was to sell my 1994 Mercury Cougar, which had less than 100,000 miles on it, and buy a 1994 BMW. The BMW has over 100,000 miles on it, drives like new, and has not required nearly as much work. The BMW parts are also about one-half as much as the Ford parts were. Labor is also less because the BMW is much easier to work on. I used the same private mechanic for both models, so the differences ARE real.