Faults:

Left front strut snapped off at 96 thousand miles, causing the tire, control arm and struts to be replaced. Very weird, although not a Ford problem, it was already replaced and was aftermarket.

Needed new radiator at 97000... but what do you expect?

Thermostate died at 108000 and then the wiring harness melted and the computer shorted out (mechanic's fault).

This car has caught fire once.

General Comments:

This is no sports car that's for sure. The 3.0 V6 is a terrible excuse for a V6. My mother's Honda Accord is a 4 cylinder and it has more power. Gas mileage stands at about 12 miles per gallon.

Seriously though, the car has been good for one with 110000 miles on it. A lot of your reliability comes from how you take care of it. This car has been babied and is really not that bad.

Faults:

After approximately 100 miles of use ABS light kept staying on. We brought it to the dealership after leaving it there for a couple of days they repaired it.

After approximately 40,000 miles had problems with transmission shifting. We brought it to dealership, after about a week we got it back with a rebuilt transmission, luckily we brought an extended warranty which fully covered the car..

Not long after the transmission replacement the driver side seatbelt had problems retracting, brought it to the dealership they ordered the parts and replaced it.

There were numerous other problems most others minor.

This year after 59,000 miles our car developed a transmission leak, After bringing it to 3 service stations they all said "you need to replace the transmission". I called Ford to see if they could help me which, they said they would call me the next day. I called them when they didn't respond and we were told they could not do anything it is out of warranty.

At that point with 59,000 miles we got rid of the car for $500.00.

General Comments:

The car rides fine and handles well assuming there are no mechanical problems.

The car is roomy.

This car was the most expensive to have in consideration of time spent in service and total cost of car for 59,000 miles.

Faults:

The biggest complaint I have is with the radiator. It is cheap, half plastic, and dies often. In 25k miles, I have had 3 (2 have been replaced under warranty at the body shop I go to).

Idler has been replaced twice.

Transmission is dicey and has recently started to make the car shimmy between 40 and 50 mph. At anything higher or lower, it's great.

General Comments:

This is a great first car. I am a college student and the thing keeps me out of trouble because it's so slow. It has never left me stranded and I have taken it out on some fairly long trips. Parts for the thing are dirt cheap since there are so many in junk yards.

As for looks, it may have an air of grandma to it, but the 2000-era Honda Accords look just like it I think.