22nd Jun 2007, 20:00

I bought a 2003 Lincoln LS V8 with 22,000 miles on it in June 2006. I bought this car feeling it would be safe and reliable. However, it has been the total opposite.

At 45,000 miles, my transmission started messing up and jerking from one gear to the next. Luckily at this time I was still under warranty and took to dealership to get fixed.

55,000 miles replaced spark plugs, coils, and gaskets. The spark plugs were filled with oil??? Also the rods are going to have to be replaced.

Then in June of 2007, the car started acting like it wasn't getting gas, and it is the pedal sensor. So it dies on me on the freeway, crossing traffic, jerks hard when driving, so I almost got ran over several times due to the car dying and traffic coming in behind me.

I am sick of this car. We did not spend $25,000 on this car to have problems 1 year later starting at 45,000 miles. I hope someone will bring a class action lawsuit against this, because the cars are horrible and we work hard for the money we spend, and should not have to be dishing it out due to poor engineering.

2nd Jul 2007, 08:59

Hi everyone! Rome from b-more. what can I say that hasn't already been covered. the ls is one off the worst products built by ford. and fords customer service is dead last in my opinion. I don't know what I was thinking anyway. this car has to be the slowest v8 in history. 252 hp are you kidding me. I got v6 cars killing me. fortunately, I've only had to replace a coil at 70k. I didn't even bother with the faulty clock spring in the steering wheel which the dealer claims is repairable for 400$.

Also the horn, the seat controls and the back window. I consider myself lucky after reading some of these testimonials. oh plus the mysterious overheating out of the blue. I'm well over 125,000 miles. that's on an 02. I brought it for 21,000 in an a year or so it was only valued for 10,000. I beg anyone that is thinking of buying this car to invest in a foreign car. you will be sorry if you buy any ls. any ford product for that matter.

11th Jul 2007, 22:34

The story starts so happy - young guy in a position to drive the Motor Trend car of the year. I remember my newly-wed wife and I joking as we went over potholes - "bumps are for poor people" - the car was like heaven. All the way until the warranty ran out.

Like so many others... Let's see. Multiple replacement of foggy headlamps. Finally ran a bead of caulk around the entire lens to rear case of the headlight and never had another problem.

Replaced rear window regulators 2X each.

Driver side seat heater replaced - Loved the bun warmer, but won't pay for a new seat to fix it.

Replaced starter - well - had a dealer do it. The thing is like next to impossible to get to due to some shielding near the heavy wires leading to it. I actually felt good about this one, as the dealer cost to fix it was just a hair more than I paid for the replacement starter (that I returned).

Replaced driver side interior door handle.

It has had four windshields, 2 of which had no evidence of a rock or something starting the giant cracks.

At 100,000 miles, I figured hey, maybe I'll replace the spark plugs. After looking on the internet for "hints", I ran into the oil-leaks-onto-the-plugs issue so common in these ford engines. So, before pulling the plugs out, I held a paper towel over the access hole and hit it with compressed air - blowing out all of the oil that had accumulated over the plugs. Since it never got high enough to start missing/destroying the coils, I figure I saved myself big bucks having a guy tell me I needed to replace the gaskets, get new boots for the plugs, etc - a job my mom paid $1400 for on her Lincoln something-or-other. I figure if it goes another 100k miles, I'll blow out the oil again. Well, a year later, I get smoke coming out the steering wheel, and finally it got so bad I took it to a dealer. I hadn't finished my sentence when he was saying head cover gaskets. $1000 - poof! At least they 1) knew what the prob was and 2) fixed it.

I had a gobble-gobble sound from the front end fixed (can't recall the cost, but it wasn't cheap: surprise, surprise), and currently suffer from the engine temperature gauge pegging high problem. I sit for about three minutes with the engine off, and the problem goes away. This, of course, after spending $350 to get the thermostat replaced.

They took that opportunity to say my alternator wasn't performing, I needed a new one plus a new battery. Total bill, $900.

When the engine temp problem recurred, I took the car in and they plugged in the diagnostic computer. The tech mutters something about an instrument cluster tech notice - like an electrical problem in the dashboard. I say screw it, I can wait three minutes many times before deciding my time is worth more than what it must cost to dig into the dashboard - forget about it.

The airbag light - that cost about $1000 to fix - an electrical short somewhere in the harness.

Squeaky brakes - sure the car looks great as you approach the stop sign, then people think "POS" as you squeak to a stop. Replaced pads 2X, rotors 1x to try to stop it with no luck.

Front headlight decides to quit. Some sort of short somewhere. They charge me $350 to string a wire back to the firewall so they can get it to turn on- $350 for a patch job! I'm pretty handy, so I get really annoyed when I pay someone to do something I should be able to do myself.

I am the original owner and have 146K on the car, and I am sure that I have forgotten the pain of other repair bills.

Now with 2 kids the next car will be a minivan, not a high-performance luxury car/money pit. I have loved the car, but it is too rich for my blood.