I ran into a retired GM excutive once. He was selling and manageing a car dealership's used car lot. He did not need the money but after about two years of being retired he got bored. He told me that he preffered to sell young people that came on his lot used Toyota's and Honda. He said that "Toyota and Honda build a great used car!" What he meant was that the second and third owenrs of the car usualy got a car that was in sound mechanical condition all of the accessories still worked normaly like AC,power windows,power mirrors etc...He said the cars were usualy close to as solid as they were when new in terms of noise,vibration,harshness. This makes it easier to sell them another vechile when they are ready for a new vechile.
Every Ford that I have ever owned or that frineds and family have ever owned has always had electrical problems. Often even the dealership could not find the root cause of the problem. My wifes family has a family member that works for Ford so they have owned a lot of Fords due to cheap price/discounts.None of them have ever worn out an engine or a transmission but have been stranded routinely for 15-20 minutes waiting for the electrical issue to clear. They had one LTD that would routinely shut off and restart as you were driveing it. My mother-inlaws minivan had issues fromt he get go. Once it was out of warranty every single black box not responable for the engine or transmission went bad. Here solution since Ford wouldnot fix them all was to use black electrical tape to cover the lights on the dash and use a battery charger to keep batery charged. Even the hood's primary striker rusted off! It still runs if you do not mind the interior lights going on and off as they like and the door chime sounding for 15-20 minutes at a time randomly.The head lights also have a mind of own.The ran is noisey and everything feels like it is ready to fall off the van. My wifes family takes excellent car of their vechiles and the ones that own GM or DCX have far fewer problems then the ones that own Ford products. None of her family owns imports. Ford has always had too many electrical issues to ever be considered reliable.
Most domestics have historicaly had really poor designs for all of the stuff in the interior or bolted tot he engine. For example HVAC controll,HVAC lines,AC compressor,fuel pump,intake gaskets, tape players,blower motor's,actuators for duct work,instrument clusters,power seats, power window motors, power window tape/cables,door lock actuator,startors, alternators and water pumps and tail gate cables make up most of the common high failure non wear related items. It seems like the second owner of any domestic wich today only includes Ford and GM can count on these items failing while they own the vechile. Other then starter and alternator I have never had to replace any of the above on any import I have ever owned. Every Domestic I ever owned had to have all of those replaced while I owned. One had to have all of those replaced under warranty so the second owner got an almost new content used vechile. So I must be the most unlucky owner of domestic vechiles!I have never had one that did not require me to spin a wrench every other weekend other then the brand new Dakota I owned the dealer got to workon that one for free!
On the other hand even when I have had to work on an import it has almost never been one of the above parts and was usualy a wear item.It has also never been a bi-monthly ritual either.
I know some on this site have had great luck with domestics but not me or anyone I own. I think most people that own domestics consider it normal to have to fix all manner of stuff and just consider it part of ownership. Import owners especialy Toyota and Honda owners feel just the opposite and think they should not have to fix stuff just because the vechile is ageing. I think most doestic owners consider it normal to have to replace everything bolted to the engine or the interior every 36,000-120,000 miles!
