“My first new car was a Ford, back in 1978”
my first car was a low-mileage 1970 Mach I ...
1. the brakes were utter shit
2. the shift linkage slowly and constantly bent, and had to be constantly adjusted until the adjustment rod got used up and the linkage would then need to be replaced
3. several valve lifters squeaked from lack of lubrication and had to be replaced, but apparently there was one that couldn’t be replaced without pulling the head
4. several of the spark plugs were nearly impossible to replace
4. but worst of all, it never would start when it rained because moisture would condense under the distributor cap
I’ve never bought another American-engineered car since then, and never will ... US car makers lost me forever because of the total junk they made in the 70’s ...
We tracked the customer's mileage and had repeats about every 100k miles which was about every 8-10 years.
Commercial vehicles (limos) was about 250-300k in 3-5 years.
Did not take us long to start buying up Towncars & MK VII's. Towncars 1990-1997. MK VII's ran 1988-92.
These vehicles most never had a major problem (transmission) until 200k +.
The TC's in this year range could get up to 30 mpg (pre alcohol). I picked up a 1997 TC and a 1990 MK VII. The MK VII got 32 mpg pre alcohol.
Note that all Lincolns cars 1988-97 weighed 5k lbs. Even the MK VIII 1993-1998.
The MK VIII was nice but high maintenance (but less than a Cadillac of any year).
One fault of the MK VII was the Hydro Boost brake system...no redundancy. When it failed, you had no brakes. Mine failed.
From a client phone call a year prior, I had the info to make may own brake system.
The key was a 1993 Mustang GT brake vacuum brake booster (new) and related year Crown Vic master cylinder. Made my own brakelines but had to get brakelines couplings from salvage years from Mercury V8 Cougar. The MK VII proportion valve was machine down for standard brakelines fittings.
The replacement system worked perfect and looked Factory in the engine bay.
The MK VII got Old Timers from 7 computers failing at the same time @ 170k and the 1997 TC at 345k due to lack of money in 2009 (the start of the Hussein O. years).
During my shop years, a 100k TC or Grand Marquis could be had for $1k.
Many young people were calling me wanting to know how to raise a front wheel drive Cadillac for fitting their 22's.
I told them anything can be done, IF you had enough money. *Go buy a TC or Grand Marquis for your 22's.
**That's Grandma's car!
Over time they realized that Caddy's and 22's do not mate.
I felt that I helped to drive up the price of used TC's and Grand Marquis.