Posted on 09/30/2009 1:52:08 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
My wife had two and I had three of them. I had a station wagon that was great, and the original one that had that killer-strangler seatbelt in it.
After an experience I had, I SWORE I would never own a Ford, EVER.
I admit, I had to share a large part of the blame, but...I drove an MG for about 10 years. Let’s face it, anyone who knows, THAT car should have made me swear off of ALL cars for the rest of my life. But in 1986, my MG finally broke down on me for good, and I desperately needed to find a car to drive to work.
I had very little money saved up, and I looked in the newspaper to see an ad for a used Ford Escort...$99 down, $99 a month for 48 months (or some ridiculous thing like that)
I should have known this was not going to be good, but I have a notoriously poor ability to see these things. I live in Massachusetts, and went to this huge car dealership called Wilmington Ford. There was also a Wilmington Chevy, Wilmington Toyota...you name it. All run by the same crooked people (the huge dealerships went under many moons ago...)
Anyway, I walk in and the get a salesman on me. As I said...I should have seen it coming. The guy is wearing a cowboy hat, plaid jacket, big belt buckle and a bolo. Kinda looked like Slim Pickens a little. This, in Massachusetts...as I said, I have to bear the majority of the responsibility here.
Well, he sold me that car, a little powder blue 1985 four door Ford Escort. I began having problems immediately and often. I paid well over a thousand dollars in repair bills, then the engine overheated and got destroyed as I was driving through the Callahan Tunnel in Boston. I made it out the other side with steam pouring out because the...ahem...RUBBER timing belt had broken, and all the valves were bent to shit. I had it towed back to my house, since I had no money to get it fixed. A new engine would have cost me $1200 or some ridiculous sum like that. I still owed nearly $1500 on the car that I had already put $1500 into, and would cost me another $1500 to get running again.
I bought a junker from a friend for $200, an old 1968 Dodge Dart with an indestructible slant six in it that I was able to mistreat with glee and suffer no ill effect.
I called a junkyard that advertised it would pay $50 cash for your car and would tow it, and when I told the guy it was a Ford Escort, he declined to take the piece of crap Escort corpse away, and he told me I would have to HIM to take it. The guy called it a “throwaway car”.
I was so mad that, for the next decade or so, I couldn’t see the word “Ford” without having visions of whiskey, sledgehammers and auto crushers.
When I decided to get rid of my last Saturn, all of which treated me well, I looked at a Ford for the first time. They didn’t have quite what I was looking for, so I ended up buying a Subaru Forrester. Great car.
I still have fantasies about gasoline fires and powder blue Escorts, though.
If they thought Saturns were hard to sell before...
I’ll match your expert observation with my experience.
Got wrecked in my 97 SC by an 18 wheeler on I70 in Ohio this spring. He hit my right rear fender and I spun into the center median retaining cables (which kept me from crossing over and saved my life most likely).
Bought a donor car for 150 bucks and put the body panels on my chassis (easy to do).
400 dollar paint job and it looks like a new car.
I’m ready for another 13 years and 140,000 miles.
Tennesee, where the Saturn plant is, is a "Right to Work" state. If GM management was looking after their shareholders, they would have shut down Saturn sold the plant, the land, and the equipment (WITHOUT the workers), to the Japanese or Koreans.
That Pontiac Phoenix, at first, seemed to be the ideal car—roomy, good mpg, fairly quick, nice ride, etc. But plastic only has a short life when used for vital parts. ;o)
A damn shame. The first car I ever bought outright was a 99 Saturn. GM should be flogged for running the brand into the ground.
I have a used Saturn that was made before the government got into the business — 1999. I am really sad to see this. Wish Ford would pick them up.
PS. I love the Saturn; good gas mileage, good handling, good everything. Insurance is less. Maintenance is less.
What to do?
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