Piece of sh_t mustangs.

Not to implicate you or anything, but I think it comes down to how you drive your car. I drive mine reasonably most of the time and I don't have any problems. A friend of mine has an automatic and constantly does neutral drops and peels out like he is racing everywhere. He has had trans and driveline problems out the ying yang. He actually had to have the trans rebuilt not too long ago and its already almost trashed again. Not to mention he also snapped a u-joint due to his driving and I was riding shotgun when he peeled out and it broke. Even though it wasn't my car, it was almost painfull listening to the driveshaft beat the crap out of the underside.

With ANY make or model, there will be occasional problems that need to be worked out. Whenever there are SO MANY problems, I have to agree with the previous poster. Most likely, apparantly the way you drive and care for a car, you would have had problems with most anything that you had chosen to drive.

My last Mustang GT, an 85, five speed, went 213,000 trouble free miles. During that time I replaced an alternator, tires, brakes, one clutch and the front wheel bearings. I fully expect service from my latest Mustang GT, also a five speed.

Take care of it and it will almost always take care of you.

Um no, Fords are not well built and are not reliable. That is the bottom line. I have owned many Fords and many Hondas and the Honda blows the Ford away in reliability and quality.

But the Fords look way WAY better and go much MUCH faster

If you think Fords are high quality I submit for your information the following 3 pathetic items:
-cracking plastic intake manifolds
-aluminum heads with FOUR spark plug threads
-teh fabulous Tremec TR-3650 transmission

i have not had one problem with my car. (fingers crossed) .. and i acctually like the 3650. it shifts well and when you take care of your stuff it will take care of you. there are many things i find "sloppy" in the stang but its still a mustang, and i love it.

Ford quality is crap. My 2000 ZX2 is such a total POS. Everything freaking breaks.

Can I add ****ty headlights to the list please.

My stang has been fairly reliable. Only thing I had done was a head replaced under warranty.

My 95 BMW is so much higher quality than my stang that was built 6 years later. Gives you an idea how far behind Ford are really. I'll never buy another Ford unless its a mustang, and i fall in love with it.

My mustang is a piece of sh_t as well. I drive it easy almost every day and somehow my traction lok is completely hosed. Today I decided for once to get on it and i thought the rear end was going to shoot out of the car when I hit the next gear. Nothing but headaches for me, stupid POS, seems like I'm always fixing something.

Kilgore Trout said:

Um no, Fords are not well built and are not reliable. That is the bottom line. I have owned many Fords and many Hondas and the Honda blows the Ford away in reliability and quality.

But the Fords look way WAY better and go much MUCH faster

If you think Fords are high quality I submit for your information the following 3 pathetic items:
-cracking plastic intake manifolds
-aluminum heads with FOUR spark plug threads
-teh fabulous Tremec TR-3650 transmission

Click to expand...

ROTLMAO! My daughter bought a brand new Honda Civic. Within about a month, it went into limp mode and I had to drive it about 70 miles to the dealer with it unable to go more than about 40 MPH. They replaced the ECM and said that it was fine. About two weeks later, the same thing. About two weeks after that, the same thing again and they finally determined that the alternator was knocking out the ECM. About a year after that, it happened again, they put another ECM in it and had no explanation. My daughter worked hard to buy the car that she ended up selling.

SOOoooo..... don't tell me that Hondas are bullet proof, because they ARE NOT! The bullet proof car has not been designed or built yet.

I've been driving Fords among other car makes and models for a little over 40 years and I've had my best luck with Ford and Mercedes Benz vehicles. The Mercedes costs a LOT more than a Ford so it's easy to understand why the older models were so well known for their reliability. In my experience, however, overall I have gotten very nearly the same level of durability and reliability from Fords that I have from MB vehicles.

EVERY manufacturer makes some models that are better than other models.

Kilgore Trout said:

Um no, Fords are not well built and are not reliable. That is the bottom line. I have owned many Fords and many Hondas and the Honda blows the Ford away in reliability and quality.

But the Fords look way WAY better and go much MUCH faster

If you think Fords are high quality I submit for your information the following 3 pathetic items:
-cracking plastic intake manifolds
-aluminum heads with FOUR spark plug threads
-teh fabulous Tremec TR-3650 transmission

Click to expand...

QFMFT!

We have had MANY Hondas while I've been around and never had issues with any of them. All of my relatives and friends' Hondas just never seem to die or break. Honda has their **** down

But that doesn't mean that they never have a "bad" car every now and then, every auto manufacturer does. I've only seen 1 case of this and that was all. I looooooooooooooooooooooooooooove me some Honda

Ive owned 5 mustangs so far and various other american cars and a bunch of honda accords too. In MY experience, american cars turn to crap at 100K miles and its time to get rid of them, but foreign cars are good till 200K. Now this is not absolute, its just MY experience with the cars I have owned.

I love my car so I am in denial about it being a piece of ****.

i havent had any serious problems with my car with the exception of the cracked intake manifold that ford replaced under recall...i dont necesseraly baby mine but i dont beat on it and i do take care of it

Kilgore Trout said:

Um no, Fords are not well built and are not reliable. That is the bottom line. I have owned many Fords and many Hondas and the Honda blows the Ford away in reliability and quality.

But the Fords look way WAY better and go much MUCH faster

If you think Fords are high quality I submit for your information the following 3 pathetic items:
-cracking plastic intake manifolds
-aluminum heads with FOUR spark plug threads
-teh fabulous Tremec TR-3650 transmission

Click to expand...

You forgot some things:

Crappy paint, bad resale value.

Yup, Mustangs are bad news bears

Who the f'k are you???

only problem with a honda is the transmission them things go like crazy...but the earlier hondas like 89-94 them engines will go forever we tried to blow a few up and they actually got a little faster.

but my mustang has many many issues like the t-45 completely gone with 65k check engine light problems...shocks struts gone at 58k but every car is gonna has some problems.

I sold a 98 Honda Civic for a 99 Mustang GT. I'll never own a Honda again. What a piece of crap that car was.

The wipers would turn on all by themselves whenever they felt like it. The seats were like cardboard-covered rocks after half an hour. The car was dangerous at highway speeds - rocked and swayed in any crosswind or whenever a truck went by, and felt like it was seconds from disaster at anything over 70 mph. The interior was designed for a much smaller Asian body - I'm 6', 180ish, and the pedals, steering wheel, and shifter were way to close to each other for any comfort at all. The body was so flexible, the front wheels were all over the place on a rough road. The factory headlights were near useless. The factory brakes were barely adequate if you ever carried a passenger. Power was so anemic (127hp 1.6L) you might as well quit trying to pass if you have passengers. Shifter was made of rubber. Handled like a light car with foam for springs. Insurance was ridiculous for such a pile of parts.

I grew adept at removing the wiper fuse at highway speeds without looking. I added a front strut brace which fixed the front end wandering on rough roads. A rear lower strut brace and stifer adjustable sway bar fixed the wandering in crosswinds/truck wake issues. Aftermarket bulbs fixed the crappy headlights. Aftermarket brakes greatly improved the stopping power, even with two passengers. Weighted shift knob took away some of the rubbery shifter feel. After all was said and done, the car was marginally acceptable. Still wouldn't want to get hit by anything in that tin can.

The 99 Mustang GT was 1000 times the car the honda was, for the same money used. None of the fixes that were necessary on the stock Civic were required on the Mustang to bring it up to par. Why the hell would you ever buy a Civic, unless you were seriously brain dead (or wanted to be)? Sure, the Civic drove nice at first, but the shine quickly wore off. My 99 GT never got old, the power was always more than enough for daily driving, mpg was not much worse on the highway, and the car felt so much more solid and capable it is crazy to ever hear anyone suggest a Civic is anything other than a total death trap.

No car is perfect. If you are buying a Mustang thinking you are getting a BMW, you are an idiot. But Mustangs are SO much better than any Honda I've ever driven it is mind-boggling how anyone can say they'd rather drive a Honda. And this "reliability" people keep mentioning is a red herring. I have a little red wagon that has never been to the shop, but I sure as hell wouldn't want to commute to work in it. I'd much rather pay to fix a car I like to drive/own than never have to fix a car that I hate to drive/own.

And I don't recall anyone saying they want a Ferrari because they are so reliable. Since when did so-called reliability become the motivating factor in car buying/comparative worth? Read Honda forums, and you will find a litany of routine problems. V6 tranny issues, electrical problems, spark plug blow-outs, weak or missing differentials, etc. Honda won't release recall or TSB data, even though virtually every other manufacturer in the States does so voluntarily. If they are so perfect, why hide the data proving it? Ford, GM, and Chrysler are quick to issue recalls on ridiculous issues that wouldn't affect a hundred out of a million, but Honda makes every effort to hide issues, blame the owner, and otherwise balks at spending money improving cars that are already sold.

And let's define "reliability." Consumer Reports defines it as the cost of repairs in a given time period. I don't know about you, but I'd rather spend $3K on one failure than $2500 on three breakdowns. To me, "reliability" means it starts every day, and doesn't leave you on the side of the road 90 miles from home on a Sunday night (Toyota, I'm looking at you). CR's definition doesn't work for me, so their "reliability ratings" don't mean **** as far as I am concerned. If they defined reliability as something I could agree with, they'd totally re-order the winners and losers, and they are unlikely to do that - they are hardly going to change their methodology as long as they sell magazines.

I now have an 03 Mustang GT. The 3650 seems to grind third when it is bitterly cold. I live in MN, and it isn't an issue very often even here. I've gone back and forth on the issue, and while I probably should get it addressed, the issue isn't bad enough to motivate me to take it in. I can't really blame Ford for 3650 isues, since they don't make the trans, they just buy and install them. other than the one issue, I have no complaints after 20,000 hard miles. I don't think 20,000 miles is enough to make any claims about long-term durability, but past experience tells me I won't have to worry about anything other than routine maintenance and the occasional repair. I drove my 99 for 40,000 hard, hard miles, and only had to get the A/C blower motor replaced under warrantee. Not a big deal in my book.

As far as cars running past the 100,000 mile mark, I've only owned maybe 3 cars that weren't past that when I got them. The Toyota was a total POS, not even counting puking the oil pump and taking the whole engine with it at 121K. I've never even heard of an American car doing that, among my friends. I've owned Buicks, Chevys, Chryslers, and Fords, and my friends have owned the whole spectrum of American and foreign cars. It is the Mazdas, Toyotas, Hondas, Nissans, and BMWs that have caused the most problems. I'm not saying all foreign cars suck and all American cars are perfect. Just that I've found that American cars are better values and more likely to survive long term than the Japanese or German cars I've known.

IMHO, the previous owners have more to do with a car's so-called "reliability" than the brand.

Do you people who think hondas are better beat the piss out of them though?

I bet i could mess one up.

Ford's have been pretty reliable for me and that's why i will keep buying them.

if u think the stangs such a pos than sell it.

I beat my stang likes it's a donkey and I'm riding it up the grandcanyon. She likes and keeps asking for more.

YardSpecial said:

Crappy paint,
Yup, Mustangs are bad news bears

Click to expand...

Yeah totally